My Climate Change News

South Australia has one of the world’s cleanest electricity grids, which it wants to showcase at the COP31 conference in 2026

The Adelaide Convention Centre and the Torrens River (Photos: Denisbin/Flickr)

The state government of South Australia has launched a bid for the city of Adelaide to host the COP31 climate summit in late 2026, showcasing the region’s prowess in clean energy.

The government set out its case on Monday, saying the state is a pioneer in renewables, hydrogen and battery storage, and also has sufficient accommodation for more than 30,000 visitors. Welcoming delegates to the Adelaide Convention Centre would deliver local economic benefits of more than A$500 million (US$336m), it added.

State premier Peter Malinauskas said in a statement: “South Australia is already a world leader in renewable energy and decarbonisation and hosting COP31 would firmly put our state on the global map.”

The Australian ...

As Hurricane Milton roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida, tens of thousands of people were in evacuation shelters. Hundreds of thousands more had fled coastal regions ahead of the storm, crowding highways headed north and south as their counties issued evacuation orders.

But not everyone left, despite dire warnings about a hurricane that had been one of the strongest on record two days earlier.

As Milton's rain and storm surge flooded neighborhoods late on Oct. 9, 2024, 911 calls poured in. In Tampa's Hillsborough County, more than 500 people had to be rescued, including residents of an assisted living community and families trapped in a flooding home after a tree crashed though the roof at the height of the storm.

In Plant City, 20 miles inland from Tampa, at least 35 people had been rescued by dawn, City Manager Bill McDaniel said. While the storm wasn't as extreme as feared, McDaniel said his city had flooded in places and to levels he had never seen. ...