The joys of springs: how Kenya could steam beyond fossil fuel

A faint smell of sulphur, a shrill hiss of gas and a Rift Valley panorama punctuated by 30 pillars of steam mark the frontline of renewable energy growth in Kenya.

 The geothermal potential of the Rift Valley is formidable. 

This is the boundary between Hell’s Gate national park and the geothermal plants that are increasingly powering one of east Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Giraffes wander close to the giant pipes that snake across the landscape, a reminder this is also a border between an old model of development reliant on foreign safaris and a new drive to leapfrog the fossil-fuel phase of growth.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathon Watts - “The joys of springs: how Kenya could steam beyond fossil fuel.”

Australia won’t meet the Paris targets despite what recent research claims.

The Australian National University has been making headlines for its analysis that, with the current rate of renewable energy growth, Australia will achieve its Paris agreement targets five years early – by 2025. Unfortunately, after a careful review, we find their analysis doesn’t stack up.

The government's policies are aimed at slowing renewable energy rollout.

The ANU briefing note has surprised, if not shocked, many in the expert and analytical community with detailed knowledge of Australia’s climate and energy policy.

Numerous international and national efforts to examine Australia’s climate and energy policy have all concluded that the government will not reach, on present policy settings, the 26-28% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 it has put forward under the Paris agreement.

Read the story from The Guardian by Bill Hare - “Australia won’t meet the Paris targets despite what recent research claims.”

(Lead author of the ANU report, David Balkers, discusses his work on the "Climate Conversations" podcast - Robert McLean)