Environment news

• The price of change: battle over Queensland's energy mix rages on

  29-11-2016 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Is a cost-neutral shift to renewables too good to be true? Energy minister Mark Bailey is ready to take on anyone who says he can’t get to 50-50 without steep price risesIt seemed impossibly good news for the Queensland government in its push to transform Australia’s biggest carbon-polluting state into a renewable energy powerhouse in little more than a decade.An expert advisory panel steeped in what the energy minister, Mark Bailey, described as “hard-nosed economic experience
  
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• Climate models may be overestimating the cooling effect of wildfire aerosols

  29-11-2016 22:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Whether intentionally set to consume agricultural waste or naturally ignited in forests or peatlands, open-burning fires impact the global climate system in two ways which, to some extent, cancel each other out. On one hand, they generate a significant fraction of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, which drive up the average global surface temperature. On the other hand, they produce atmospheric aerosols, organic carbon, black carbon, and sulfate-bearing particulates that can lower that
  
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• Oil tumbles near 4 percent on doubts over OPEC production cut

  29-11-2016 21:15
  By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil slumped 4 percent on Tuesday as OPEC's leading oil exporters struggled to agree on a deal to cut production to reduce global oversupply and boost prices, with Iran and Iraq at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia a day ahead of meeting. Documents prepared for the meeting propose OPEC cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day from October levels, an OPEC source familiar with the papers said, slightly more than the 1 million bpd the group discussed at a meet
  
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• A blow to state schools and the solar industry | Letters

  29-11-2016 20:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Many state schools struggling to help disadvantaged pupils (Report, 22 November) are facing a further demand on their shrinking budgets. Prudent schools that have invested in solar panels to reduce their electricity bills now face a retrospective six- to eight-fold hike in their tax rates, if the government gets its way. This would be socially divisive, as it will apply to state schools but not to the private schools that have charitable status. The higher rates will also apply to businesses and
  
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• Saudi king showcases mining hub in push to move beyond oil

  29-11-2016 20:14
  By Reem Shamseddine RAS AL-KHAIR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Salman underlined the kingdom's intention to invest heavily in speeding up is diversification away from oil exports with the inauguration on Tuesday of a $35 billion (28 billion pounds) mining and minerals processing complex. Riyadh has tried to reduce the economy's reliance on oil for decades, but the challenge has become particularly urgent in the past couple of years as low prices have pushed state finances deep in
  
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• Great Barrier Reef: Australia's 'response plan' draft contains no new action or funding

  29-11-2016 20:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: ‘Confidential’ draft acknowledges coral bleaching but does not make any attempt to address climate changeThe Australian government’s official “response plan” to the worst ever bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef commits it to no new action, pledges no new money and does not make any attempt to address climate change, according to a draft seen by the Guardian.The Northern Great Barrier Reef Response Plan, marked “draft” and “confide
  
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• How to See Through Fog: a portrait of a mining town in its darkest days – video

  29-11-2016 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Queenstown, on the remote west coast of Tasmania, is known for two things: copper mining and the harsh gravel oval that is home to the local Australian rules football team. A series of deaths at the Mount Lyell mine brought operations to a standstill and put the future of the town in doubt. Thomas Hyland’s evocative film, shown here after screenings at the Unconformity festival, tracks the story of the town, the people and their football team through shock, grief and change• Devastati
  
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• Stock options traders on edge over oil fund, watching OPEC

  29-11-2016 18:37
  By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. equity options traders' expectations for big gyrations in shares of the largest exchange-traded oil fund jumped to a nine-month high on Tuesday, as investors waited to see whether OPEC would reach a deal to limit production. The outcome of the meeting is far from certain as key OPEC members appear to disagree over details of the plan and some analysts have suggested the meeting may fail to reach a deal. While oil prices are in for volatility no matt
  
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• Trump rollback of Obama climate agenda may prove challenging

  29-11-2016 18:20
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump plans to dismantle President Barack Obama's efforts to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions. But delivering on his campaign pledges to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and bring back tens of thousands of long-gone coal mining jobs could prove far more difficult.
  
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• Timelapse shows Chernobyl shelter construction – video

  29-11-2016 18:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Timelapse footage shows the construction of a steel shelter designed to prevent radiation leaks from the site of reactor No 4 at Chernobyl. The series of videos captures the shelter’s progression over several years up to its placement on Tuesday. High radiation levels near the reactor meant parts had to be assembled several hundred metres away and then slid slowly into placeChernobyl disaster site enclosed by shelter to prevent radiation leaksContinue reading...
  
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• Mars probe returns first pictures

  29-11-2016 17:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The new satellite that Europe and Russia put in orbit at Mars on 19 October has sent back its first images of the planet.
  
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• Oil tumbles nearly 4 percent on doubts over OPEC production cut

  29-11-2016 17:03
  By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell almost 4 percent on Tuesday on signs leading oil exporters in OPEC were struggling to agree on a deal to cut production to reduce global oversupply. In the United States, analysts polled by Reuters ahead of weekly inventory reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) industry group later on Tuesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday estimated, on average, that crude stocks increased about 900,000 barrel
  
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• Alaska biologists research mystery of declining caribou herd

  29-11-2016 16:58
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The size of a large caribou herd in Alaska's Arctic region has dropped by more 50 percent over the last three years, and researchers who have tentatively ruled out hunting and predation as significant factors for the decline are trying to determine why.
  
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• Uniper says Ratcliffe coal plant in UK could run beyond 2025

  29-11-2016 16:11
  By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - German utility Uniper aims to operate its Radcliffe coal plant in Britain for as long as possible, its UK chairman said, even though the British government plans to close all coal plants without technology to capture carbon emissions by 2025. The UK government has launched a consultation on its plan to close coal plants by 2025 which do not have carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to trap and bury emissions. The country could face electricity shortages
  
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• Sole Greek oil producer Energean to invest $50 mln in offshore field

  29-11-2016 16:09
  Greece's sole oil producer Energean Oil & Gas will invest $50 million to develop a proven offshore oil and gas field in western Greece, the third field it will exploit in the country, it said on Tuesday. Energean has said ongoing exploration activity in the onshore Ioannina field has potential.
  
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• Oil falls more than 3 percent on doubts over OPEC cut

  29-11-2016 15:32
  By Christopher Johnson LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday on signs leading oil exporters were struggling to agree a deal to cut production to reduce global oversupply. Indonesian Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan said he was not sure OPEC would clinch a deal to limit oil output when it met. Non-OPEC producer Russia confirmed on Tuesday it would not attend the OPEC gathering, but added that a meeting between the group and non-affiliated producers at a later stage was p
  
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• Greece must end its reliance on dirty coal | Letters

  29-11-2016 15:23 via theguardian.com
  
  It isn’t a great surprise to learn that a director of Greece’s Public Power Corporation believes in exemptions for lignite – an especially polluting type of coal burnt at Greek power plants (Letters, theguardian.com, 24 November). However, the claim that Greece is “among the best performers in emission reductions” must not go unchallenged.In a recent report, Lifting Europe’s Dark Cloud: How cutting coal saves lives, we revealed how Greek lignite plants, respon
  
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• With Climate Change, Not All Wildlife Population Shifts Are Predictable

  29-11-2016 15:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  Wildlife ecologists who study the effects of climate change assume, with support from several studies, that warming temperatures caused by climate change are forcing animals to move either northward or upslope on mountainsides to stay within their natural climate conditions.But a new study of lowland and higher-mountain bird species by wildlife ecologists Bill DeLuca and David King at the University of Massachusetts Amherst now reports an unexpected and “unprecedented” inconsistency
  
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• Groundwater helium level could signal potential risk of earthquake

  29-11-2016 14:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at the University of Tokyo and their collaborators have revealed a relationship between helium levels in groundwater and the amount of stress exerted on inner rock layers of the earth, found at locations near the epicenter of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Scientists hope the finding will lead to the development of a monitoring system that catches stress changes that could foreshadow a big earthquake.Several studies, including some on the massive earthquake in Kobe, Japan, in 1995, ha
  
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• Chernobyl disaster site enclosed by shelter to prevent radiation leaks

  29-11-2016 14:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Ukraine plant’s reactor four, scene of worst nuclear accident in history in 1986, covered with airtight structure after years of workReactor number four at Chernobyl, the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history, has been fully enclosed by a vast steel shelter designed to prevent radiation leaks from the site.The structure covers the reactor and the unstable sarcophagus hastily built by Soviet authorities in the immediate aftermath of the disaster 30 years ago. The shelter is said to
  
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• French nuclear power in 'worst situation ever', says former EDF director

  29-11-2016 13:53 via theguardian.com
  
  In the week Britain exports electricity to France for first time in four years, Gérard Magnin says renewable power will match Hinkley Point C on costThe French nuclear industry is in its “worst situation ever” because of a spate of plant closures in France and the complexities it faces with the reactor design for the UK’s Hinkley Point C power station, according to a former Électricité de France director.Gérard Magnin, who called Hinkley “very
  
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• Let the people lighten energy load with citizen-owned schemes

  29-11-2016 13:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Urgent climate action must be taken and communities are willing to participate in their own electricity production – if the incentives are rightThe challenge of climate change is global and it demands action on an international scale, such as the Paris Agreement. But a large part of the solution will be local, involving all of us in the way energy is produced and consumed.The potential for citizen involvement in electricity production is considerable. A recent study showed that by 2050 hal
  
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• Can Road Salt Change Sex Ratios in Frog Populations?

  29-11-2016 13:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  Naturally occurring chemicals found in road salts commonly used to de-ice paved surfaces can alter the sex ratios in nearby frog populations, a phenomenon that could reduce the size and viability of species populations, according to a new study by scientists at Yale and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
  
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• Oil prices fall 2 percent on doubts over OPEC output cut

  29-11-2016 13:29
  By Christopher Johnson LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell 2 percent on Tuesday on signs leading oil exporters were struggling to agree a deal to cut production to reduce global oversupply. Indonesian Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan said he was not sure OPEC would clinch a deal to limit oil output when it met. Brent crude oil was down 90 cents a barrel at $47.34 by 1218 GMT.
  
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• Exclusive: Arrested Russian minister wanted state to cede control over Rosneft - sources

  29-11-2016 13:24
  By Alexander Winning MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's former Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev privately argued to colleagues in government that the state should give up control over oil giant Rosneft, before he was arrested two weeks ago in a sting inside the company's offices, according to two sources. A source familiar with Ulyukayev's thinking, speaking before Ulyukayev was arrested on bribery charges on Nov. 15, told Reuters that the minister had been promoting the idea of reducing the governmen
  
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• Factbox - OPEC oil cut, if it comes, more face-saver than meaningful: analysts

  29-11-2016 13:21
  (Reuters) - Oil futures slipped on Tuesday as Iran and Iraq remained at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia over an oil production cut before a long-anticipated meeting of OPEC ministers the following day. Analysts' belief that the group would finalise a deal, if only to save face, has been eroded in recent days after Saudi Arabia said oil markets would balance next year even without an OPEC output cut, sparking a last-ditch attempt to clinch a deal at Wednesday's Vienna gathering. Forecasts for oil p
  
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• Fyffes melons at centre of labour abuse claims from Honduran workers

  29-11-2016 13:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Labourers in deprived region complain of poor conditions and say multinational has blocked efforts to form a trade union, allegations denied by FyffesThousands of miles from the supermarkets in the west that they supply with cantaloupes, a community of Honduran melon plantation labourers say they are threatened with dismissal and destitution because they have tried to form a union at their Irish-owned company.The workers – the vast majority of whom are women – are now appealing to US
  
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• Rare Antarctic beetle find delights

  29-11-2016 13:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists have made a rare find: a new species of beetle from Antarctica.
  
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• Ecotricity's green bond raises £12m in one month

  29-11-2016 11:28
  
  Green energy supplier Ecotricity's latest foray in the UK renewable energy market has led to more than £12m of applications for its fourth corporate mini-bond ahead of tomorrow's (30 November) deadline.
  
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• Megacity planning must change in four years to limit global warming

  29-11-2016 11:18 via theguardian.com
  
  High-carbon infrastructures lock planet into irreversible greenhouse gas emissions, says campaign groupBy the end of this decade it may be too late to limit global warming to scientifically guided limits, if the infrastructure built in the next four years is constructed along the same lines as currently planned.
  Building high-carbon infrastructure – from transport systems predicated on motor car use, to new coal-fired power plants, and buildings that leak energy – effectively “
  
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• Yorkshire Water cuts carbon by 4.3%

  29-11-2016 11:04
  
  Yorkshire Water has reduced its carbon emissions by 4.3% in the past three years.
  
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• Yorkshire Water cuts carbon by 4% in 3 years

  29-11-2016 11:04
  
  Yorkshire Water has reduced its carbon emissions by 4.3% in the past three years.
  
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• Oil prices fall on doubts over OPEC production cut

  29-11-2016 10:23
  By Christopher Johnson LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on signs that leading oil exporters were struggling to agree a deal to cut production to reduce global oversupply. "We now see a very low chance for an OPEC cut," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at Nordic bank SEB. Non-OPEC producer Russia confirmed on Tuesday it would not attend the OPEC gathering, but added that a meeting between the group and non-affiliated producers at a later stage was possible.
  
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• VIDEO: 60-second sustainability skill - The Collaborator

  29-11-2016 10:00
  
  The next in our series of sustainability skills videos sees Supply Chain Sustainability School chair Shaun McCarthy explain how sustainability professionals can use collaborative skills and techniques to drive positive change within their organisation and beyond.
  
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• David Attenborough on climate change: 'The world will be transformed' – video

  29-11-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  An extract from Liberatum’s documentary In this Climate, in which a range of cultural and environmental figures including Noam Chomsky, David Attenborough and Mark Ruffalo respond to the threat of climate change and to the deniers. The full-length film is scheduled for release before the World Economic Forum in January 2017Continue reading...
  
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• Why land rights for indigenous peoples could be the answer to climate change | Bruce Parry

  29-11-2016 09:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Preventing deforestation is central to curbing carbon emissions – and a case study on the Amazon shows the most cost-effective way of doing itI’ve spent a lot of time with indigenous peoples in remote places. So when I argue that the best way – or at least the cheapest way – to stop climate change is to grant land rights to indigenous communities, you might suspect I’m not coming from an entirely objective viewpoint. You’ve probably also heard various industry
  
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• European businesses fear 'lost decade' for renewables ahead of EU proposals

  29-11-2016 09:10
  
  As the European Commission (EC) prepares to present its energy package for 2030 on Wednesday (30 November), a coalition of multinational businesses including BT, Philips Lighting and Kingfisher has called for more ambitious energy legislation to replace the current renewables directive.
  
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• Starbucks follows Costa with in-store coffee cup recycling bins

  29-11-2016 09:00
  
  Coffee giant Starbucks has announced the launch of a new in-store paper cup recycling bin aimed at encouraging customers to return take-way cups back into the store and boost overall recycling levels.
  
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• Oil prices fall as Russia says will not attend OPEC meeting

  29-11-2016 08:52
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell over 1 percent on Tuesday on market jitters over whether producer cartel OPEC would be able to hammer out a meaningful output cut during a meeting on Wednesday, aimed at reining in a global supply overhang and propping up prices. Non-OPEC oil production giant Russia confirmed on Tuesday that it would not attend the OPEC gathering, but added that a meeting between the group and non-affiliated producers at a later stage was possible. The O
  
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• WWF and Sodexo launch new range of sustainable meals

  29-11-2016 08:20
  
  WWF-UK has teamed up with global catering and facilities firm Sodexo to launch a new range of sustainable meals to improve public health and reduce the environmental impact of food production.
  
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• As OPEC price hike looms, Asia's big oil buyers may shop elsewhere

  29-11-2016 07:56
  By Henning Gloystein and Yuka Obayashi SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - For the first time since 2008, OPEC is set to strike a deal to cut oil output that may boost prices. It may also give itself a bloody nose in Asia, where big buyers are ramping up supplies from elsewhere and say they don't want to pay more for fuel. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets on Wednesday to hammer out a deal to prop up prices that have halved since 2014.
  
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• Oil prices fall as nervous market eyes OPEC meeting

  29-11-2016 07:08
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on market jitters over whether producer cartel OPEC will be able to hammer out a meaningful output cut during a meeting on Wednesday aimed at reining in a global supply overhang and propping up prices. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is meeting officially in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss a planned production cut in an effort to curb overproduction that has dogged markets and more than halved price
  
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• Mid-stream in an alfresco laboratory

  29-11-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Yorkshire We used to collect white-clawed crayfish in jam jars to study, but now, like my old school, they are a species in need of protectionOut of once-familiar fear I glance up to check Doukghyll Beck. As a child playing outside the village school, I was once bowled over by this diminutive Severn-type bore, which can suddenly, but thankfully rarely, belch from the bowels of Doukghyll Cave. That day, the caves in the limestone rock were brimful after deluges on Penyghent
  
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• Is small-scale hydro the answer to India's clean energy needs?

  29-11-2016 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  India wants to encourage more privately owned, small-scale hydropower projects to cut its climate emissions, but questions about environmental impacts remainIn the western Himalayas, the entire village of Hamal is powered by a small hydroelectric plant on the edge of the Shalvi river. Producing 2MW per hour, the plant provides enough power to light up 100 homes at a time, ending the village’s once-endemic power cuts.
  Small hydro projects, producing up to 25MW per hour, have the potential t
  
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• Oil prices dip on scepticism ahead of OPEC meeting

  29-11-2016 04:09
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Tuesday on doubts that producer cartel OPEC will be able to hammer out a meaningful output cut during a meeting on Wednesday aimed at reining in a global supply overhang and propping up prices. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $47.99 per barrel at 0305 GMT, down 25 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last close. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is meeting officially in Vienna on Wednesd
  
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• Oil prices dip over scepticism ahead of OPEC meeting

  29-11-2016 02:16
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell early on Tuesday on doubts that producer cartel OPEC will be able to hammer out a meaningful output cut during a meeting on Wednesday to rein in a global supply overhang and prop up prices. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is meeting officially in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss a planned production cut in an effort to curb overproduction that has dogged markets and more than halved prices since 2014.
  
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