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The switch to renewables by Mars and other companies is welcome, but building clean power facilities on-site should be the ultimate goal
On a beautiful barren stretch of the Scottish Highlands, just south of Inverness, spin 20 brand new 3,300-kilowatt wind turbines. The second these industrial-scale turbines came on stream last month, all Mars UK’s factories and offices became immediately zero carbon.
The US confectionary giant negotiated with the UK arm of Eneco, the Dutch utility behind the Moy Wind Farm, to buy 85% of the turbines’ output over the next 10 years. The move follows similar steps in the US, where Mars says its operations are carbon neutral thanks to a deal to buy power from a large-scale wind farm in Mesquite Creek, Texas.
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Continue reading...World heritage site of St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, is suffering a dramatic fall in species due to warming seas
A fundraising appeal to help preserve St Kilda, the acclaimed world heritage site off the west coast of Scotland, has begun after research showed catastrophic crashes in seabird numbers linked to climate change.
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is asking for donations to help fund the £270,000-a-year costs of conserving the once-populated archipelago, which sits in the Atlantic 41 miles west of the Outer Hebrides.
Related: Climate change is threatening the seabirds of St Kilda
Continue reading...Dry weather in California and growing fire risks are prompting a new effort to cull dead trees affected by bark beetles and use them to make electricity
California’s record four-year drought has primed its coastal forests for a bug invasion. Millions of native bark beetles, which thrive in warm conditions, are burrowing into trees weakened by a lack of water, leaving in their wake dry, dead wood that becomes natural tinder. The beetles and drought have already killed off 29m trees, with tens of millions more expected to become casualties.
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), a California company, decided to turn the serious fire hazard into a source of low-carbon energy. It received the state’s approval last week. PG&E plans to clear away dead or dying trees close to its power lines and use them to produce electricity.
Related: US Forest Service stretched to breaking point after record year for wildfires
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Continue reading...Government is accused of pouring money away with payments to companies including Shell and Drax
The government has handed out almost £30m to Shell and other companies for work on carbon capture and storage (CCS) despite scrapping their projects that could have played a role in beating climate change.
The payments, revealed in a written parliamentary answer, come as the UK government is about to host the international Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum even though it has just mothballed a £1bn CCS research programme.
Continue reading...Lobby group says ‘guerilla street nannas’ are out in the PM’s electorate hanging climate change posters below Turnbull’s own
While the ordinary voters of Wentworth sheltered from the rain on Sunday afternoon, a small group of activists set out on a stealthy campaign against their local member, the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Dubbed the “guerilla street nannas” by GetUp climate campaign director, Sam Regester, the group, mostly comprised of women in their 60s, braved the weather to check on their latest endeavour: a set of corflute signs showing the torso of a man in a business suit crossing his fingers.
Related: When you poke the Coalition's Great Barrier Reef 'rescue mission' it crumbles
Climate change #fizza #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/aFMrRLMPC1
Bravo @GetUp if you finish mine I wouldn't mind you maybe taking off about 10 kgs..#imissmalcolm pic.twitter.com/RjYGqNT6GE
Great to be in #Wentworth for the @evanevanhughes Labor launch. Tony has Malcolm handcuffed on #climatechange pic.twitter.com/mUT8e3A185
Continue reading...Businesses still have a way to go to limit their carbon footprint, but one area where they are making good progress is switching to clean energy
A visit to a small hospital in northern Ghana changed Mahama Nyankamawu’s life forever. “It was dark, they had no electricity and the medicines they had had all gone bad,” recalled the 40-year-old, who went to the hospital after a car accident in 2014.
The experience inspired Nyankamawu to create Volta, a company that builds solar power projects for health clinics, schools and farms across Ghana.
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Continue reading...Australian Energy Market Operator also finds this would push wholesale energy prices up, but reduce consumption
Australia’s coal-fired power stations will face early closure to meet 2030 emissions reduction commitments, according to assumptions made by a government agency that runs the national electricity grid.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) also found such closures would push wholesale energy prices up, but that would be offset by reduced energy consumption and greater energy efficiency, leaving consumers’ energy bills relatively unaffected.
Related: Greg Hunt commits to Direct Inaction to preserve carbon tax scare campaign | Lenore Taylor
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Continue reading...Poll shows Brexiters are also more likely to think media exaggerates agreement on climate science, distrust scientists and oppose windfarms
British people backing a leave vote in the EU referendum are almost twice as likely to believe that climate change does not have a human cause, according to a new poll.
Continue reading...Michael Slezak, Guardian Australia’s environment reporter, joins Gabrielle Jackson, Nick Evershed and Lucy Clark to talk about how we revealed the full story of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef for our ‘Reef on the brink’, series and why the fate of the reef should be centre stage during the Australian election
See also:
Continue reading...A year since the pope’s clarion call to climate action, Australia must declare a moratorium on new coal, oil and gas mines and end fossil fuel subsidies
• Divesting from fossil fuels: open letter from religious leaders in full
Few papal proclamations have reverberated more strongly throughout the world than Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’. The anniversary of this clarion call to protect the environment comes as Australia’s election is in full swing and, in terms of its message, the contrast could not be greater.
Released exactly a year ago, the encyclical was part of a deluge of statements from the major faith traditions in the leadup to the Paris climate agreement.
Related: Catholic orders take their lead from the pope and divest from fossil fuels
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