Emma Pinchbeck will take over as chief executive of Climate Change Committee next month
The government’s official climate watchdog has appointed the head of the energy industry’s trade association to lead its work helping to drive the UK’s emissions to net zero by 2050.
Emma Pinchbeck, the head of Energy UK, will take up the role of chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) from early next month after four years at the helm of the trade association.
Continue reading...Energy system operator expects winter power supplies to outstrip demand by almost 9% this year
The risk of winter blackouts in Great Britain has tumbled to its lowest in four years even after the shutdown of the UK’s last coal plant, thanks to investments in low-carbon electricity sources.
The National Energy System Operator (Neso) expects Britain’s winter power supplies to outstrip demand by almost 9% this year in its base case scenario, the greatest margin since the winter of 2019 to 2020.
Continue reading...Investment will fund two CCS clusters – but environmental campaigners have criticised plans
Rachel Reeves is paving the way for a multibillion-pound increase in public-sector investment at the budget after the government announced plans to commit almost £22bn over 25 years to fund carbon capture and storage projects.
In what is expected to be one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament, the chancellor, prime minister and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will unveil the details on a visit to the Liverpool city region on Friday declaring a “new era” for clean energy jobs.
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The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is speaking with ABC RN from New Zealand where he is meeting with regional counterparts.
Asked about the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, and whether “ceasefire negotiations in Gaza are now dead”, Marles said the “continued violence in the Middle East is obviously giving rise to enormous threat to civilian life”.
I think the international community is desperate to see an end to this violence, and certainly that’s how we’re exercising our international voice.
Israel has a right to defend itself. Every country has a right to defend itself, and to do so in a proportionate way. That said, we are calling for a ceasefire, along with the United States, along with other members of the international community.
The continued violence in the Middle East is giving rise to … unacceptable numbers of civilian lives lost, and the ongoing violence is a threat to civilian life. And we, along with international community, urge an end to this.
We have [been protesting for] 51 weeks in a row, [and it’s been] absolutely peaceful. Millions of Australians have come out, it’s not provocative at all.
What’s provocative is the fact that our government isn’t listening to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians, who have signed petitions, called their MPs, have done everything they’re supposed to do within this democratic framework to say ‘enough’ …
Continue reading...Nuclear waste dump in Cumbria pleaded guilty to leaving data that could threaten national security exposed for four years, says regulator
Sellafield will have to pay almost £400,000 after it pleaded guilty to criminal charges over years of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site.
The vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria left information that could threaten national security exposed for four years, according to the industry regulator, which brought the charges. It was also found that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attack.
Continue reading...Premier promises to create ‘energy price guarantee’ if his party retains government at state election
Queensland’s premier, Steven Miles, will promise his state’s households they will always have the cheapest power prices of all mainland states in the national electricity market if Labor is elected this month.
Miles announced on Wednesday that he would set up a second state-owned power retailer, akin to Ergon, which operates in regional Queensland.
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Continue reading...With the last coal-fired plant closing today, we chart the rise and fall of the once-indispensable fuel which powered modern Britain
Britain’s transition to a low-carbon future has reached a milestone with the closure of its last remaining coal-fired power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire.
The shutdown of the 57-year-old power plant on Monday ends more than 140 years of coal power generation in the UK – an industrial story closely interwoven with Britain’s socioeconomic and political history.
Continue reading...Intense heat in the north, epic rains in Miami, fires in New Mexico and California. Trump plans for ‘energy dominance’, removing protection from mining and drilling on public lands
This article was produced in partnership with the non-profit newsroom Type Investigations, with support from the Wayne Barrett Project.
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Plibersek approves three coalmine expansions
We have more on environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s approval of three coalmine expansions on Tuesday from Graham Readfearn here.
There’s a range of everyday common health conditions that are unnecessarily blocking up our emergency departments and contributing to those wait times to see our precious general practitioners.
We would love to see more GPs. Who doesn’t love their local family doctor? My wife and I and our children certainly do. But we all know how difficult it is to not only find one, find one that bulk-bills, but find one that hasn’t closed their books and can take an appointment. That’s not just in the bush, that’s in our major capital cities as well, whether it’s after 6pm or on a weekend, when your local pharmacy is open.
Continue reading...Decision angers environment groups with Australian Conservation Foundation saying Albanese government ‘continues to disappoint’
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, approved three coalmine expansions on Tuesday in a step described by conservationists as reckless and “the opposite of climate action”.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said the three projects, all in New South Wales, would generate more than 1.3bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in their lifetime.
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Continue reading...‘It will cost more, it will push prices up, it will take longer,’ treasurer says of opposition leader’s ‘fantasy’
Coalition plans to build seven nuclear power plants are “economic insanity”, Jim Chalmers has said, in the lead-up to a speech by Peter Dutton that is expected to provide new details of the policy.
The federal opposition has outlined plans to build seven nuclear reactors across five states, should it win the next election, with the first to be built by 2035 to 2037 at the earliest.
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Continue reading...Pennsylvania plant was site of most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history in 1979
A nuclear reactor at the notorious Three Mile Island site in Pennsylvania is to be activated for the first time in five years after its owners, Constellation Energy, struck a deal to provide power to Microsoft’s proliferating artificial intelligence operations.
The plant was the location of the most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history, in March 1979 when the loss of water coolant through a faulty valve caused the Unit 2 reactor to overheat. More than four decades later, the reactor is still in a decommissioning phase.
Continue reading...A ban on exporting offshore gas was lifted in WA this week, and the Greens say two of the ‘biggest winners’ were the massive resources companies
Western Australian gas companies Mineral Resources and Woodside gave more than $20,000 to WA Labor while it was considering changes to its domestic gas policy that allowed more gas to be exported from the state.
On Thursday the state government lifted a ban on onshore gas being exported, allowing 20% to go overseas until 2031, in a change the premier, Roger Cook, said would boost the state’s gas industry.
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Continue reading...The country, which has more 300 days of sunshine a year, has embraced rooftop systems that harness the sun’s energy
The Thriamvos company truck pulls up at noon outside the four-storey building in the heart of Nicosia.
It’s the third rooftop installation of a solar-powered water heating system that Petros Mihali and his assistant, Soteris, have made in the Cypriot capital since their working day began at 7am.
Continue reading...Angela Eagle, border security minister, says prime minister has to answer why he has accepted £76,000 worth of gifts since 2019 election
The number of migrants who have crossed the English Channel since Labour won the general election has passed 10,000, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. As PA Media reports, some 65 migrants were detected crossing the Channel on Monday, taking the cumulative number of arrivals since July 4 to 10,024. PA says:
The cumulative total for the year so far now stands at 23,598.
This is 1% lower than the equivalent figure at this point last year, which was 23,940, and 21% lower than the total at this stage in 2022, which was 29,783.
The home secretary announced the package of up to £75m, which redirects funds originally allocated to the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act. It will unlock sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities for the NCA to bolster UK border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs. The investment is designed to build on a pattern of successful upstream disruptions announced at an operational summit, attended by the prime minister, at the NCA headquarters last week.
They became climate dinosaurs, crashing offshore wind, blocking onshore wind, moving the goalposts on electric vehicle targets, doubling down on oil and gas, leaving British wildlife in crisis.
Our biodiversity declining at an unprecedented rate, our precious national parks in decline, our rivers, lakes and seas awash with toxic sewage, blind to the opportunities of the energy transition – a fossil fuel government in a renewable age.
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White House marks three years since signing of Aukus agreement
Happy three-year anniversary of the signing of Aukus, to those who observe.
Three years ago, President Biden and our Australian and United Kingdom partners committed to Aukus, an enhanced security partnership that promotes a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable.
As this partnership has grown, it has strengthened the security of our allies in the region as well as our own security here at home. Over the past three years, our countries have made significant strides in supporting Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.
That is bad news for Australian solar homes.
To create space for inflexible nuclear power plants ramming energy into the grid, millions of household solar systems will be the first casualty.
Solar power is already being switched off in South Australia when it makes so much free power available that it exceeds electricity demand.
Continue reading...Lake Charles has been battered by storms over the past 20 years – and now its most famous landmark lies in ruins
Last week, one south-west Louisiana city in particular was girding itself for Hurricane Francine’s blow: Lake Charles, located about four hours west of New Orleans and two hours east of Houston.
In the lottery of hurricane paths over the past 20 years, Lake Charles has been very, very unlucky. But Francine’s impact on the city turned out to be relatively minor, a summer storm like locals are used to.
Continue reading...From Port Stephens to Illawarra, council candidates are running against renewable schemes because of ‘lack of consultation’
Part of what’s driving Mark Watson’s pitch for mayor is his opposition to a project he says is the talk of the town and the “biggest issue” in his coastal home’s history.
The former One Nation candidate for the state government is now running as an independent for mayor of Port Stephens. The coastal town just north of Newcastle overlooks the middle of the 1,800-square kilometre offshore windfarm zone off the Hunter, where the Albanese government plans a renewable energy hub to be operating by 2030.
Continue reading...The source of new renewable energy is also a battleground over China’s cheap exports of panels that has split US firms
The Biden administration touts solar energy as one of its big success stories, a booming new industry that is curbing the effects of the climate crisis and creating high-paying jobs across the country. But the more complicated truth is that the United States is mired in a long-running trade war with China, which is flooding the market with artificially cheap solar panels that carry an uncomfortably large carbon footprint and threaten to obliterate the domestic industry.
The price of solar panels has plummeted 50% over the past year, largely, industry insiders say, because of deliberate Chinese overproduction of key components and a game of international cat-and-mouse over trade rules often likened to a game of “Whac-A-Mole”. As different sets of rules get established, Chinese companies have proved adept at moving their manufacturing plants to other countries, in south-east Asia, and shifting strategies to work around US tariffs and other deterrent measures.
This article was amended on 10 September 2014. An earlier version incorrectly stated that this year’s RE+ conference took place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Continue reading...Critics say Labour ‘should have run a mile’ from LetterOne after it is acquires 15% of Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy
The government faces growing criticism after a company backed by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs was allowed to become a part-owner of the UK’s largest North Sea oil producer.
Critics of the decision to allow LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, to acquire almost 15% of Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy, warned that oligarchs should have no place owning critical national assets.
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