Indigenous communities say planned Øyfjellet turbines will interfere with migration paths
Indigenous reindeer herders are bringing a legal action against a proposed wind power project that would be one of the largest in Norway.
The Sámi herders from Nordland county are accusing the Øyfjellet windfarm constructors of breaking licensing agreements which stipulated that construction would not interfere with reindeer migration paths.
Continue reading...Supporters insist that storage technology is not a costly mistake but the best way for UK to cut emissions from heavy industry
Engineers and geologists have strongly criticised green groups who last week claimed that carbon capture and storage schemes – for reducing fossil fuel emissions – are costly mistakes.
The scientists insisted that such schemes are vital weapons in the battle against global heating and warn that failure to set up ways to trap carbon dioxide and store it underground would make it almost impossible to hold net emissions to below zero by 2050.
Continue reading...Wood pellets are sold as a clean alternative to coal. But is the subsidised bioenergy boom accelerating the climate crisis?
Kalev Järvik stands on a bald patch of land in the heart of Estonia’s Haanja nature reserve and remembers when he could walk straight from one side of the reserve to the other under a canopy of trees.
Järvik has lived in the Haanja uplands in the southern county of Võru for more than 10 years. His closeness to the forest has shaped his life as a carpenter and the fortunes of the surrounding villages, with their handicraft traditions – a substitute for farming on the poor arable land. Upcountry, travel literature promotes the region to city dwellers, promising its ancient woodlands as a place to rest and reinvigorate the mind.
Continue reading...With plans for satellite launches and investment in space-based solar, can the UK become a space super power?
In 1969, a British engineer was invited to the White House to meet President Nixon. His name was Francis Thomas Bacon and he had developed the fuel cells used on Apollo 11. Known now as Bacon fuel cells, these power sources consume hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, heat and, in theory, a continuous supply of electricity.
His invention was considered so integral to the success of the Apollo mission that Nixon told him, “Without you Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon.”
Continue reading...The crisis poses a deadly threat to some sectors and creates opportunities for others. We examine how they will fare in 2021
Coronavirus has changed lives and industries across the UK, accelerating fundamental shifts in behaviour and consumption that were already on their way. Debates about home working, preserving local high streets and the ethics of air travel were bubbling away before coronavirus rampaged across the world, but the consequences of the worst pandemic in more than a century have either settled those arguments or boosted the momentum behind certain lifestyle changes. Here we look at how those debates have been changed – or resolved – by Covid-19.
Continue reading...Danish company plans to fit ships with small nuclear reactors to send energy to developing countries
Floating barges fitted with advanced nuclear reactors could begin powering developing nations by the mid-2020s, according to a Danish startup company.
Seaborg Technologies believes it can make cheap nuclear electricity a viable alternative to fossil fuels across the developing world as soon as 2025.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand’s cabinet has agreed to a proposal for a trans-Tasman travel bubble; storms forecast to continue in parts of south-east Queensland and northern NSW. Follow the latest updates
If you were hoping to grab some of the Victorian government’s vouchers for travelling into regional Victoria for a holiday, you have missed out on the second round, AAP reports 30,000 vouchers sold in 31 minutes.
An extra 30,000 Regional Travel Voucher Scheme vouchers, worth $200 apiece, were snapped up within 31 minutes of becoming available from midday on Monday via a new-look state government webpage.
AAP reports the extreme weather in northern NSW and southeast Queensland will continue to intensify overnight.
Sites in NSW’s Northern Rivers District had about 400mm of rain in just a few days, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jane Golding told reporters on Monday.
Continue reading...Minister tells more than 80 world leaders that not enough is being done
The world is still not on track to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the UK’s business secretary Alok Sharma warned, after a summit of more than 70 world leaders on the climate crisis ended with few new commitments on greenhouse gas emissions.
Sharma said: “[People] will ask ‘Have we done enough to put the world on track to limit warming to 1.5C and protect people and nature from the effects of climate change?’ We must be honest with ourselves – the answer to that is currently no.”
Continue reading...Prime minister Scott Morrison wanted to announce the policy shift at a weekend summit but he’s not yet secured a speaking spot
The Morrison government will release updated national greenhouse gas emissions projections that claim Australia is nearly on track to meet the target for 2030 it set under the Paris agreement.
An annual emissions projection report to be released on Thursday shows the government now estimates emissions in 2030 will fall just short – by 56m tonnes – of meeting its target of a 26-28% cut compared to 2005 levels if Australia doesn’t deploy Kyoto credits to hit the target.
Continue reading...Fair Work Commission to be given power to approve agreements that don’t guarantee workers are better off overall. Follow all the latest updates
Earlier, the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill.
Those are:
On the other side of that debate:
Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw
Continue reading...The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale
Even before the new mine became the main topic of village conversation, João Cassote, a 44-year-old livestock farmer, was thinking about making a change. Living off the land in his mountainous part of northern Portugal was a grind. Of his close childhood friends, he was the only one who hadn’t gone overseas in search of work. So, in 2017, when he heard of a British company prospecting for lithium in the region of Trás-os-Montes, Cassote called his bank and asked for a €200,000 loan. He bought a John Deere tractor, an earthmover and a portable water-storage tank.
The exploration team of the UK-based mining company Savannah Resources had spent months poring over geological maps and surveys of the hills that ripple out from Cassote’s farm. Initial calculations indicated that they could contain more than 280,000 tonnes of lithium, a silver-white alkali metal – enough for 10 years’ production. Cassote got in touch with Savannah’s local office, and the mining firm duly contracted him to supply water to their test drilling site. The return on his investment was swift. After less than 12 months on the company’s books, Cassote had made what he would usually earn in five or six years on the farm.
Continue reading...Britain’s credibility as climate champion rests on bold and urgent action, say campaigners
Britain must end all oil and gas extraction in the North Sea as a matter of urgency if it is to maintain its position as a credible climate champion. That was the stark warning issued by green campaigners yesterday in the wake of last week’s decision by Denmark to halt its exploration for new North Sea reserves as part of its commitment to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change.
The Danish decision is an embarrassment for Boris Johnson who announced last week that Britain would take a lead in the battle against global heating by cutting national carbon emissions by 68% by 2030, a rate faster than any other major economy.
Continue reading...Decision as part of plan to phase out fossil fuel extraction by 2050 will put pressure on UK
Denmark has brought an immediate end to new oil and gas exploration in the Danish North Sea as part of a plan to phase out fossil fuel extraction by 2050.
On Thursday night the Danish government voted in favour of the plans to cancel the country’s next North Sea oil and gas licensing round, 80 years after it first began exploring its hydrocarbon reserves.
Continue reading...António Guterres lists human-inflicted wounds on natural world in stark message
Humanity is facing a new war, unprecedented in history, the secretary general of the UN has warned, which is in danger of destroying our future before we have fully understood the risk.
The stark message from António Guterres follows a year of global upheaval, with the coronavirus pandemic causing governments to shut down whole countries for months at a time, while wildfires, hurricanes and powerful storms have scarred the globe.
Continue reading...Prime minister calls on China to apologise and seeks removal of tweet; Victoria revamps hotel quarantine program under single agency with private security banned. Follow all the latest
Twitter hasn’t taken the Tweet down, as demanded by Scott Morrison, but it has censored it.
The image defaults to hidden with the message:
Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, &call for holding them accountable. pic.twitter.com/GYOaucoL5D
And yet, no one is responsible. Governance in Australia is so, so broken
I don’t support wording of Labor’s motion but someone needs to resign over the #robotdebt fiasco. How is it that only female Ministers like Ley and McKenzie resign? Where is the Westminster Ministerial responsibly? #qt #auspol pic.twitter.com/lfAClWfphp
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former finance minister’s pitch pushes ‘zero net emissions as soon as possible’, which contradicts record while in Australian government
Australia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann is continuing to talk up the importance of a “collective green recovery” on the campaign trail to be the next secretary general of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In a “vision statement” for the position obtained by Guardian Australia, Cormann says undertaking “effective global action on climate change is a must and we must get to zero net emissions as soon as possible”.
Continue reading...The Biden transition team is facing pressure not to hire people with fossil fuel ties, like Obama’s energy secretary Ernest Moniz
It was a deceptively low-key occasion on Capitol Hill: an older man in a dark suit, talking into a TV camera about an energy report.
According to his firm’s 362-page analysis, the fastest path to California’s climate goals included continuing to rely on fossil fuels. The analysis was funded by gas companies and groups related to them, but he wasn’t a lobbyist or industry consultant. Quite the opposite, he was the Obama administration’s well-respected energy secretary, Ernest Moniz.
Continue reading...What do governments across the world need to do to shift economies away from fossil fuels?
What does a green recovery look like? That is the question governments around the world are considering as they decide how to align their $12tn worth of economic rescue packages for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic with their obligations under the Paris climate accord.
The UK is expected to announce a 10-point recovery plan this week, and observers have warned that if it lacks ambition, it could undermine the world’s goals of limiting catastrophic climate breakdown.
Continue reading...The Sunrise Movement helped reach 3.5m voters in swing states and are determined to hold the president-elect to his promises
Joe Biden will have to navigate a path for the most ambitious climate agenda ever adopted by a US president through not only stubborn Republican obstruction but also an emergent youth climate movement that is already formulating plans to hold him to account.
Continue reading...Federal parliament returns; Asio chief warns of ‘real threat’ from foreign spies; incoming Biden administration vows to sign back up to Paris agreement. Follow all the updates
The Senate has just voted up a motion rebuking the government over the weakness of its preferred model of National Integrity Commission.
The motion was voted up 28 to 25 with Labor, Centre Alliance, Rex Patrick, Jacqui Lambie and One Nation combining to warn the Coalition over the draft bill’s inadequacies.
Greens senator Larissa Waters motion stated:
Senate just passed a motion 28:25 for a strong corruption watchdog, listing all of the features the Gov’s weak model leaves out. A defacto vote on the Gov’s bill - the Senate can see through the fig leaf of the Gov’s belated and pathetic model that wouldn’t stop a thing! #auspol
Richard Marles says Labor is not pursing a royal commission into the Murdoch media empire and will “let Kevin speak for himself”.
Andrew Leigh officially tabled the Kevin Rudd-led petition, which had more than 500,000 signatures, in the parliament today.
We have talked about our position in relation to the media over a long period of time. Now, this is not something we have been considering. This is something Kevin Rudd has been pursuing in his capacity as a private citizen. I mean, I obviously note it is a significant petition in terms of those who have signed up to it and it has been presented to the parliament appropriately. That is where the matter is that in terms of the opposition.
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