A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories.
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Tony deBrum, Minister in Assistance to the Office of the President in the Republic of Marshall Islands said the Pacific looks up to Australia. (Pic: UN Multimedia)
Pacific Islands: Marshall Islands will seek Australia and New Zealand’s help in promoting a new wave of climate leadership that it wants to pursue in the next 12 months. (Islands Business)
Australia: Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott will not commit to an emissions trading scheme if elected next week despite two recent studies showing it would either cost billions more than budgeted or fail to meet Australia’s internationally pledged target. (The Guardian)
Research: Scientists from the US Geological Survey and US Fish and Wildlife Service has published a peer-reviewed journal showing fracking wastewater that was being stored in open air pits overflowed into Kentucky’s Acorn Fork Creek and left an orange-red substance, contaminating the creek with hydrochloric acid, dissolved minerals and metals, and other contaminants. (The Energy Collective)
Europe: The EU has drafted a new regulation on monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2 from shipping. The regulation will apply to certain vessels conducting voyages into, out of and between EU ports and will require annual reporting of their CO2 emissions in line with a verified monitoring plan. (Carbon Positive)
India: The government is considering various proposals including shutting petrol pumps in the night to taper fuel demand as it looks at ways to cut the massive oil import bill. (The Times of India)
US: The Energy Department on Thursday published proposals for new standards for commercial refrigeration equipment and walk-in coolers and freezers, which it said had the potential to cut energy bills by US$28 billion over 30 years, while reducing emissions by 350 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the same period. (Business Green)
Research: Climate change is helping pests and diseases that attack crops to spread around the world, a study suggests. Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Oxford have found crop pests are moving at an average of 3km (two miles) a year. (BBC)
Australia: The past 12 months have been the hottest in Australia for more than a hundred years. Temperatures averaged across Australia between September 2012 and August 2013 were hotter than any year since good records began in 1910. The previous record was held by the 12-month period from February 2005 to January 2006. (The Conversation)