Australia must treble its emissions reduction targets and reach net-zero emissions by 2035. Without this and other radical global action, the chance to hold warming to well below 2°C will pass us by.
Electricity emissions can be cut to net-zero while keeping the lights on and prices down. But achieving that quickly means keeping gas around, for now.
Right now, the nation is almost entirely dependent on other countries for minerals that are used in everything from wind turbines to strike fighters and satellites.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Pine Tree Wind Farm and Solar Power Plant in Tehachapi, Calif., 115 miles from LA.
Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The US electricity grid is actually five regional grids, and it’s hard to share power between them. A macrogrid could bridge the gaps, making electricity cheaper and more reliable.
Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is a potential energy crop.
Linking Tourism & Conservation/Flickr
Diane Kim, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Ignacio Navarrete, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Jessica Dutton, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Making biofuels from crops grown on land poses trade-offs between food and fuel. A new study looks offshore.
Building a U.S. offshore wind industry will require more than just fast-tracking permits.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
To increase renewable energy use, the Biden administration wants the US to go from seven offshore wind turbines today to enough to power 10 million homes within a decade.
For now, only those who can afford it will be able to escape the power cuts.
Shutterstock/ Arnold Petersen
Anthony Albanese will promise a Labor government would deliver a discount to cut the cost of electric cars and install community batteries, in initiatives costing $400 million over several years.
Batteries used in Spanish energy storage tests.
Agefotostock/Alamy Stock Photo
Green hydrogen produced using New Zealand’s mostly renewable electricity sounds like a great idea, but a high-tech smart rail and urban tram network is a more obvious and sustainable option.
Yallourn power station, Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal plant, will close four years ahead of schedule. Without a national policy, coal workers are left dangerously exposed.
Wind turbines in cold areas typically include methods for removing and repelling ice, but those methods can waste energy. There’s a better way.
As climate change brings longer and drier summers, Canadians will face greater risks of more serious wildfires, like those that tore through neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray, Alta., in May 2016.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
The transition to 100% renewable energy will require a lot of land – mostly in regional Australia. This presents big challenges, and opportunities, for the farming sector.