Caroline Dennett tells staff in video she made decision because of ‘double-talk on climate’
A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the environment.
Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s still time”.
Continue reading...Labor’s climate plan is designed to limit the political risk of a scare campaign – but there are already calls for it to go beyond its headline commitments
It will take a while to untangle all the threads that led to Saturday’s extraordinary result, but there is little doubt this was the climate election Australians have long been told was coming.
A surge of Greens and Climate 200-backed teal independents turfed heartland Liberal MPs who were part of a government that claimed to be acting on emissions but wasn’t, pumped vast sums into fossil fuels and was considered a global blocker on addressing global heating.
Continue reading...Michael Lewis calls for substanstial government intervention to help people deal with costs
Consumers will have to cope with extraordinarily high fuel bills for at least another 18 months, the boss of Britain’s biggest energy supplier has said.
Michael Lewis, the chief executive of E.ON UK, called for “very substantial” government intervention to help people with escalating fuel bills, one of the biggest factors in the cost-of-living crisis.
Continue reading...Regulator says outgoing boss Stuart Smith had no role in selecting winners and was invited to acknowledge his work over eight years
The outgoing head of Australia’s offshore oil and gas regulator has helped hand out awards to fossil fuel companies, including Santos, Inpex and Beach Energy, prompting criticism the body could be seen as “too close” to industry.
Stuart Smith, chief executive of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema), attended an industry conference dinner in Brisbane on Wednesday and assisted in handing out environmental and safety awards.
Continue reading...European Commission says extra €210bn needed over next five years to pay for phasing out of Russian fossil fuels
The EU plans a “massive” increase in solar and wind power, and a short-term boost for coal, to end its reliance on Russian oil and gas as fast as possible.
In a plan outlined on Wednesday, the European Commission said the EU needed to find an extra €210bn (£178bn) over the next five years to pay for phasing out Russian fossil fuels and speeding up the switch to green energy.
Continue reading...Increasing supply is ‘absolutely part of the solution’ to decarbonising the economy, Appea chair tells conference
Fossil fuel representatives have joined the Morrison government in rejecting scientific warnings that no new oil and gas fields should be opened if the world is to deal with the climate crisis, with a national conference hearing Australia should be “smart enough” to back continued expansion.
Increased gas and oil supply was “absolutely part of the solution” to decarbonising the economy, the annual conference of gas industry group the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea) was told.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Fitting every home with solar panels and batteries and replacing gas devices and petrol cars could save households more than $5,000 a year
A plan to “electrify everything” with rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles would save households across the country more than $5,000 a year and particularly benefit those living in outer Melbourne suburbs, according to a new analysis.
Electrification would involve fitting every home with solar panels and batteries and replacing gas devices – cooktops, hot water and heating systems – and petrol cars with electric models.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Exclusive: US presidential envoy says limiting global heating to 1.5C could be made harder by conflict
The longer the war in Ukraine carries on, the worse the consequences will be for the climate, the US presidential envoy John Kerry has warned.
Many countries are struggling with an energy crisis while also urgently needing to cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global heating to 1.5C, he said.
Continue reading...Atlassian cofounder says released details prove the split would be a ‘terrible outcome’ for energy giant’s shareholders
The planned split of AGL Energy that billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is trying to foil will cost $260m upfront and $35m in extra costs per year for the demerged entities, documents from the energy giant show.
In separate releases to the ASX on Friday afternoon, AGL laid out its details of the demerger ahead of a 15 June vote by shareholders. As the biggest shareholder following his purchase of a 11.3% holding, Cannon-Brookes can block the move with the support of another 13.7% of share owners.
Continue reading...Political scientist says state’s decision to rule out closing power stations shows major parties are ‘wedged’ on climate change
Queensland’s Labor government is playing “a dangerous game” with coal that could hurt the party’s chances in inner-city Brisbane in the federal election, according a political expert.
On Wednesday, the state energy minister, Mick de Brenni, ruled out closing any of Queensland’s eight coal-fired power plants, despite plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Fossil fuel interest groups are telling New Mexicans: let us keep drilling or the state’s education system will collapse
The oil and gas industry wants to play a word-and-picture association game with you. Think of four images: a brightly-colored backpack stuffed with pencils, a smiling teacher with a tablet tucked under her arm, a pair of glasses resting on a stack of pastel notebooks, and a gleaming school bus welcoming a young student aboard.
“What do all of these have in common?” an April 6 Facebook post by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA), asked. “They are powered by oil and natural gas!”
Continue reading...Scott Morrison defends economic ‘shield’ after RBA lifts cash rate target from historic low; Philip Lowe says more interest rate rises to come; Jim Chalmers says central bank decision ‘a very serious development’; nation records 41 Covid deaths. Follow the latest updates live
Scott Morrison doesn’t get sick of the “silly” photo ops [silly photo opportunities being how the question was framed], he tells Melbourne radio’s Neil Mitchell, because he “doesn’t see them that way”.
He then gives a hero-gram to tradies.
I don’t fit in those ways, what I see is [being] out and about and doing what Australians do every day.
... What I enjoy doing is standing there with an apprentice who shows me what they’re learning, and then I’d have a go at it.
Continue reading...AGL says it’s determined to go ahead with the merger despite the purchase, which has made Cannon-Brookes the company’s largest single shareholder
AGL Energy, Australia’s biggest electricity generator, says it remains determined to pursue its plan to split despite a bid for a blocking stake by technology billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
In a second tilt at the company in three months, Cannon-Brookes bought 11.28% of the AGL shares through his family’s Grok Ventures firm, making him the largest single shareholder.
Continue reading...Energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng believed to be open to extension in response to leap in gas prices and energy security concerns
Nuclear power advocates believe energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng is open to extending the life of the Hinkley Point B plant to help wean the UK off gas imports and prevent a faster-than-expected decline in Britain’s fleet of atomic reactors.
Soaring gas prices and the war in Ukraine have already spurred the government to ask coal power plant owners to stay open longer, while ministers also revisited their staunch opposition to fracking in the light of energy supply concerns.
Continue reading...The jolt in costs is being blamed mostly on more expensive fossil fuels and falling reliability of coal-fired power plants
Wholesale power prices in Australia’s main electricity market continued to rise in the first three months of 2022, more than doubling the cost a year earlier, with the increase blamed mostly on more costly fossil fuels and the falling reliability of coal-fired power plants.
Renewable energy, meanwhile, grew its share of the market to more than one-third, pushing carbon emissions from the largest polluting sector to new lows, according to the quarterly energy dynamics report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo).
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Queensland senator Matt Canavan adds to uncertainty about Coalition climate commitments; foreign minister accuses Labor of ‘playing politics’ on national security after Penny Wong criticises Scott Morrison for ‘refusing to take responsibility in Pacific’; at least 50 Covid deaths as WA to ease mask mandate in some settings. This blog is now closed
Scott Morrison is in Townsville (north Queensland) today where he will be making announcements on energy.
Given what we just heard from Scott Morrison there, it’s worth your time having a listen to climate and environment editor Adam Morton on today’s Full Story podcast examining if the policy differences between the Coalition and Labor and ultimately asking: is either party preparing enough for the transformational change ahead?
Economic modelling should be used as a guide. Both sides of politics lean on it more as a forecast that will be fact ... I don’t think anybody can tell us exactly what our power bills will be in 2025, 2030, 2050 but no one disagrees that more solar and wind is good in terms of lowering prices because it is much, much cheaper to generate what’s in place.
Continue reading...Solar and wind could bring ‘jobs boom’ to regions that have previously depended on coal, Australian Conservation Foundation says
Replacing Australia’s largest coal-fired power station with renewable energy would create tens of thousands more construction jobs than replacing it with gas, a new analysis has found.
The Eraring coal-fired power station in the Lake Macquarie region of New South Wales is scheduled to close in 2025.
Continue reading...Experts say Wales has huge potential for generating renewable marine power, yet, so far, ambitious schemes have been ignored
On the stunning and craggy coastline of Holy Island in north Wales, work has started on a construction project to generate energy from one of the world’s greatest untapped energy resources: tidal power.
The Morlais project, on the small island off the west of Anglesey has benefited from £31m in what is likely to be the last large grant for Wales from the European Union’s regional funding programme. It will install turbines at what will be one of the largest tidal stream energy sites in the world, covering 13 square miles of the seabed.
Continue reading...Deputy prime minister made comments in coal community of Gladstone in Queensland as Scott Morrison makes $300m NT energy and jobs announcement
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce believes a “transition” from coal to cleaner energy “equals unemployment” in the regions, declaring the Coalition would not use the term during the election.
The Nationals leader has also backed the government’s clean energy fund to support coal, and for other government infrastructure funds to finance the construction of coal-fired power stations, but not for the building of cleaner hydrogen plants.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Experts say not enough is being done to reduce petrol consumption and encourage uptake of electric vehicles
Almost all of Australia’s fuel supply is imported, leaving the country vulnerable to shortages, a thinktank has warned in a new report accusing the government of not doing enough to reduce and replace demand.
As the war in Ukraine puts the global fuel supply in sharp focus, the Australia Institute found that 91% of Australia’s fuel in the 2021 financial year was imported (including 68% imported as refined crude, as well as 71% of the fuel refined here).
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...