Environment

The government wants to ban new oil, coal and gas heaters from 2023, extending to replacements of existing heaters, but it needs a two-thirds majority in parliament. Austria’s building sector performs way above the EU average. While buildings consume 25% of gas, their emissions are just 13% of the country’s …

China is building a vast array of new coal-fired power stations, potentially more than the operating capacity of the US, even though it knows the plants will probably never be fully used. The puzzle of why the world’s leading installer of clean energy is investing so much in the worst …

China’s Three Gorges Dam is an awe-inspiring sight, a vast barrier across the Yangtze River that contains enough concrete to fill seven Wembley Stadiums and more steel than eight Empire State Buildings. Its turbines could singlehandedly power the Philippines. But this summer, the world’s largest power plant was eerily quiet. …

Dublin and London will join forces to fund a programme supporting researchers working on climate change issues, both governments announced on Monday. The €74 million initiative will fund a series of virtual collaborative research centres across Ireland, and the UK focused on work related to two key areas: climate and …

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels globally are expected to rise by just under 1% in 2022, a much smaller increase compared to last year’s thanks to record deployment of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new analysis …

The number of carbon capture and storage projects in development grew to record levels this year on the back of rising carbon prices and government incentives, but would still only mitigate less than 1% of annual emissions, a new report finds. There are now 153 CCS projects in the planning …

President Xi Jinping has promised a slow and steady end to the growth of planet-warming emissions in China, with energy security taking top priority as the country contends with a flagging economy and tumult on global fuel markets. In a two-hour speech to kick off the weeklong Communist Party Congress, …

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), in its 2022 State of Climate Services report released on Tuesday, says the supply of electricity from clean energy sources must be doubled within the next eight years to limit the global temperature increase. Focusing on energy, the multi-agency report emphasised that “otherwise, there is …

The ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme has said. A huge plume of highly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but …

On September 10, a ship docked at the German port of Hamburg carrying a little-known fuel that’s being billed as a potential clean answer to Europe’s energy woes: blue ammonia. Made from hydrogen, it can also be burned without producing any emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide and has the advantage …