The Conversation

Reports that Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson is considering calling for carbon border levies at the G7 summit to be held in London in June have produced a predictable reaction from the Australian government.

The Canberra Times

Last year, Norway became the first country in the world where the sales of electric cars outnumbered those powered by petrol and diesel, accounting for 54 per cent of new car sales in 2020. They are aiming to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, which would make them the first country to do so.

Money Management

VanEck has announced the launch of its new clean energy exchange traded fund (ETF), the VanEck Vectors Global Clean Energy ETF (CLNE), aimed at companies in clean energy sector poised to benefit from the global mega-trend around clean energy.

Reneweconomy

It’s only been a half year since blackouts spread across California during intense summer heat. Those blackouts were immediately blamed on renewable energy; of course it turned out later on that a string of failures in the state’s gas plants were to blame. In fact, it turned out later on that a major part of those blackouts was an instance of a misheard verbal instruction issued to a gas generator. Instead of turning up as instructed, they decreased their output. And it’s five years since South Australia’s 2016 blackout, in which precisely the same sequence of events occurred. A pattern is now clear.

Reneweconomy

Back in 2019, the Australian Energy Market Operator considered the viability of coal generation for the Integrated System Plan, its 20-year planning blueprint. In AEMO’s words a summary of the findings was:

ABC News

Struggling luxury car brand Jaguar says it will phase out internal combustion engines in a plan to go fully electric by 2025.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Bill Gates exudes optimism in discussing the world’s ability to tackle climate change – until he hits on manufacturing. About that, he is worried.

Yahoo News

Fifty-one billion and zero - the two numbers Bill Gates says you need to know about climate.

ABC News

When Katherine Scott and her husband moved to a new housing estate in regional Victoria, climate change was far from their minds.

The Conversation

There aren’t many parts of the world where you can discover a completely new assemblage of living creatures. But after sampling underground water in a remote, arid region of northern Australia, we discovered at least 11, and probably more, new species of stygofauna.

Yahoo News

A group of scientists have discovered "strange creatures" under a 900-metre thick ice shelf of the Antarctic, according to an article published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

Yahoo News

A study of 250 species of Himalayan songbirds has revealed how their feathers evolved for higher altitudes.

WAToday

One of the nation’s biggest conservation groups has taken over the West Australian government’s fox baiting program in the south and levelled it up to target cats and rabbits too in an effort to restore native animals to their traditional domain.

WAToday

Problems with a flagship carbon capture system operated in Western Australia by the country’s sixth-biggest polluter mean it is capturing only one-third of the pollution approvals required, venting up to millions of tonnes a year more, documents reveal.

The Age

The Morrison government is eyeing an expanded soil carbon capture scheme so farmers can help Australia meet its emissions reduction targets, but experts warn any future policy should not reward poorly-performing farmers.

ABC News

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is not offering support to her deputy's attempts to overturn the Independent Planning Commission's rejection of a major mine expansion under the Sydney water catchment.

The Guardian

Traditional owners and conservationists have launched legal action against the Northern Territory government over its decision to cut $120m from a bond held as insurance against any future environmental damage from the contentious McArthur River lead and zinc mine.

The Interpreter

A welcome change is underway in the international effort to combat dangerous global warming. It will have big implications for the Australian economy.

ProBono Australia News

With Google threatening to pull out of Australia, the founder of a search engine that plants trees when people search believes his platform can help fill this potential void as an ethical alternative.

The Australian Financial Review

Ecofibre’s Hemp Black business is taking aim at the mass fashion and electric car markets, after partnering with handbag maker Oroton and autonomous vehicle company Zoox.

Investor Daily

Most investors believe that climate change will reshape the world – but less than half are actually doing anything to prepare for it.

NT News

THE hybrid power station to be built in Kakadu’s largest town will include 4.5MW of diesel generation, solar panels and a battery, the company behind the project has revealed

Reneweconomy

New South Wales network operator Ausgrid has unveiled its first community battery in the northern Sydney suburb of Beacon Hill, kicking off a two-year trial that aims to soak up consumer generated solar and use it to push down energy prices and help stabilise the local grid.

The Sydney Morning Herald

It turns out you can’t tell a dingo from the colour of its pelt, with almost half of the wild dogs surveyed in south-eastern Australia carrying a hue other than the ginger usually associated with the animal.

The Conversation

There’s a useful concept from psychology that helps explain why good people do things that harm the environment: the false consensus effect. That’s where we overestimate how acceptable and prevalent our own behaviour is in society.

Reneweconomy

An Australian company will fast-track the commercialisation of a locally discovered seaweed supplement that could be the key to almost entirely solving the problem of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production, after securing financial backing from the federal government.

The Sydney Morning Herald

A sea of colour has swept across wide swaths of the Blue Mountains just a year on from the huge bushfires as long-dormant pink flannel flowers spring to life.

Cosmos

A devastating flood last week on the upper reaches of the Rishi Ganga River, in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, is a stark warning of the hazards of hydropower development under the dual threats of climate change and young, unstable mountains, scientists said last Friday in a webinar hosted by the Earth Island Institute at Columbia University, New York, US.

Yahoo News

Israeli environmentalists are warning that a UAE-Israeli oil pipeline deal threatens unique Red Sea coral reefs and could lead to "the next ecological disaster".

Utility Magazine

Momentum is building for a new National Water Initiative (NWI), with the release of the Productivity Commission’s (PC) National Water Reform 2020 Draft Report, which provides advice on the direction of future national water reform.

Energy Matters

Tesla boss Elon Musk has long been known for his compassion for the environment and his stance against fossil fuels’ continued use. His company has been responsible for making electric cars, and solar energy battery storage devices affordable for the average family and his mission is to create a sustainable world that many more generations of humans can continue to enjoy in the centuries to come.

The Age

Two years ago, nearly two-thirds of “recyclables” Victorians dutifully placed in their yellow-topped bins ended up in landfill.

Food & Beverage

Following the news that the Coca-Cola Company is trialling its first paper bottle, GlobalData have offered their take on the move.

ProBono Australia News

For hospitality venues across Victoria, the five-day snap lockdown couldn’t have landed on a worse weekend.

The Sydney Morning Herald

At the heart of the new book by one of the world’s most famous climate scientists, Michael Mann, is the assertion that climate change denialism is now a spent force and, instead, action is being hampered by distraction and what he calls “doom porn”.

The Newcastle Herald

The largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted has found the majority of people believe the situation is now an emergency.

SBS World News Australia

Twenty-two-year-old Disha Ravi was arrested on the weekend after being accused of helping create a guide to the anti-government farmer protests that was tweeted by Greta Thunberg.

ABC News

Artist Ian Thwaites spends his weekends combing the beaches of Western Australia in search of creative inspiration.

News.com.au

Australia is in for a battering this week as gale-force winds lash much of the east coast.