Reading view
Rivian starts deliveries of its all-important R2 SUV
Getting into your comfort zone: easy steps to an electric, snug and sustainable abode
Australians are world leaders in rooftop solar and home batteries - but greater energy efficiency could make them a triple threat
Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint
Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com
For David and Ruth Hudspeth, the process of turning their 1950s brick veneer house in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs into a cosy, efficient and fully electric home took several years.
They started with insulation in the ceiling and replacing an old and “pretty dangerous” gas heater. They swapped their leaky hot water system for a heat pump, and built a roof over the outdoor deck for shade and extra solar panels, later adding an electric car and a home battery into the mix.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images
Used Waymo robotaxi batteries become backup storage for power grids
Thousands of electric vehicles in Waymo’s autonomous robotaxi fleet may eventually give up their used batteries for a very different purpose—contributing up to hundreds of megawatt-hours of stationary energy storage to local power grids.
That prospect comes from a “strategic supply agreement” announced by Waymo and B2U Storage Solutions on June 4. B2U has been repurposing thousands of used batteries from various electric vehicles by installing them in large stationary energy storage projects. Such energy storage facilities can capture excess renewable energy during low demand periods and release such energy when local power grids are experiencing peak demand periods.
“Our business is getting the full residual value out of electric vehicle batteries after they're no longer suitable for automotive use,” Freeman Hall, CEO of B2U Storage Solution, told Ars. “Waymo puts a lot of miles on EVs and their model is expanding rapidly, and so we're just very pleased and honored to be able to work with them.”


© Awarded Goods Company
Exclusive: Leaked documents show BHP’s climate backtrack - podcast
Nour Haydar speaks with Christopher Knaus about the BHP files – the cache of internal documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners – which show that the world’s biggest miner has war-gamed ways to massively delay decarbonisation
Additional audio in this episode was sourced by Financial Times Live
Read more:
Continue reading...
© Composite: Victoria Hart/Guardian

© Composite: Victoria Hart/Guardian

© Composite: Victoria Hart/Guardian
BHP defies its own climate strategy to spend hundreds of millions on polluting diesel trucks in Pilbara
Exclusive: Mining giant says technology is not yet advanced enough to run a fully electrified fleet but experts say it is hooked on federal fuel tax credits
Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push
Read more from the BHP files investigation here
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
BHP has continued to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying diesel trucks in the Pilbara despite internal documents suggesting it would increase emissions and be “misaligned” with its decarbonisation goals.
The mining giant is Australia’s biggest consumer of diesel and trucks are its biggest single source of diesel emissions. Replacing the fleet with battery-electric trucks is considered a critical step in the multinational’s efforts to decarbonise.
Continue reading...
© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian
BHP ‘laughing’ at Australia’s key climate policy while pocketing hundreds of millions in tax breaks, Pocock says
Outrage as leaked documents reveal mining giant’s backsliding on commitments to slash emissions
Read more from the BHP files investigation here
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The independent senator David Pocock says leaked BHP documents show that the mining giant is “laughing” at Australia’s key climate policy while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars through a generous diesel tax break.
An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to by the Guardian and the ABC show BHP has scrapped a project to significantly reduce global emissions, delayed vast renewables projects in the Pilbara and war-gamed options to push the electrification of its polluting diesel truck and train fleets into the next two decades.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The BHP files: World’s biggest miner BHP backtracks on climate action with key projects put on ice, leaked documents reveal
Exclusive: Cache of internal documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners show multinational has war-gamed ways to massively delay decarbonisation
Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push
Read more from the BHP files investigation here
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The world’s biggest miner has halted or delayed projects to cut vast amounts of emissions and has quietly war-gamed options to push major climate investments in its Western Australian iron ore operations into the next two decades, internal documents show.
An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners can reveal that BHP, one of Australia’s biggest historic emitters, has dumped plans for a facility that could have significantly reduced emissions and has put on ice renewable projects designed to power its iron ore operations in the vast, resource-rich Pilbara region.
Continue reading...
© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design
Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push
Exclusive: BHP once dubbed climate change an ‘existential’ threat. But leaked documents show it has backtracked on decarbonisation at a vast network of mines
Read more from the BHP files investigation here
In the middle of 2019, London was sweltering through a heatwave.
Temperature records tumbled. Frail, ill and elderly people died in their hundreds.
Continue reading...
© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian