Category Archives: Energy

Australian electricity companies not reducing emissions in line with Paris agreement goals, study finds

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AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin among businesses study says not on track to meet global climate goals to limit heating to well below 2C

Nine out of 10 major Australian electricity companies are failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet the goals of the landmark Paris climate agreement, a study has found.

Businesses not acting in accordance with the 2015 Paris agreement goal of limiting global heating to well below 2C since pre-industrial times included the generators and retailers AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin, according to the study led by University of Queensland researchers.

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Energy ministers’ reforms to Australia’s electricity market could be path to a carbon price, experts say

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Federal, state and territory ministers are set to make emissions reduction a priority for the national electricity market

Australia’s main electricity market will prioritise cutting emissions as part of its objectives for the first time since its creation a quarter of a century ago, a shift that could set up conditions for a carbon price, experts said.

Federal, state and territory energy ministers are scheduled to meet in Canberra on Thursday for a dinner before holding formal talks on Friday. It will be the first gathering since the national electricity market (NEM) was suspended in June after the market operator had to resort to whiteboards and spreadsheets to order generators online.

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Australia should abandon goal to limit global heating to 1.5C, says gas company eyeing Beetaloo Basin

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Tamboran Resources, which received $7.5m to explore Beetaloo Basin, argues target may hinder ‘climate improving’ gas projects

A gas company with interests in the Beetaloo Basin is calling on the federal government to rewrite its climate change legislation to abandon the “unattainable” objective of trying to limit global heating to 1.5C.

The call comes despite Australia being a signatory to the Paris agreement that aims to limit global warming to well below 2C – and preferably to 1.5C – compared to pre-industrial levels.

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Fire spreads at Cuba oil storage facility as fourth tank erupts

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The blaze in Matanzas province raises fears that the damaged facility will worsen the island’s energy shortage

Flames have engulfed a fourth tank at an oil storage facility in western Cuba as a raging fire consumes critical fuel supplies on an island grappling with a growing energy crisis.

Firefighters and specialists from Mexico and Venezuela helped fight the blaze in the province of Matanzas with boats, planes and helicopters as they sprayed foam on the containers, a first for crews since broiling temperatures had prevented them from doing so earlier.

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SES and Resilience NSW ‘failed’ to lead flood response, inquiry finds – as it happened

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New threatened species listings include south-eastern glossy black-cockatoo

Two Australian species that were badly affected by the 2019-20 black summer bushfires have been officially listed as threatened.

The damage caused by the black summer bushfires is still being felt today and can be seen reflected in these listings today.

The fires had an immense impact on our environment, from a small reptile found in the mountains to a bird that is at home on the coast. There is still a lot of work to do.

It seems as though these positions are being offered around almost like lolly bags to senior members of the New South Wales government rather than what they’re intended to be, which is senior positions funded by the taxpayer. We shouldn’t operate like that in New South Wales. We’re slowly but surely finding out the contours of what is an absolute scandal.

There’s many questions to be asked. At the end of the day we’re expected to believe of the 8 million people who live in New South Wales, John Barilaro was independently chosen to represent our interests. I think that ... stretches credibility.

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Strikes at Ukrainian nuclear plant ‘alarming’, says UN watchdog chief

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Head of International Atomic Energy Agency says shelling at Zaporizhzhia plant underlines ‘very real risk of a nuclear disaster’

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Saturday that he was “alarmed” by Friday’s shelling at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant, Europe’s largest such facility.

In a statement Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that the strikes represented “the latest in a long line of increasingly alarming reports” and underlined “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond”.

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Politics live: ‘difficult day for Australians with a mortgage’, Chalmers says; east coast gas shortages in spotlight

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The resources minister, Madeleine King, has taken the first step in reining in the big three LNG exporters by ‘triggering the trigger’

Labor unlikely to extend the fuel excise cut

Asked about the fuel excise in that same interview, Jim Chalmers said:

I’ve been really upfront with people, Charles, for some time now – before the election, during the election and after the election – and pointed out that extending that would cost some billions of dollars and the budget can’t afford that. We’ve inherited a budget which is absolutely heaving with a trillion dollars in Liberal party debt. And when interest rates are rising, it actually costs more and more to service that debt.

The fastest-growing area of government spending in the budget is actually servicing the debt that we’ve inherited because, as interest rates rise, it becomes more expensive to pay that back. So every dollar borrowed, whether it’s by our predecessors or by the new government costs more to pay back and we need to be conscious about that. We need to be responsible about that and upfront about that. And that’s what we’re being.

This isn’t about any one individual. This is about a difficult day for Australians with a mortgage, another difficult day I think everybody is bracing for the interest rate rise that the governor and the Reserve Bank board has flagged.

These decisions are taken independently by the Reserve Bank, by its board and by its governor. People are expecting this outcome today. But it won’t make it any easier.

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Australia’s high gas prices could be here to stay if threats don’t turn into action

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The east coast faces a potential gas shortfall in 2023 amounting to 10% of demand and there are calls for exporters to fill the gap

Some time in the next couple of weeks, a well-known ASX-listed company could go to the wall if it can’t secure a new contract for gas.

That firm, for now at least, can’t go public without its share price cratering and its employees and suppliers being sent into a panic.

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Warren Entsch may support Labor’s climate target if he can be shown it’s not a ‘brain fart’

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Liberal MP says he is open-minded on bill but doesn’t want it to become an ‘impost on the community’ amid high inflation

The veteran Liberal MP Warren Entsch says he is open-minded about Labor’s bill to enshrine a 43% emissions reduction target if he can be convinced the Albanese government has a concrete plan to achieve the cut without driving up power prices.

Ahead of the first substantive Coalition party room meeting of the 47th parliament on Tuesday, Entsch told Guardian Australia he was seeking advice on the bill and might lend support if there was evidence to suggest the number wasn’t a “brain fart”.

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African nations expected to make case for big rise in fossil fuel output

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Exclusive: leaders expected to say at Cop27 they need accesss to their oil and gas reserves despite effect on global heating

Leaders of African countries are likely to use the next UN climate summit in November to push for massive new investment in fossil fuels in Africa, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

New exploration for gas, and the exploitation of Africa’s vast reserves of oil, would make it close to impossible for the world to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

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Germany puts coal power plant back on network after gas supply cut

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Mothballed facility in Lower Saxony gets emergency permission to run until April

A coal-fired power plant that had been mothballed has become the first of its kind to be put back on to the network in Germany, as debate rages over how Europe’s largest economy will cope without Russian gas.

The facility in Lower Saxony, which is owned by the Czech energy company EGH, has received emergency permission to run until April in an attempt to boost energy production.

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Australian wholesale energy prices in June quarter tripled from last year, market operator says

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Aemo executive says need for renewables is ‘urgent’ as failing coal-fired power plants and global gas costs cause prices to surge

Wholesale electricity and gas prices tripled in Australia’s main grid in the June quarter compared with a year ago, as failing coal-fired power plants and soaring global gas costs combined to create “unprecedented” market disruptions, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) said.

Aemo’s quarterly market dynamics report found average spot prices for electricity in the national electricity market, which serves eastern Australia, averaged $264 per megawatt-hour across the quarter. That’s more than double the previous high of $130 in the first quarter of 2019 amid droughts and heatwaves, and a little more than three times the average price in the June quarter of 2021, which was $85.

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German cities impose cold showers and turn off lights amid Russian gas crisis

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Hanover is first large city to impose energy-saving measures and Berlin switches off monument spotlights

Cities in Germany are switching off spotlights on public monuments, turning off fountains, and imposing cold showers on municipal swimming pools and sports halls, as the country races to reduce its energy consumption in the face of a looming Russian gas crisis.

Hanover in north-west Germany on Wednesday became the first large city to announce energy-saving measures, including turning off hot water in the showers and bathrooms of city-run buildings and leisure centres.

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Greece rolls out red carpet for crown prince, as Khashoggi killing falls off agenda

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With Europe grappling with an energy crisis, Mohammed bin Salman finds he is once again welcome

Smiles, handshakes, backslaps and the Acropolis all to himself. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has landed in Europe – his first trip west since the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi – and on a continent jittering with energy worries, the Saudi royal has received red-carpet treatment.

Human rights concerns aside, the de facto leader of the world’s greatest oil producer has luxuriated in a welcome that only recently may have seemed impossible.

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How does the EU plan to cut gas usage by 15% this winter?

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Industry to feel pinch first after all countries in bloc except Hungary agreed to voluntary reduction

The EU has agreed to cut its gas consumption by 15% in an attempt to stave off a winter crisis triggered by a sharp reduction or total shutdown of Russian gas supplies to the bloc.

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Blackouts in China as heatwave pushes electricity usage to record levels

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High temperatures expected to continue for at least another week with more than 300 cities forecast to reach 35C

A long-running heatwave in China has pushed electricity usage to record levels in some areas and led to blackouts, with warnings that the high temperatures are expected to continue for at least another week.

More than 300 cities were forecast to reach temperatures above 35C on Tuesday. China Southern Power Grid Company said Monday’s usage had surpassed last year’s peak load by 3%. The Guangdong province power grid also hit a record high, reaching 142m kilowatts, an increase of 4.89% over last year’s peak load. Blackouts were reported in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, which has recorded a full week of maximum temperatures above 37C, including highs of 40C on Sunday and Monday.

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France orders air-conditioned shops to save energy by shutting doors

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Minister says open doors lead to 20% more consumption as restrictions on illuminated signs also announced

Air-conditioned shops throughout France will have to keep their doors shut or risk a fine of €750 (£635), a French minister has announced, after the mayors of several major cities unveiled a similar rule during the country’s heatwave last week.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the minister for ecological transition, said leaving doors open with air conditioning on led to “20% more energy consumption and … is absurd”. A decree confirming the decision will be issued in the coming days.

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Barcelona school and residents create solar energy community

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Council-supported project beginning on roof of school in Poblenou could grow across the city

A secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city.

The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area.

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DRC to auction oil and gas permits in endangered gorilla habitat

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Sale calls into question protection deal signed at Cop26 as expert warns Congo auction could be a catastrophe for wildlife, health and climate

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced it will auction oil and gas permits in critically endangered gorilla habitat and the world’s largest tropical peatlands next week. The sale raises concerns about the credibility of a forest protection deal signed with the country by Boris Johnson at Cop26.

On Monday, hydrocarbons minister Didier Budimbu said the DRC was expanding an auction of oil exploration blocks to include two sites that overlap with Virunga national park, a Unesco world heritage site home to Earth’s last remaining mountain gorillas.

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Federal government under pressure to increase EV uptake after ACT announces petrol car ban

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Electric vehicle advocates and auto industry say Australia needs nationally mandated fuel efficiency standards

The federal government is under pressure to act to increase the uptake of electric vehicles after the Australian Capital Territory became the first state or territory to announce an end to the sale of petrol cars.

The Zero Emission Vehicle strategy was announced by the ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, on Tuesday and commits the territory to phasing out internal combustion engines by 2035. This means no new petrol engine vehicles could be sold in the territory past that date.

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