While Britain visualises a nuclear future, Angela Merkel’s aim of replacing it with renewables by 2022 is well under way

Hinkley Point will be the first nuclear power plant to be built in Europe since the meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima reactor in 2011. But while the British government sees nuclear energy as a safe and reliable source of power, Germany is going in a different direction.

As a result of the Fukushima, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to switch off all nuclear power by 2022 and fill the gap with renewables – a process known as the energiewende (energy transition).

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Source: Guardian Environment

François Hollande and Xi Jinping say that any climate change deal agreed in Paris must include future checks on whether countries are cutting emissions

French president François Hollande claimed China and France had taken an “historic” step towards tackling climate change on Monday after the two countries agreed any deal reached in Paris next month should include checks on whether signatories are keeping their commitments to reduce emissions.

In a joint statement released weeks before the United Nations Climate Change Conference, China and France said such progress should be reviewed every five years in order to “reinforce mutual confidence and promote efficient implementation”.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Exclusive: Sleep deprivation, inhuman hours and low pay revealed in Guardian investigation of undocumented migrants working on prawn and whitefish trawlers operating from Ireland

African and Asian migrant workers are being routinely but illegally used as cheap labour on Irish fishing trawlers working out of some of the country’s most popular tourist ports, the Guardian can reveal.

A year-long investigation into the Irish prawn and whitefish sector has uncovered undocumented Ghanaian, Filipino, Egyptian and Indian fishermen manning boats in ports from Cork to Galway. They have described a catalogue of abuses, including being confined to vessels unless given permission by their skippers to go on land, and being paid less than half the Irish minimum wage that would apply if they were legally employed. They have also spoken of extreme sleep deprivation, having to work for days or nights on end with only a few hours’ sleep, and with no proper rest days.

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Source: Guardian Environment

November is upon us and the northern hemisphere is slipping further towards the winter months, while the southern hemisphere is enjoying the last few weeks of spring. We’d like to see your photos of the November wildlife near you

All of a sudden it’s November, and the northern hemisphere is bracing itself for sparser sunshine and early darkness as winter is just a few more weeks away. The southern hemisphere on the other hand is soaking up the last moments of spring ahead of the summer. So what sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps? We’d like to see your photos of the November wildlife near you.

Share your photos and videos with us and we’ll feature our favourites on the Guardian site.

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Source: Guardian Environment

As rains finally clear the skies over south-east Asia, dramatic Greenpeace photos show people and wildlife coping with the haze in one of the worst hit areas of Central Kalimantan on Borneo island

• Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?

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Source: Guardian Environment

La plus grande centrale solaire du monde, alimentée par le soleil du Sahara, doit permettre de fournir des énergies renouvelables pour couvrir près de la moitié de l’énergie du pays d’ici 2020

• Read this article in English here

La ville marocaine de Ouarzazate est habituée aux grandes productions. Aux portes du désert du Sahara, au centre de l’industrie cinématographique “Ouallywood”, elle a participé à tout, de Lawrence d’Arabie et La Momie à The Living Daylights et même Game of Thrones.

Maintenant, la ville commerciale, surnommée la « Porte du désert », accueille un autre « blockbuster » : un complexe de quatre méga-centrales solaires reliées les unes aux autres qui permettra aux énergies renouvelables de fournir près de la moitié de l’électricité du Maroc en 2020 avec, on l’espère, une certaine capacité à exporter vers l’Europe. Ce projet est un élément-clé pour les ambitions du Maroc qui veut utiliser ses déserts inexploités pour devenir une superpuissance solaire mondiale.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Hywind Scotland project will see deployment of five floating turbines off coast of Peterhead, capable of powering 20,000 homes, reports edie.net

The Scottish government has granted consent for the world’s largest floating offshore windfarm to be developed off the coast of Peterhead.

Oil and gas giant Statoil will build a 30MW pilot park consisting of five floating 6MW turbines, which could power nearly 20,000 homes. The project will be the UK’s first ever floating windfarm development, with construction set to start next year.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Congress launches initiative to boost renewable energy from current 1% of energy mix, with a 20% target agreed for 2020, reports La Nación

Renewable energy is making inroads in Argentina. Last week, after much negotiation, the chamber of deputies approved a new law decreeing that, by 2017, the country must generate 8% of its electricity from wind, solar or small-scale hydro power, among other energy sources. The bill also calls for this percentage to increase to 20% by 2020. Developing these kinds of energy sources is one of the most efficient mitigation methods in the fight against climate change.

The target is ambitious enough, insofar as renewable energy projects will have to scale up considerably. Today barely 1% of Argentina’s energy generation mix is renewable, according to a report from Cammesa in 2014. But experts may see the target as unambitious given the country’s potential.

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Source: Guardian Environment