Date: 30 August 2022 at 7:01:38 am AWST
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Subject: Daily Links Aug 30
Post of the Day
Support for fossil fuels almost doubled in 2021, slowing progress toward international climate goals
Major economies sharply increased support for the production and consumption of coal, oil and natural gas, with many countries struggling to balance longstanding pledges to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies with efforts to protect households from surging energy prices, according to analysis released today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Energy Agency.
On This Day
Saint Rose of Lima Day – Peru
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
First visit by UN human rights expert on climate change: Bangladesh
UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Ian Fry, will visit Bangladesh from 4 to 15 September 2022.
3rd EDM-CSWG, expected to strengthen commitment in environmental management and climate change
The 3rd meeting of the Environment Deputies Meeting and Climate Sustanability Working Group (3rd G20 EDM-CSWG) will be held in Bali on 29-30 August 2022. The meeting will be conducted hybrid (present physically and some virtually) and attended by 211 delegates from G20 member countries, invited countries and International Organizations. This meeting is expected to increase efforts in managing the environment and climate change.
Support for fossil fuels almost doubled in 2021, slowing progress toward international climate goals
Major economies sharply increased support for the production and consumption of coal, oil and natural gas, with many countries struggling to balance longstanding pledges to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies with efforts to protect households from surging energy prices, according to analysis released today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Energy Agency.
Scientists call on colleagues to protest climate crisis with civil disobedience
An article in the Nature Climate Change journal argues that non-violent direct action taken by experts is effective
Major sea-level rise caused by melting of Greenland ice cap is ‘now inevitable’
Loss will contribute a minimum rise of 27cm regardless of what climate action is taken, scientists discover
‘Epic’ Pakistan floods show need for climate action
Cataclysmic flooding in Pakistan, triggered by unprecedented monsoon rainfall and glacial melting, has killed over 1,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and millions of acres of crops, affecting more than 30 million Pakistanis and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Europe dries up from climate change-driven drought
Binoy Kampmark
Climate change has drastically affected water levels in famed rivers across Europe. Whole territories are vanishing with the current drought — possibly the worst in 500 years.
The Guardian view on climate chaos in Pakistan: adapt to survive
Guardian editorial
Melting glaciers and torrential rains are wrecking lives. Western governments must step up their response
Home energy efficiency standards to be raised as Australia plays catch-up
Australian governments agree to boost energy efficiency standards for new-build homes, in long overdue move to improve basic living standards, slash energy bills and emissions.
ACF pushes for clean energy export strategy
The Australian Conservation Foundation has urged the federal government to take advantage of the global shift towards renewable energy to unlock hundreds of thousands of jobs and inject billions of dollars into the economy.
Droughts, floods and storms could result in a total loss of AUD$452 billion to Australia’s GDP between 2022 and 2050, according to new research launched today.
82 leading Australian climate and environmental scientists have delivered an open letter to Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek asking her to consider the climate impact of burning coal and gas when assessing proposals for new fossil fuel projects.
Fisheries managers ignoring stock data for long-lived orange roughy
A new unpublished stock assessment for the vulnerable orange roughy fish has found there are significantly fewer than previously thought, and yet catch levels will not be reduced to levels recommended by science
Sleepless nights and a reply-all email: Why Emily quit her job for the climate
Emily Townsend very publicly quit her job at News Corp over its bushfire and climate change reporting. She thought she was burning her bridges. Then the messages arrived.
The simple changes that could cut your home energy usage by 25 per cent
Seven-star energy-efficient homes are about to become more common and reduce energy use by about a quarter compared with six-star homes. But how?
‘Change from within’: Climate independent MP defends fossil fuel shares
Teal independent and MP for North Sydney Kylea Tink says she purchased “small shareholdings” in two fossil fuel companies to understand them better.
‘Get ready for two pandemics a year’ [$]
Australia must prepare for the emergence of up to two pandemic threats a year, the CSIRO warns in a benchmark report detailing new thinking on the next disease crisis.
Australia could ‘go small and go nuke’ by 2030 [$]
Australia could have electricity generated by nuclear power well before 2030 after the US government approved the first small modular nuclear reactor for commercial use.
Plastic recycling still struggles to meet green demands [$]
When meat trays went from black to green and clear plastic a couple of years ago, shoppers could be forgiven for missing the colour switch. But there’s a simple reason.
Have we seen the last of $2 a litre petrol for a while? It depends on one thing
Vlado Vivoda
If the fuel excise cut is not extended, average petrol prices in Australia will almost certainly return to the above $2 territory by early October. But a different solution is needed
Australia could be the Saudi Arabia of clean energy, powering the world
Swati Pandey
Few countries in the world can make such an outsize difference to climate change. In the shift to renewable energy, the sunburnt country could satisfy global demand for green energy more than eight times over.
Gill Armstrong et al
The rating will also use a whole-of-home energy “budget”. This will allow homes to meet the new standard in different ways. The standard will come into force in May 2023, and all new homes will have to comply by October 2023.
‘Stealth privatisation’ in iconic national parks threatens public access to nature’s health boost
Ralf Buckley and Alienor Chauvenet
Australia’s national parks in several states are under siege from privatisation by stealth. Developers are using the lure of ecotourism to build posh private lodges with exclusive access deep inside many iconic parks.
Plibersek has power to stop mega-projects of coal and gas
Tim Flannery
I have joined almost 100 other leading Australian scientists to back this legal intervention and urge Minister Plibersek to consider the wider environmental impact of burning coal and gas.
Fossil fuel industry has government in a spin
Peter Boyer
Over 100 years ago, in March 1912, a popular US science and technology magazine said that “it may well be that the enormous present-day combustion of coal is producing carbon dioxide so fast that it will have important climatic effects.”
For whom the toll bells: Transurban’s profits, motorists’ losses and looming toll hikes
Michael West
With tolls about to hike with inflation, Victorian and NSW governments face a motorist headache heading into their respective state elections. Michael West reports on the upshot of privatisations which have left one company, Transurban, with a monopoly of monopolies.
Pull plug on costly power line schedule [$]
Ted Woodley and Simon Bartlett
An ambitious timetable of power line projects will hit the taxpayer for billions more than estimated.
Victoria
Environmental Management Plan withdrawn
EPA Victoria has revoked its approval of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) issued to Maddeningly Brown Coal in 2021 for its Western Soil Treatment site.
PM won’t put Suburban Rail Loop funds to health [$]
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says $2bn already committed by the federal government to stage one of the SRL can’t be spent elsewhere.
NSW swamped by offshore wind proposals in new Illawarra renewable zone
Offshore wind projects projects dominate proposals for new Illawarra renewable energy zone, as green steel load proposals also emerge.
Contractor confirms delays and cost overruns at Snowy 2.0, as CEO fires off at government
Contractor confirms delays and cost blowouts at Snowy 2.0, as departing Snowy CEO launches broadside at Labor’s renewable and hydrogen plans and “misleading” advice.
Queensland
Outback bursts into bloom after unseasonal rainfall foreshadows wet Queensland spring ahead
South-east Queensland is set to receive a third of its September rainfall total this week as thunderstorms with possible large hail are forecast to dump more rain on outback regions.
With Acland mine approved, New Hope’s next step is luring back 400 workers
Mining company New Hope admits its priority now is to lure back up to 400 workers, many of whom dispersed across the country when its newly-approved Acland coal mine began to ramp down in 2019.
South Australia
‘Male bias’ and bushfires behind first glossy black cockatoo sighting on SA mainland in 50 years
When Julie Thompson went for an evening stroll during a recent family trip to Deep Creek, she had no inkling she was about to make a remarkable discovery.
Major works begin at massive new South Australia wind farm that will take share of wind and solar in state demand to a world-leading 80 per cent.
Govt buys suburban block to save significant trees
Two surviving remnant grey box trees in Black Forest – the Adelaide suburb named after a now-vanished woodland – have been saved from the threat of the developers’ axe after the state government stepped in to buy the house and land on which they stand.
First renewable hydrogen shipment heads north
The first shipment of renewable hydrogen has been sent from a Tonsley hydrogen hub to the Whyalla steelworks, with further plans for blended gas to be delivered to some 3000 Adelaide homes by the end of this year.
Traditional Owners celebrating following court win over Lake Torrens drilling
The South Australian Supreme Court found that approval given by the former Aboriginal affairs minister would have undermined his own ability to promptly assess danger to heritage items.
Tasmania
‘Game changer’: Tassie’s biggest green energy project [$]
It’s been described as the biggest industrial manufacturing project in the state’s history, and the man behind the southern Tasmanian green energy hub is excited by the opportunities it presents.
Works begin on Darwin big battery, in first step to rid gas from NT grid
Works begin on 35MW grid-forming battery that will bolster the Northern Territory’s main grid as it shifts from gas to solar.
“We literally smoke fossil fuels:” Forrest on why FFI might already be worth $US20 billion
Andrew Forrest says world is “smoking fossil fuels” and is sticking with his plans to make 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year with wind and solar.
‘Tear up and rewrite Burrup compact’
The agreement that formalised industry access to the culturally sensitive Burrup Peninsula should be torn up and rewritten, a senior traditional owner says.
Fortescue vows to come clean on green projects [$]
Nick Evans
At last, Fortescue shareholders may get answers on when the company will start building the green energy projects Andrew Forrest says will become the core of its future business.
Sustainability
Ukrainians told to prepare for nuclear disaster after more Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia
Citizens are being taught how to use iodine in case of a meltdown.
UN atomic energy experts head to stricken nuclear power station
A team of UN atomic energy experts set out on Monday for Zaporizhzya nuclear power station in Ukraine, after months of rising tensions between Ukrainian and Russian forces, who have accused each other of shelling the plant.
Inequality can double the energy required to secure universal decent living
Ecological breakdown and economic inequality are among the largest contemporary global challenges, and the issues are thoroughly entangled – as they have been throughout the history of civilisations.
Reveal fate of microplastics in coastal wastewater treatment plant by integrated membrane system
Various studies have shown that waste treatment plant is the most important way for the discharge of various emerging contaminants including microplastics into the environment. Among them, the rapidly growing membrane technology is a prospective treatment method for various pollutants removal in wastewater treatment process.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Deadly air pollution killing thousands
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s authorities have failed to tackle the country’s horrific air pollution, which kills thousands of people prematurely each year and is detrimental to the health of thousands more, Human Rights Watch said today.
Major EU collaboration on tandem solar cells
The development of tandem solar cells, which combine silicon and thin-film technologies, can provide more efficient and cheaper solar energy.
“If we want even cheaper solar energy in the future, we need to make a technological leap,” says Marika Edoff, a professor at Uppsala University who is leading a newly launched EU project on tandem solar cells.
How does Hannah van Zanten, associate professor at Farming Systems Ecology and visiting professor at Cornell University, research the planetary boundaries of our food production? She is working on a Circular Food Systems Model.
Three-fourths of waste in Jakarta’s notoriously polluted rivers is plastic
The Citarum River that skirts the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is infamous as the most polluted river on Earth. The rivers inside Jakarta aren’t in much better state, either, with a new study showing that most of the waste collected from the city’s rivers is plastic.
Farming and fertilisers: How ecological practices can make a difference
Farmers who use little or no fertiliser can use ecological practices to increase their yields.
‘Synthetic milk’ made without cows may be coming to supermarket shelves near you
Milena Bojovic
The global dairy industry is changing. Among the disruptions is competition from alternatives not produced using animals – including potential challenges posed by synthetic milk.
Guangyi Pan and Hao Yang
Two months of scorching heatwaves and drought plunged China into an energy security crisis.
The six reckonings of Europe’s energy crisis: Gas, nuclear, war and inflation
Gerard Reid
Europe is facing a day of reckoning as the energy crisis deepens, and French nuclear failures push electricity prices to unprecedented levels
Nature Conservation
Even modest climate change may dramatically alter Earth’s northernmost forests
Even relatively modest climate warming and associated precipitation shifts may dramatically alter Earth’s northernmost forests. The woodlands constitute one of the planet’s largest nearly intact forested ecosystems and are home to a big chunk of the planet’s terrestrial carbon.
Matthew Hall and Ingrid O’Sullivan
Hundreds of endangered sea turtles have been caught in New Zealand’s commercial fisheries since 2002, according to a recent report released by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
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