Reneweconomy

Much of the language of anti-renewable energy discourse occurs through visuals. It’s relatively important on social media; pictures travel much faster than words.

The Age

NSW and Victoria’s agriculture ministers are warning the federal Nationals Party that agriculture must be able to share in the economic opportunities of climate action, contradicting warnings from Morrison government MPs that the sector would suffer if its greenhouse emissions are capped.

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Berejiklian government wants to amend the management plan of the Kosciuszko National Park to permit new electricity transmission lines to be built, an act critics describe as “wilful vandalism”.

The Sydney Morning Herald

A quick look at the Productivity Commission’s draft report on national water reform reminds me of the repeated judgment from old Mr Grace, the doddering owner of the department store in Are You Being Served? as he headed for the door: “You’ve all done very well!”

The Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney residents were shocked last week by a report revealing unsafe levels of industrial pollutants – including arsenic, lead and mercury – in the sludge on the harbour floor.

The Courier Mail

As a senator I will not vote for any policy, target, or “measure” that comes at a cost of Queensland jobs. Likewise, I won’t vote for anything that hurts businesses in Queensland which is why I am sceptical about the rush to net zero emissions by 2050.

Money Management

The pandemic has strengthened the role of responsible investing and, as a result, both investors and companies will face greater scrutiny over their environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, according to the study by First Sentier Investors.

Yahoo News

IBM’s operations won’t produce greenhouse emissions by the end of the decade. That’s the goal of the company’s latest climate pledge, in which, unlike some other companies, it emphasized the importance of preventing emissions before they occur. By 2025, IBM says it will reduce its greenhouse emissions by 65 percent compared to its output in 2010. “What's most important in the fight against climate change is to actually reduce emissions,” IBM said. “The company's net-zero goal is also accompanied by a specific, numerical target for residual emissions that are likely to remain after IBM has first done all it can across its operations to reduce.”

Money Management

Ausbil has announced that its Sustainable Equity fund will mark its three year anniversary formally excluding fossil fuels.

The Guardian

The site chosen to offset the massive Badgerys Creek project was already earmarked for protection. Experts accuse the government of ‘double-dipping’.

The Conversation

Our cities, designed for one set of climatic ranges, are increasingly “out of place” as average temperatures rise. The days above 40℃ and nights above 30℃ are increasing, especially in the expanding suburbs of Australian cities. This presents us with a massive redesign project.

Utility Magazine

The hottest and driest part of Greater Sydney will be smarter, cooler and greener under a new approach to planning and development led by Sydney Water.

ABC News

Australia's smallest and rarest freshwater fish has been on the brink of extinction for decades.

ABC News

First of all: are koalas really at risk of extinction or is that a beat-up? We don't know exactly how many koalas were in Australia when Europeans arrived.

ABC News

A Brisbane beekeeper has created a map for the public to locate African tulip trees in a bid to weed out the plant, which kills native bees.

ABC News

Scientists are warning the discovery of a tiny, blind, predatory shrimp throughout a key aquifer underlying the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin could have significant ramifications for plans to frack the area.

The Weekly Times

Duck hunters volunteer thousands of hours into rehabilitating Victoria’s 181 State Game Reserves. But that work could come to an abrupt end if the Andrews Government keeps cutting back the season and bag limits.

The Guardian

More than 100 plant species had their entire populations burned in the Black Summer bushfires, according to the most detailed study yet of the impact on Australia’s plants.

Cosmos

Not everything in soil is good, and some trace elements – like cadmium – can be picked up by plants and transferred to humans as they eat.

The Conversation

It’s widely understood that rivers, wetlands and other waterways hold particular significance for First Nations people. It’s less well understood that Indigenous peoples are denied effective rights in Australia’s water economy.

The Conversation

Plastic in the ocean can be deadly for marine wildlife and seabirds around the globe, but our latest study shows single-use plastics are a bigger threat to endangered albatrosses in the southern hemisphere than we previously thought.

ABC News

The makers of Kleenex flushable wipes will have to pay a $200,000 fine after the Federal Court found they falsely told customers the products were manufactured in Australia.

The Fifth Estate

The UK and EU – and potentially the entire G7 – are on a collision course with Australia over trade measures to tackle climate change.

The Guardian

Barnaby Joyce has said he will attempt to amend his own government’s legislation to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in coal.

The Australian

Nationals senators fear a parliamentary report has proposed a legislative ‘loophole’ exempting activist groups from a government crackdown on litigation funders.

Reneweconomy

The federal Labor opposition will seek to block many of the Morrison government’s proposed changes to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation that would see the green bank opened up to investments in fossil fuel projects, and would grant federal energy minister Angus Taylor new powers to direct its investments.

Reneweconomy

UNSW Sydney will lead a new research consortium that will advise the NSW government on the opportunities to foster new green fuel industries in the state, using excess solar and wind power.

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Insurance Council of Australia has dropped its support for the Berejiklian government’s plan to lift the Warragamba Dam wall and called on it to find other ways to reduce downstream floodrisks in western Sydney.

ABC News

Bill Gates says reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 "will be the hardest thing humanity's ever done", but could potentially be achieved with the use of nuclear power.

The Weekly Times

Debate on whether agriculture should be exempt from a net-zero emissions target continues – but some farmers warn the choice to act may be taken out of our hands.

The Australian Financial Review

Coal power stations are on track to close four or five years before the end of their rated life as plentiful renewable energy coming online makes them unprofitable, according to energy policy tsar Kerry Schott.

Reneweconomy

BHP’s slow exit from the ailing thermal coal market looked more certain than ever on Thursday when the mining giant announced a $US1.6 billion write-down of the value of coal mines in New South Wales and Venezuela.

Reneweconomy

Tesla has raised the retail price of the Powerwall 2 for the second time in four months, as demand for the 13.5 kWh home battery energy storage system continues to outstrip supply.

Reneweconomy

Energy provider EDL has won a government contract to build a new power system – based around solar and battery storage – to supply the off-grid town of Jabiru in the Northern Territory, which is pinning its future on tourism and services.

The Fifth Estate

Glen Junor in Gisborne is liveable, carbon positive and good for your hip pocket, with half the land to remain open for people and nature to share. Modelled on Serenbe in the US, it’s caught the attention of Nigel Sharp, Brian Haratsis, Mark McCrindle, Mike Day, Brendan Condon and more.

The Fifth Estate

Treated H2 timber framing is a time bomb with no benefit. The near-universal use of H2 blue, green or red framing timber in construction is now a time bomb for landfill in 20-40 years’ time. It cannot be composted nor recycled, and thus is sent to landfill. In an ideal world, buildings would be carefully deconstructed and every skerrick reused, but in the Land of Oz, where labourers are paid $55 per hour, and landfill rates are less than $200 per tonne that is just a pipe dream.

The Advertiser

Scientists are trying to move an endangered lizard before climate change makes the Mid North too hot.

Yahoo News

When it comes to mystery and wonder, the depths of Earth's oceans are often compared to space.

ABC News

The platypus may well be "elusive with few relations and fewer friends" as the famous Banjo Paterson poem suggests, but some current-day platypus devotees are encouraging people to seek them out.

Yahoo News

More research is needed to ensure proposed gas fracking in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin doesn't endanger tiny subterranean shrimp critical to groundwater health, a study has found.

The Conversation

Australia’s wetlands are home to a huge range of stunning flora and fauna, with large snakes often at the top of the food chain.

The Guardian

Australia’s press watchdog has ruled an article in the Australian newspaper that fuelled misinformation that arsonists were a major cause of the Black Summer fires was not misleading.

News.com.au

A number of states across Australia will endure temperatures up to 15C above average this week, as higher temperatures sweep across from Perth to Hobart.