No G8 climate breakthroughs, Rudd admits

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has acknowledged there have been no great breakthroughs on climate change at the G8 major economies meeting in Japan. Mr Rudd is adamant that while the meeting did not end up with bold action, it was an important step in ensuring world leaders take a lead during the climate change debate.
9 July ABC News online article

CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship launched

CSIRO launched a multi-million dollar research program which is designed to boost Australia’s ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The CSIRO Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship will have a particular focus on better understanding and preparing for the impacts of climate change, which the draft Garnaut Report described as “locked-in” up to 2030.
9 July CSIRO media release

Brumby wants emissions trading eased in

The Victorian Premier John Brumby says local jobs will not be lost if there is a "soft start" to an Emissions Trading Scheme. Mr Brumby says he supports Professor Ross Garnaut's recommendation to the Federal Government of a transitional period, from 2010 until 2012, in any future emissions scheme.
9 July ABC News online article

'Put shoulder to wheel' on emissions, Rudd urges G8

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is holding one-on-one meetings with the leaders of five countries at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan in which he says he will appeal for more political momentum to achieve a successful global agreement on reducing emissions. Mr Rudd says the science on climate change makes it all the more important to achieve progress in international negotiations. "All nations must put their shoulder to the wheel in doing more to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions," he told reporters.
9 July ABC News online article

Nelson must support emissions scheme: former Liberal MP

A former Coalition MP has hit out over the Opposition Leader's declaration that Australia should not commit to an emissions trading scheme without support of the big emitting countries. Hope of a bi-partisan approach on developing an emissions trading scheme appeared to evaporate yesterday with Brendan Nelson's calls for Australia not to commit to a scheme until India, China and the United States all sign up to reduce their emissions.
8 July ABC News online article

Penny Wong discusses the Garnaut Draft Report, emissions trading and climate change in interviews

Minister for Climate Change and Water has discussed the Garnaut Draft Report, emissions trading, climate change, the Murray Darling and renewable energy in interviews.
6 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of interview on Meet the Press
7 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of interview on radio station 3AW
4 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of press conference
4 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of interview on Lateline

Experts warn of climate change health risks

A conference in Brisbane has heard global environment factors could put Australians at risk of serious health problems and even death. Tony McMichael from the Australian National University told the Population Health Congress the impacts of climate change could kill more than 15,000 people in Australia every year by the middle of the century.
7 July ABC News online article

Rudd needs to be 'human blowtorch' on climate change

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the Prime Minister needs to act as a "human blowtorch" when he meets Group of Eight leaders, to advance a global agreement on climate change.
7 July ABC News online article

PWC says business needs carbon pricing quickly

Business services firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) says the private sector wants a price placed on carbon emissions as soon as possible. The company says it has been approached in recent days and months by businesses wanting advice on how to respond to Professor Ross Garnaut's draft report on climate change. Sustainability and climate change partner at PWC, Andrew Peterson, says businesses want to start to take action to comply with the Federal Government's measures to tackle climate change.
7 July ABC News online article

Climate change study like disaster novel

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has likened a scientific study into links between climate change and drought to the final chapters of a disaster novel. Mr Burke released a joint assessment by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, which found that what are now considered to be one in 25 year climate events could become as frequent as once every one to two years. In particular, the study found exceptionally high temperatures would occur almost yearly, while low rainfall would almost double in frequency from current figures.
6 July The Age article

Prime Minister discusses Garnaut Draft Report, climate change in interview

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, discussed climate change and the Murray Darling in an interview with Barrie Cassidy on the ABC's ABC Insiders program.
6 July Prime Minister of Australia transcript of interview

The GST shows the way

Measured in dollars and common sense, the task of implementing an emissions trading scheme as part of Australia's effort in addressing climate change is no different to the GST.
5 July The Australian article

Mixed reaction to Garnaut draft report

The Australian Government welcomes the draft report of the Climate Change Review conducted by Professor Ross Garnaut. Professor Garnaut’s report makes it absolutely clear that the time for playing short term political games is over. We must act on climate change.
4 July Dept of Climate Change and Water media release

Ross Garnaut's report on climate change is just one input that will help form the government's response to global warming, Kevin Rudd says.
"It will represent one of a number of inputs into the government's overall decision-making process on the best response by Australia to climate change," Mr Rudd told the Fairfax Radio Network.
4 July The Australian article

Environmental and industry groups have urged the Federal Government to act on climate change findings in a draft report presented by Professor Ross Garnaut.
4 July ABC News online article
4 July WWF media release

The response to economist Ross Garnaut's landmark report on climate change has been overwhelmingly positive, with the exception of the federal opposition and Greens. Prof Garnaut's highly anticipated draft report on climate change supports the federal government's 2010 start time for an emissions trading scheme (ETS).
4 July Sydney Morning Herald article

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it accepts the findings of the Garnaut report on the impact of climate change on the reef. The report found if carbon emissions are not reduced, the reef could die within decades.
5 July ABC News online article

The federal Opposition welcomes the release of the draft report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review.
4 July Liberal Party media release
4 July Liberal Party transcript of interview

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has dismissed suggestions that not including petrol in a trading emissions scheme would send the wrong signal. Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has recommended that transport fuels be included in any emissions trading scheme that the Federal Government adopts. His draft report on climate change raises concerns about Opposition calls for the excise petrol to be cut, saying it sends the wrong message about the need to ultimately reduce consumption.
5 July ABC News online article

Brendan Nelson has dashed hopes of a bipartisan approach on an emissions trading scheme by 2010, warning there's no rush to implement the scheme if it will wreck jobs. "There's nothing magical about 2010,'' Dr Nelson told reporters in Sydney.
4 July The Australian article

The Greens say the Federal Government can not be worried about electoral popularity and must move quickly when it responds to economist Ross Garnaut's draft report on climate change.
4 July ABC News online article

South Australian Premier Mike Rann says the Garnaut climate change report shows South Australia will be one of the states hit the hardest by future climate change.
4 July ABC News online article

The former head of the Prime Minister's Department, Peter Shergold, says any emissions compensation scheme adopted by the Federal Government must encourage people to use less energy.
4 July ABC News online article

Working Australians will be hit hard by inaction on climate change and urgent action is needed says the ACTU.
4 July ACTU media release

The Australian Coal Association welcomes the release of the draft report by the Garnaut Climate Change Review and the recognition that Australia has an important role to play in a major global effort to develop low emissions coal technologies – particularly related to Carbon Capture and Storage.
4 July Australian Coal Assoc media release

The Clean Energy Council refuted claims that emissions trading will lead to an economic downturn citing that emissions trading with complementary measures will unlock over $20 billion in clean energy investment.
4 July Clean Energy Council media release

The National Generators Forum (NGF) continues to be disappointed and perplexed by Professor Garnaut’s simplistic approach that shows little understanding of how Australia’s energy market works.
4 July National Generators Forum media release

The Minerals Council of Australia described the Garnaut Draft Report as containing sensible new ideas but stated that questions linger.
4 July Minerals Council of Australia media release

With the latest research indicating Australian uranium exports have the potential to avoid billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions globally, the Australian uranium industry welcomes the draft Garnaut report as an important step towards freeing the industry to reach its potential.
4 July Australian Uranium Association media release

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Australia’s largest and most representative business organisation, considers the release of the draft Garnaut Climate Change Review to be a significant further step in outlining important issues and options for the introduction of an Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).
4 July ACCI media release

Friends of the Earth Australia welcomes Professor Garnaut's recognition of the scale of the climate emergency and the need for urgent action, but warns the emission trading scheme will not solve the climate problem.
4 July Friends of the Earth media release

A3P, the peak national body for Australia’s plantation products and paper industry, has welcomed the Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report. A3P CEO Mr Neil Fisher said “A3P warmly welcomes the Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report. We particularly welcome the acknowledgement of the role that forests and wood products could play in an Australian Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) through offset measures."
4 July A3P media release

The Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report supports calls by the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI), the peak body representing Australia’s forest industry, for the inclusion of forestry under an emission trading scheme.
4 July National Assoc of Forest Industries media release

The Garnaut Review Draft Report is the long-waited signpost to practical and realistic climate change policy action and Australia’s gas industry is well-placed to play a key role, Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) Chief Executive Belinda Robinson said.
4 July APPEA media release

Garnaut review releases draft report

Australians are facing risks of damaging climate change. Without strong and early action by Australia and all major economies we are likely to face severe and costly impacts on Australia’s prosperity and enjoyment of life, according to the Garnaut Climate Change Review’s Draft Report, released by Professor Ross Garnaut, speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra.
4 July Garnaut Climate Change Review media release
4 July Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report
4 July Garnaut Climate Change Review transcript of National Press Club address

The much anticipated draft climate change report from economics professor Ross Garnaut calls for an emissions trading scheme for Australia without delay as the best of the possible options for cutting greenhouse gas output.
4 July ABC News online article

Professor Ross Garnaut has warned that without bipartisan political support, a strong emissions trading scheme would be compromised. Professor Garnaut's report on climate change says an emissions trading scheme should be introduced without delay.
4 July ABC News online article

Regions hardest hit by the new emissions trading regime would win government handouts and industries investing in clean power would be rewarded, but the landmark Garnaut report on climate change rules out compensating coal-fired power stations.
4 July The Australian article

Tax cuts and welfare reform should be offered to dampen the impact of a new emissions trading scheme, according to the landmark Garnaut climate change report.
4 July The Australian article

Ross Garnaut held a press conference on Easter Thursday to launch his first discussion paper on ideas for climate change policy. From the look of things, he started writing the 537-page draft report on how the nation should respond to global warming as soon as he returned to work the following week.
5 July The Australian opinion

Wayne Swan discusses climate change in speech

Treasurer Wayne Swan discussed climate change in a speech to the Australia-China Business Council in Melbourne.
4 July Treasurer of Australia text of speech

Let's go green without going on a tax binge

We are facing a moment of big history as two conflicting trends gather pace: global development on an unprecedented scale and the need to protect the global environment against the effects of this growth. The dream of bringing those in India, China, Indonesia and elsewhere out of poverty is the highest human ideal. Two billion people are reaching towards the basics of clean water, heating and refrigerated food supplies. The consequence of this ongoing world growth, however, is that while Australia's carbon dioxide emissions have barely changed since 1990, global growth in greenhouse emissions between 1990 and 2012 will be almost 40 per cent. We thus face a global climate challenge that is real and important but almost entirely not of our making, as Australia is the source of only 1.4 per cent of global emissions.
3 July The Australian opinion by Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water, Greg Hunt

Prime Minister Rudd's climate change credentials on the line in Victoria

The Victorian Labor Government's unqualified approval for the construction of a dirty brown coal fired power station in the Latrobe Valley is an act of total denial on climate change, and contempt for community wishes that governments take action to curb emissions, not increase them, Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne said.
3 July Senator Christine Milne media release

Time for action on climate is now

The launch of the Garnaut Climate Change report has business jumping at shadows for fear of what may come next but, most importantly, on concerns that the Government won't deliver a balanced policy. Ironically enough, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should take some comfort in the business fears because they are based on confidence he will deliver on his promise to deliver a carbon trading scheme.
3 July The Australian article

Carbon load to be spread

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says the federal Government cannot offer widespread exemptions from its proposed emissions trading scheme without placing excessive pressure on industries that will be covered by the regime. Mr Tanner told The Australian he was being lobbied by businesses arguing for a one-in, all-in approach to emissions trading, under which the Government would put a price on carbon emissions to encourage a transition to a low-emission economy. His warning that the Government could not exempt economic sectors "left, right and centre", came as Kevin Rudd savaged the federal Opposition as "an absolute policy shambles" on the issue, and as Brendan Nelson continued to distance the Coalition from pre-election promises to include fuel in an emissions scheme.
27 June The Australian article
27 June The Australian opinion

Climate change fight needs political ardour: Greenpeace

Greenpeace says the only thing Australia lacks in the fight against climate change is political will. The environment group is stepping up its campaign on the issue, sending its ship the Esperanza to ports on the eastern seaboard to call for urgent action.
27 June ABC News online article

Going nuclear not essential: Rudd

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says Australia does not need to resort to nuclear energy as part of its climate change strategy. A newspaper report says that former NSW premier Bob Carr and Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes are urging the Federal Government to consider the use of nuclear energy. The report says Mr Carr believes that nuclear energy can be used while renewable energy sources continue to be developed. However Mr Rudd told ABC's AM program that nuclear options are not needed.
27 June ABC News online article

Liberals back petrol in carbon trading scheme

The Federal Opposition has signalled cautious support for including petrol in a carbon trading scheme, as long as it does not drive up fuel prices. Federal Parliament is now in recess for two months after a week dominated by debate on climate change.
27 June ABC News online article

Heating a fuel tax is explosive politics

Good climate change policy includes more than petrol. Given the level of public concern over rising petrol prices, it is only natural the Opposition has decided to play politics with what was once a key part of its own climate change response. It now says transport fuels, which account for about 17 per cent of Australia's carbon emissions, should not automatically be included in any carbon trading scheme. To its credit, the Rudd Government has not taken the bait. Rather, given the groundwork already laid with the symbolic ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the Government has used the Opposition's U-turn to climb back onto the high moral ground.
26 June The Australian opinion

New greenhouse emissions reporting system to start

From Tuesday 1 July businesses emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases will be required to monitor and measure the emissions ahead of reporting them to the Government by October next year. Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said the requirements were part of Australia’s new National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System. “The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System will be an important part of our efforts to
tackle climate change as we move to establish an emissions trading scheme,” Senator Wong said.
26 June Dept of Climate Change and Water media release
27 June The Canberra Times article

Millions of 'green collar' workers needed by 2015: report

A CSIRO report predicts a carbon emissions trading scheme will require three million workers to be trained or re-skilled by 2015. The report warns the Federal Government that bold steps will be needed to ensure overall employment growth is not endangered by emissions trading. But it has also found that a scheme could lead to an increase in employment rather than job losses.
26 June ABC News online article
26 June ACF article
26 June CSIRO report

Brendan Nelson discusses emissions trading

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has discussed emissions trading in a radio interview on the ABC's AM program.
26 June Liberal Party transcript

Opposition's 30c petrol rise 'hysteria'

The Federal Opposition's claims that petrol prices will soar by 30 cents a litre if fuel is included in a carbon-emission trading scheme are based on "hysteria", an expert says. The initial effect on bowser prices would be about three cents a litre, or about six cents within five years, emissions trading expert Brett Janissen says.
25 June news.com.au article

Fuel prices could rise under carbon trading scheme: Rudd

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not been able to rule out a petrol price rise under the carbon emissions trading scheme. In a rowdy Question Time, the first half of which was dominated by climate change, Mr Rudd was challenged to confirm if the scheme would raise the cost of petrol. Mr Rudd agreed that prices could rise.
25 June ABC News online article

Motorists have had their strongest hint yet to prepare for higher petrol prices under the Rudd Government's plan to fight climate change.
25 June Herald Sun article

Climate change major threat to Queensland

Queensland has more to lose from climate change than any other Australian state, with the twin threats of severe drought and intense cyclones, a new report shows. The state government has responded by launching a $3 million campaign to get householders to shrink their carbon footprints.
25 June news.com.au article

Report says Australia on track to meet Kyoto greenhouse gas emission target

Australia must work harder to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions despite a report indicating the nation will meet its Kyoto pollution target, the climate minister said. The government released a report on Australia's emissions for 2006, the first official progress report since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new government ratified the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in December last year.
24 June International Herald Tribune article

Smart policy can improve families’ energy affordability

The Climate Institute released a discussion paper from economists at CSIRO and the Australian National University on the impact of emissions trading on household energy budgets. This first of its kind analysis finds that for most households wage growth will outstrip increases in energy prices, improving energy affordability over coming years. Energy efficiency policies and some targeted payments can ensure this happens for all families.
23 June The Climate Institute media release and full report
23 June news.com.au article

Greens senators list options for relieving the burden of climate change costs

Greens Senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne pointed to options, other than cash compensation, for the government to relieve the burden of climate change costs on low income earners. Senator Milne pointed to the Greens’ EASI scheme to retrofit all Australian households with energy saving options such as insulation and solar hot-water systems, which would permanently reduce power bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Brown pointed to investment in fast, efficient public transport as another way to give low income earners assistance in coping with rising petrol prices.
23 June Senator Bob Brown media release

Global warming to boost Pacific pests

While global warming threatens the lowlying countries of the Pacific, higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are expected to give invasive pests from South Pacific countries a major advantage. Australian ecologist Tim Low says pests will adapt faster to climate change, and cope better with extreme weather events like cyclones and fires.
22 June ABC Radio online article

Mining executive warns on cost of climate change policy

Australians will need to make big sacrifices if the nation is to achieve a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, a mining executive warns. Peter Freyberg, who heads the Australian coal operations of Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata, cautioned that government measures to arrest climate change would have a big impact on Australians.
21 June Herald Sun article

World heritage sites 'threatened by climate change'

The Federal Government is being asked to support a move for international recognition of climate change as a threat to world heritage sites. An Australian legal and environment group has joined with a US group to urge the World Heritage Centre to adopt guidelines that take climate change into account in planning for the conservation of world heritage sites.
21 June ABC News online article

Garrett fund emissions testing facility for heavy duty vehicles

Australia’s first engine emissions test facility for heavy duty vehicles will be built in Western Australia with $2.76 million in Australian Government funding, announced by Environment Minister Peter Garrett. “This project will assist with funding the development of the first facility in Australia capable of testing heavy duty vehicle engines to international certification level testing for both regulated and greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Garrett said.
20 June Dept of Environment, Heritage and the Arts media release

Greens label fuel price debate 'populist nonsense'

The Greens say both sides of politics should stop bickering over populist measures to drive down fuel prices. Greens Senator Christine Milne says the focus should be on cutting back Australia's reliance on oil.
19 June ABC News online article

Climate change refugees the forgotten people

Australia has a duty to help those who will lose their homes to rising sea levels. This is National Refugee Week, an appropriate time for Australians to consider the plight of climate refugees — those people being displaced as a result of sea-level rise, drought and extreme weather events.
18 June The Age opinion

Greens’ renewable energy ‘feed-in’ bill referred to Senate Committee

Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, welcomed the referral of her Private Member’s Bill for a comprehensive national feed-in law to the Senate Environment Committee as an important step towards a 100% renewably powered Australia and a vital opportunity for Australia’s renewable energy sector to actively campaign for real support.
17 June Senator Christine Milne media release

Moving on from fossil fuels: Progressing Australia to a hydrogen energy economy

In the midst of rising oil prices and intensifying debate on renewable energy, the Australian Academy of Science has produced a report which examines Australia's contribution to research into hydrogen as a future energy carrier. The report is based on an analysis of Australian hydrogen energy research publications and funding. The study found that although Australian research is a minor component of this fast-moving field, Australian researchers are making significant contributions in areas such as in hydrogen storage materials, carbon capture and storage, and solar-thermal reforming of natural gas.
16 June Australian Academy of Science media release and report

New climate change report on the Murrumbidgee region

Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, has welcomed the release of a report on the effects of climate change on water availability in the Murrumbidgee region in southern New South Wales. The report forms part of the CSIRO Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project, being undertaken on behalf of the Australian Government and the Murray-Darling Basin states. The project looks at the impacts of climate change and land use change across the Basin’s 18 regions.
16 June Dept for Climate Change and Water media release

Aust scientists call for urgent climate change action

A group of high-profile Australians has issued a statement that has been described as a 'call to arms' to avoid the dangerous effects of climate change. The group, which includes some of the country's leading scientists, population and health experts - as well as politicians - is calling for an urgent response to global warming.
14 June ABC News online article
12 June The Age article

Australia 'holding up UN climate deal'

Australia is blocking the progress of a post-Kyoto climate change accord, a delegate at an UN conference in Germany says. A UN meeting in Bonn, Germany, adjourned after making little progress, with delegates worried the glacial pace could delay the accord past the target date. Participants said not enough ideas were put on the table, and environmental organisations accused Australia, the US and Canada of obstructing progress.
14 June news.com.au article

Australia and Indonesia sign greenhouse agreement

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister Ken Rudd signed an agreement to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, Rudd told a joint news conference. Indonesia, which hosted a UN climate change conference in December, has been a driving force behind calls for rich countries to compensate poor states that preserve their rainforests to soak up greenhouse gases.
13 June Reuters article

$2.8 million for coastal communities

The Rudd Government is providing $2.8 million for three new projects to help Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan for the effects of climate change. Announcing the projects in Fremantle, Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said adapting to the unavoidable effects of climate change is a priority under the Government’s climate change policy.
13 June Dept for Climate Change and Water media release

NT Govt seeks community guidance on climate change response

The Northern Territory Government is seeking feedback from the community about climate change. The Government says it will have a climate change policy ready by the beginning of next year.
12 June ABC News online article

Govt 'knew about' climate change in 1984

The Hawke government knew about the risks of climate change 25 years ago but did little about them, according to Labor heavyweight Barry Jones who was a federal minister at the time. Dr Jones cast himself as an Australian version of climate campaigner Al Gore in a speech to a Canberra conference. He said he was the first politician to sound the alarm on global warming, as science minister in 1984.
11 June Sydney Morning Herald article

Exotic pests 'the joker in the climate change pack'

Researchers attending a national pest conference in Darwin are warning that climate change will demand greater surveillance for exotic pests. Andreas Glanznig from the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre says global warming could favour the black striped mussel, climbing perch, walking catfish and black spined toad. The warning comes as the federal Department of Agriculture reviews Australia's national quarantine and biosecurity arrangements.
10 June ABC News article

Rudd hails Kyoto's 'hope for future'

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has paid tribute to the Japanese city of Kyoto for its role in dealing with climate change policy. In a welcoming ceremony at Kyoto's luxurious state guest house, Mr Rudd and wife Therese Rein were met by Kyoto's governor. Two geisha were also on hand to welcome Mr Rudd, who said he had wanted to visit the city because of its crucial role in world climate change policy.
10 June ABC News article

Concern at lack of climate change research into marine eco-systems

A CSIRO scientist has warned Australia's fight against climate change is being compromised by a lack of local research. Hobart-based researcher Elvira Poloczanska is the co-author of an article in the latest edition of the journal Science that identifies a lack of research into the impact of climate change on marine eco-systems.
7 June ABC News online article

Rudd's Japan, Indonesia trip to tackle climate change

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will focus on climate change and forming a European-style union in Asia during a visit to Japan and Indonesia.
6 June Bloomberg article

'Climate change will beat us'

Economist Ross Garnaut thinks humanity will probably lose the fight against climate change. The architect of Australia's response to climate change says the issue is "too hard" and there is "just a chance" the world will face up to the problem before it's too late. Professor Garnaut issued the chilling prognosis in a speech in Canberra.
5 June news.com.au article

We need tough love, not bad parenting

Elizabeth Farrelly argues that Australians need to accept higher fuel prices as a means to change our fuel-guzzling habits- "...human behaviour can change, and be changed by tax. So we must reject the bad parenting our leaders pathetically offer, demanding instead the tough love we need. Demand, for our own sake, the increased fuel prices that can make change smooth, not catastrophic. That's moral courage. That's citizenship."
4 June Sydney Morning Herald opinion

Ethanol push 'to lift food prices'

Farming industry leaders and analysts say the push by governments to ensure 10 per cent of petrol is made up of biofuels such as ethanol will leave the nation critically short of grain and drive food prices higher.
31 May The Australian article 

Policy dilemma

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has left the way open for petrol to be excluded from the looming greenhouse gas emissions trading regime, sparking warnings that power prices could rise and that Australia's climate change response could be compromised.
31 May The Australian article

Climate change: "The" Issue in the Australian national election 2007?

Much of the "buzz" about the November 2007 Australia national election - which replaced an ideologically conservative party with a more liberal administration - was that the election turned in large part on the liberal party's pledge to fight climate change and sign the Kyoto Protocol.  If true, this would probably be the first national election to turn on an issue of science policy. Not so fast, Toss Gascoigne argues in the journal Science Communication.  Climate change may have been part of the campaign rhetoric, but as a proxy for the relative youth and "hipness" of the liberal challengers and a reflection of concern for a serious drought (that may or may not be related to global change) currently affecting the continent.
May Science Communication abstract

Understanding autumn rain decline in SE Australia

Fluctuations in sea-surface temperatures to the north of Australia and changes in atmospheric circulation patterns over the sub-tropical Indian Ocean have been identified as key factors leading to declining rainfalls in south-eastern Australia since 1950. According to a report from CSIRO, since 1950 Victoria has suffered a 40 per cent decline in autumn rainfall (March to May) compared to the average recorded between 1961–90.
27 May ScienceDaily article
13 May Geophys. Res. Letters vol 35 abstract

Builders urged to join green boom

The Green Building Council of Australia says the construction industry can play a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse emissions. The Council says more developers and tenants are demanding buildings meet environmental standards.
27 May ABC News online article

$4.5 million to assist global efforts on deforestation

The Australian Government will invest $4.5 million in helping developing countries reduce deforestation as part of international efforts to tackle climate change. Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, said the funds come from the Rudd Government’s International Forest Carbon Initiative.
26 May Dept Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts media release

Garnaut model fails to deliver a smooth carbon path for Australia

The National Generators Forum has informed the Garnaut Climate Change Review that its model increases the risk of an uncertain and disjointed electricity supply process as Australia moves to a low emissions economy. The Forum has provided alternative solutions which would deliver both a transition towards a low emissions energy sector and security of supply for Australian energy consumers.
24 May National Generators Forum media release

Kevin Rudd's energy strategy 'flawed' says Productivity Commission

The Government's leading economic think tank has launched a scathing attack on one of Kevin Rudd's most significant climate change policies - the mandatory renewable energy target - claiming it will drive up energy prices and do nothing to cut dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. In a carefully timed submission to the Government's climate change policy review, the Productivity Commission also flagged a review of tax distortions that increase emissions, such as the generous fringe benefit tax treatment of motor vehicles.
23 May The Australian article

Climate change envoys named

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has named one of Australia's most experienced negotiators as her special envoy on climate change. Howard Bamsey will play a key role in global negotiations with the big greenhouse gas polluters such as the US, China, India and Japan.
22 May Sydney Morning Herald article

Giant kangaroo image gives clues on climate

Scientists in Australia hope a giant cardboard image of a kangaroo, photographed from space, will help them better understand how the earth reflects sunlight and give them new clues about global warming.
20 May Reuters article

Kevin Rudd outlines Labor's climate change policies

The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd addressed a meeting of the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development, Parliament House in Canberra to explain how his government will deal with climate change.
20 May Australia.TO article

Climate plan could change sky colour

Scientist Tim Flannery has proposed a radical solution to climate change which may change the colour of the sky. But he says it may be necessary, as the "last barrier to climate collapse." Professor Flannery says climate change is happening so quickly that mankind may need to pump sulphur into the atmosphere to survive.
19 May news.com.au article
19 May ABC News online article

The sun sets on Rudd's climate change credibility

Kevin Rudd's climate change honeymoon has ended. The hero of Bali received a public relations belting over what were relatively modest indiscretions in the environment section of the Federal budget.
19 May The Australian article

Report on vulnerability of the Sydney metropolitan region to climate change

The Sydney Coastal Councils Group has released a technical report on the vulnerability of the Sydney metropolitan region to climate change. The report represents the results of the first phase of a two year project funded by the Australian Government Department of Climate Change (DCC) National Climate Change Adaptation Program (NCCAP).
14 May Sydney Coastal Councils report

Water emerges as climate change priority

Water security efforts get a significant share of funds totaling $2.3 billion over five years to counter or cope with climate change. "The effects of climate change mean most of Australia's cities and towns have less water, and we can no longer on rainfall to supply all our drinking water," Minister for Climate Change and Water Penny Wong said, in a statement accompanying the Federal Budget.
13 May The Age article

Climate change takes its share of cutbacks

The Rudd Government's $3 billion election promise for climate change will be shaved to $2.3 billion with the rationalisation of renewable and clean coal programs, and the possible deferral of the green car program. The Government is expected to honour most of the climate change programs developed last year, but will combine some projects to cut costs.
13 May The Age article

Solar power rebate to be means tested

The federal Government is to restrict the availability of rebates for households installing solar power, under measures in this year's Budget. The Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett says the change is aimed at ensuring the rebates of up to $8,000 go to households that need them most.  Access to the rebates will be restricted to households with an annual taxable income of less than $100,000, which is in line with the means test on solar hot water rebates.
13 May ABC News online article

Greens leader Bob Brown urged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to reverse the Budget blunder which had devastated solar power businesses around Australia.
17 May The Australian article

The solar industry has started sacking some of its workers in the wake of the Federal Government's decision to strip back rebates for home solar panels.
18 May The Age article

Experts warn of never-ending drought

There is no end in sight to the drought afflicting the Murray-Darling Basin and the big dry could become a permanent feature of eastern Australia, experts warn. The latest Murray System Drought Update contains nothing but bad news for farmers and communities struggling to cope.
9 May The Age article

Nation's 'biggest problem' 

Australians see climate change as the nation's biggest problem but appear unwilling to change their lives to reduce their large environmental footprint, an international survey has found. Australia is tied in seventh place among 14 major developed and developing nations in the National Geographic's Greendex, a measure of sustainable consumption and behaviour.
8 May news.com.au article

Carbon capture crucial to coal future: summit

Australia has no choice but to rely heavily on carbon capture and storage to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in time to make a difference on climate change, delegates to the NSW Government's "clean coal" summit were told. The warning came as new research by the CSIRO indicated the world was warming more quickly than predicted.
8 May Sydney Morning Herald article

Aid for local government 

The federal government has announced $3.45 million to help local governments and professionals plan for the potentially devastating effects of climate change. Federal Climate Change Minister Senator Penny Wong announced $1.55 million for 33 local coastal, rural and urban councils to investigate how climate change would impact on their specific areas.
6 May Sydney Morning Herald article

Koala under threat 

The koala is under threat from climate change, according to new research which shows rising carbon dioxide levels are killing nutrients in the plants they eat. Laboratory tests have revealed that global warming is stripping the goodness from eucalypt leaves, and the University of Sydney researchers behind the study say the koalas that rely on them don't have enough time to adapt to the change.
6 May Sydney Morning Herald article

Climate change green paper is red hot

July will be an incendiary month for shaping the direction of Australia's climate change policy. The Government's chief climate adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, will have tendered his draft report on the design of an emissions trading scheme and other climate-related strategies. Treasury modelling detailing the cost effects is due around the same time. The Rudd Government will release its green paper on the design of an emissions trading system a couple of weeks after that.
5 May The Australian article

Sinking without trace: Australia's climate change victims

Like Kiribati and Tuvalu, the islands of the Torres Strait are slowly being submerged. But unlike their Pacific neighbours, the plight of their inhabitants is being overlooked.
5 May The Independent article

Rush to climate science

Climate change awareness has brought a boom in jobs for scientists and related specialists. From the federal Government down, Australia's corporations and institutions, public and private, are falling over themselves to appoint people with the knowledge and skills to advise on what is becoming a central public policy debate.
3 May The Australian article

Aircraft emissions unlikely to meet climate change targets: study

A new paper from the Australian National University has found a massive increase in aircraft emissions around the world is not being offset by improvements in fuel efficiency. The Centre for Climate Law and Policy estimates carbon dioxide emissions from planes will rise by around 140-per cent over the next two decades.
2 May ABC Radio online article

Changes in Australian attitudes towards global warming

It has been observed that global warming appears to have been mentioned much more frequently in the media and by politicians over the past couple of years than previously. Is this really the case? If there has been an increase in media and political attention given to climate change, has there also been a corresponding increase in the frequency that people seek out more climate change information, in the use of renewable energy or carbon offsetting options? This note addresses all these issues, and establishes that changes have occurred and that they are remarkably large.
1 May WMO MeteoWorld article

Australia to spend $12.9 billion on water efficiency

Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, will spend $12.9 billion over the next 10 years to improve the way water is used and to ensure long-term supply in the face of a changing global climate. The government will spend $5.8 billion to enhance the efficiency and productivity of water use and $3 billion buying back water to be returned to rivers under its `Water for the Future' plan, Penny Wong, Minister for Climate change and water, said in notes prepared for a speech.
29 April Bloomberg article

Rudd accepts that climate change is a key challenge

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described climate change as the overarching national challenge, in his closing address to the 2020 Summit. Climate change and sustainability emerged as key subjects for discussion across a range of themes over the weekend, with impacts for the economy, agriculture, health and national security. "Australia faces an unprecedented challenge from climate change," delegates stated. "We have a brief opportunity to act now to safeguard and shape our future prosperity."
21 April The Australian article

Most Australians are alarmed by climate change

Nine out of ten Australians are worried about climate change, but most are unconvinced Labor will do a better job cutting greenhouse emissions than the Coalition. Despite a perception the Australian Labor Party won last year's federal election in part by pledging to do more than the Howard government on climate change, including ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, a survey by the Climate Institute found 52 per cent of voters could not distinguish between the major parties' policies.
15 April The Age article

Leading solar engineer demands support

One of Australia's leading solar engineers has criticised governments for a lack of support for the industry, contrasting it with the strong backing given to clean coal in the race to cut greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation. "If we have a level playing field we will win," said Richard Corkish, the head of renewable energy engineering at the University of NSW.
5 April Sydney Morning Herald article

Greener energy requires higher prices

Australians must accept that emissions trading is designed to make them pay more and lower their standard of living, at least where energy use is concerned, the Reserve Bank governor warns. Glenn Stevens said any attempt by workers to demand higher wages as compensation could increase inflation.
5 April Sydney Morning Herald article

Extra funds for green energy plan

Renewable energy projects involving solar, wave and geothermal power will receive a funding boost of more than $70 million as part of the first stage of a Victorian Government strategy to tackle climate change. Premier John Brumby announced the extra funding at the Government's climate change summit.
5 April The Age article
5 April The Australian article

It's time to apply ethics and fairness in the climate change crisis

In Australia, we know that water for irrigation is limited, and we are beginning to discuss how best to divide it up. Here's one way of doing it: let those with the biggest pumps take as much as they want, never mind what that leaves for others. Not fair? But then, why are we doing exactly this method of dividing up a scarce resource right now — not with water, but with the atmosphere? Perhaps because we're not used to thinking of the atmosphere as a scarce resource, we don't see how unfairly we are behaving.
3 April The Age article

Australians ready to act on climate change

A new report has found the overwhelming majority of Australians accept that their lives have to change as a result of climate change. The Climate Institute report found 94 per cent of people supported changes in their own lives, and a large majority also want to see government leadership on the issue. Institute chief executive John Connor says people are prepared to act in a number of areas of their lives in order to reduce their impact on the environment.
14 April ABC News online article

Australia and China may build world's largest solar city

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says talks with the Chinese Government have led to progress on the way both countries are addressing climate change. China and Australia have agreed to conduct a feasibility study into building the largest solar city in the world in north-east China. Mr Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong have spent time touring another joint project - a coal-fired power plant near Beijing. Mr Rudd says the development of carbon capture and storage technology is important for both nations.
11 April ABC News article

Agreement between Australia and China to hold annual talks

Australia and China have agreed to hold annual ministerial talks on climate change and to work together to clean up carbon pollution from coal-fired power stations, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on. The Mandarin-speaking Rudd made the announcement in Beijing after talks a day earlier with China's Premier Wen Jiabao, saying both countries needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for global warming.
11 April Reuters article

There is a future for solar powered housing

Professor John Bell said Queensland University of Technology had worked with a Canberra-based company Dyesol, which is developing transparent solar cells that act as both windows and energy generators in houses or commercial buildings. He said the solar cell glass would make a significant difference to home and building owners' energy costs and could in fact generate excess energy that could be stored or onsold.
10 April Queensland University of Technology article through Environmental News Network

Koalas at risk of climate change effects 

Australia's unique tree-dwelling koalas may become a victim of climate change, new research reported. Australian scientists say that eucalyptus leaves, the staple diet of koalas and other animals, could become inedible because of climate change.
5 April Reuters article through Environmental News Network

Australian wildlife will feel the brunt of climate change

Climate change is likely to transform many of Australia's natural landscapes. A new report, Implications of Climate Change for the National Reserve System, was prepared for the Federal Government in Australia, and released April 1 by the Environment Minister Peter Garrett. Report author Dr Michael Dunlop says climate change is forcing environmental scientists to rethink their approach.
4 April Science Daily article

Australia has failed to comply with binding targets

Australian delegation to climate change talks in Bangkok has turned the clock back to the Howard era by failing to back binding greenhouse targets, environment group Greenpeace says. Negotiators from more than 160 nations are taking part in the first round of United Nation-led talks since last December's Bali meeting to advance plans for a new global greenhouse treaty.
3 April The Australian article

Indigenous people suffering from climate change

Large-scale solutions intended to help mitigate global warming are harming the very indigenous people who are likely to bear the brunt of climate change, warned the United Nations University at a conference in Darwin, Australia. Biofuel plantations, renewable energy projects like hydroelectric dams, and measures to protect forests as carbon sinks threaten to undermine rights of indigenous groups. Such initiatives boost the value of land and increase the likelihood that indigenous people will be displaced.
2 April Mongabay online article

Australia and the EU pledge cooperation

The European Union and Australia pledged Wednesday closer cooperation, especially in the Doha Round talks of the World Trade Organisation, climate change and anti-terrorism. "We face many common challenges in foreign and security, and trade and economic policy areas. In meeting these challenges we recognise the value of regular and frank dialogue and close cooperation," said a joint statement issued by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso following their meeting in Brussels.
2 April China View article

Market will resolve problems - Garnaut

Labor's chief adviser on climate change policy believes the market will resolve most problems arising from the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, while power companies claim market forces are likely to cause the greatest disruption. Presenting his blueprint for an emission trading scheme from 2010 to 800 business representatives, Ross Garnaut said he favoured a simple and transparent system with minimal intervention from government.
27 March The Australian article
Link to Garnaut Climate Change Review discussion papers and reports

Australia to speak up

The Prime Minister has declared that Australia will adopt an ambitious new "activist" stance on international issues where it believes it can make a difference. Kevin Rudd said that Australia's voice had been "too quiet for too long across the various councils of the world".
27 March The Age article

Climate change tough decisions

Climate change will be one of the issues that define the Rudd Government. It is an issue of tough choices, of clashing values and objectives, in which decisions will have to be made in a fog of uncertainty about how serious the problem is, and what is the best way out of it.
25 March The Age opinion by Tim Colebatch

Australia's Prime Minister seeks commitment

Kevin Rudd embarks on the most extensive world tour of any Australian prime minister in a generation this week in pursuit of deeper economic ties with Asia and a commitment from world leaders to combat global warming.
25 March Bloomberg article

Auctioning of Australian carbon

Australia's farmers, coal miners and power generators should have to bid at auction for carbon permits when carbon trading starts in 2010, the government's top climate adviser, Ross Garnaut said.
25 March Reuters article through Planet Ark

Vulnerable species face extinction

Some of Australia's most vulnerable native animals could die out as climate change take its toll on their already fragile existence, warns a report that catalogues the risks facing 11 species from the impact of rising temperatures and rainfall decline. The report was produced by environment group WWF and a research team from Macquarie University.
25 March The Age article

Climate change hitting Australian wine industry

Australian grape growers reckon they are the canary in the coalmine of global warming, as a long drought forces winemakers to rethink the styles of wine they can produce and the regions in which they can grow.
25 March Reuters article through Environmental News Network

Joint venture tries to capture carbon market

Pacific Hydro and the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation have formed a carbon services joint venture called Perenia seeking to capture the market before Australia's emissions trading scheme starts.
24 March The Age article

Victoria offers rebates on solar hot water

The Victorian Government will spend $33 million helping households in regional and rural Victoria switch to solar hot water.
21 March The Age article

Trading 'centrepiece of Australian policy'

“An emissions trading scheme will be the centrepiece of Australia’s climate change policy,” Professor Garnaut said, launching a discussion paper on the topic. “If we get the design right, it will help build a more resilient economy for the long term.”
20 March The Australian article
21 March The Age article
20 March media statement
Executive Summary of the discussion paper
Download the discussion paper (477KB pdf)

Renewable energy target criticised

The Federal Government plan to increase mandatory minimum levels of renewable energy will cost the economy $1.5 billion and drive up electricity bills by 6 per cent, according to analysis conducted for the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, which represents the gas industry. The Association claims an emissions trading scheme due to start in 2010 could on its own deliver the same greenhouse gas cuts, but at a lower cost.
19 March The Australian article   

Australia's trading system

Australia's emissions trading system will begin in 2010 and the market will determine the price, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said.
17 March Bloomberg article
17 March ABC News article

Australia needs to commit to be taken seriously

Australia has been told it must commit to a 25 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 if it is to be taken seriously by other members of the Kyoto club.
13 March ABC News article

Pace too slow for climate negotiations

The United Nations' climate chief, Yvo de Boer, has praised Australia for its leadership on climate change since ratifying the Kyoto Protocol but warned he is worried about the pace of negotiations to cut a new deal to reduce carbon emissions.
12 March The Age article

Carbon-free funerals

An Australian cemetery has unveiled plans to take the carbon out of cremations by offering new green funerals to help combat global warming. On the day Australia's formal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol comes into force, the Centennial Park cemetery in the South Australian state capital of Adelaide said it had studied the carbon impact of burials and cremations.
11 March Reuters article through Environmental News Network

Australia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol formalised

Australia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol came into force, leaving the United States as the only major developed country rejecting the accord. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia now had a "seat at the table'' on global efforts to tackle climate change.
11 March Sydney Morning Herald article
11 March Bloomberg article

A stern word for critics

Nicholas Stern, the author of a major global report on the cost of climate change, has hit back at Australian criticism of his findings, claiming it was wrong and careless. The former World Bank chief economist has co-authored a detailed letter in reply to a working paper issued by Australia's Productivity Commission, which in January accused him of inflating estimates of the cost of climate change and making value judgments to support his report released in 2006.
7 March The Australian article

Tropical fish going deaf

Going deaf is not a problem that most of us would automatically associate with global warming. For coral reef fish, however, hotter seas could pose a real threat. Young coral reef fish with misshapen ear bones are more likely to get lost and die, and exposure to warmer waters makes the problem worse, according to a study of fish living around Lizard Island on Australia's the Great Barrier Reef.
6 March New Scientist article

Australian and Papua New Guinea sign forest pacts

Australia and Papua New Guinea have announced a joint Australia-PNG forest carbon partnership that tackles climate change issues associated with deforestation.
6 March The Age article

Climate change to curb economy

New modelling suggests climate change would knock five per cent off Australia's economic output by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Early findings of the modelling being produced jointly by CSIRO and ABARE forecast a rise in Australia's average temperature of 3.5 degrees celsius under the same scenario.
5 March Sydney Morning Herald article

Review of climate policies 

The Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, and the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, have announced a strategic review of the Government’s climate change policies.
27 February media statement

Australia and the world must make deeper cuts - Garnaut

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's handpicked climate expert has warned that Australia must make far steeper cuts to carbon emissions than previously thought and demand developing nations follow suit if the world is to avert a climate change catastrophe. Ross Garnaut has also warned that taxpayers will have to compensate low-income households and industries, such as forestry and agriculture, for income they will lose as part of the fight against climate change. The findings were released in an interim report produced by Professor Garnaut discussing the economic implications of Australia setting sharp, short-term targets for the reduction of carbon emissions.
22 February The Australian article
21 February Sydney Morning Herald article
22 February Sydney Morning Herald article
A case of global shock therapy - 22 February Paul Kelly commentary from The Australian
21 February media statement by Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong
Link to download the interim report, Garnaut Climate Change Review, in whole or in parts

The Australian Government's top climate change adviser said the "awful arithmetic" of rising greenhouse gas emissions meant the 21 million people living on the world's driest continent would be among the biggest losers from global warming. Farmers would want money to leave the land, the tourism industry would lose the Great Barrier Reef and other key assets, there would be expensive desalination plants in every major city and the containers that once shipped food out would be bringing it in, he predicted.
22 February DPA article through Earth Times 

The Federal Government has tried to play down Garnaut's call for even deeper cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
21 February Sydney Morning Herald article

Ross Garnaut's interim report has opened up divisions at both ends of the political spectrum. On the left, the Greens are attacking the Government for not embracing the need for more ambitious greenhouse reduction targets, while on the right, backbenchers are expressing dissent from the Coalition's official position of keeping an open mind on targets.
23 February The Age commentary by Chris Hammer 

Having won the election, it's now a matter of when, not if, the Rudd Government will have to come clean about tougher greenhouse targets. 
19 February The Age opinion by Liz Minchin 

In Garnaut's analysis, Australia does best in a world of extremely ambitious and comprehensive global agreement on savage reductions in carbon emissions. In a world of only ad hoc and partial global mitigation efforts, Australia would be anything but well off. 
22 February The Australian analysis by Alan Wood 

There are political landmines scattered throughout Ross Garnaut's interim report on climate change for the federal and state Labor governments.
22 February Sydney Morning Herald commentary by Marian Wilkinson

Kevin Rudd wanted bad news. That is why he commissioned Professor Ross Garnaut's climate change review. The news needed to be bad enough to justify Labor's plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions. But not too bad. Unhappily for Mr Rudd, now Prime Minister, the news is worse than expected, and the challenges commensurately greater.
23 February Sydney Morning Herald editorial opinion

Garnaut proposes dividing the greenhouse emissions budget on a per capita basis. That's a sweet deal for China, India and Indonesia. For Australia it is brutal.
22 February The Australian analysis by Matthew Warren 

Australia should consider setting up a Reserve Bank-style body to chart its future emissions and manage its national carbon budget.
22 February The Australian article

Australia and Papua New Guinea could reap benefits from merging an emissions trading scheme, the Garnaut interim report argues, but so too could Ross Garnaut's goldmining company. The report urges extending an Australian trading scheme to PNG, whose "extraordinary potential for low-cost renewable energy" could help the two countries cut emissions.
22 February Sydney Morning Herald article 

Plea for ACCC to recognise infancy of offsets industry

Offsets provider TreeSmart has welcomed Australian Competition and Consumer Commission focus on deceptive claims of "greenness" by businesses and service providers, but called on the commission to recognise the infancy of the carbon offset industry. "TreeSmart applauds the ACCC for their action in this emerging area, where there are few established rules. However, while ensuring that clearly fraudulent behaviour is detected and punished, one hopes that the ACCC realises that the carbon offset industry is still in its infancy and developing," TreeSmart is a carbon sequestration program aimed at offsetting carbon dioxide emissions particularly from the transport sector. It does this by helping to establish and maintain eucalypt plantations destined for eventual harvesting and replanting.
TreeSmart newsletter

Biofuels industry calls for national mandate

The biofuels industry has called on the Rudd government to set a national mandate to speed up the adoption of ethanol and biodiesel in the wake of the Garnaut report.
22 February Sydney Morning Herald article

Emissions at odds with other environmental habits

Australians have become a nation of waste recyclers and water misers but continue to be among the world's highest per-person carbon emitters, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008 Year Book.
8 February Reuters article through Planet Ark

 

No need to give up meat to save planet, says Blair

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has distanced himself from the idea that he should become a vegetarian as a way of highlighting the dangers of deforestation in his role as a climate change campaigner. Blair, who is backing a plan for the world to halve greenhouse gases by 2050, said deforestation was responsible for producing four times as many as emissions as the airline industry.
8 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Eight nations unite to combat climate change

As rising seas, melting glaciers, floods and cyclones are increasingly putting millions of people at risk in South Asia, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) met to find ways to mitigate the impacts of changing climate.
8 July IPS article

G8 leaders agree on emissions goal

World leaders meeting in Japan have reached broad agreement on a long-term plan to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries have been meeting at Toyako on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. At last year's summit in Germany they agreed to seriously consider a plan to cut greenhouse emissions by 50 per cent by the middle of this century. Now they have agreed to that goal as a shared vision, and to press other nations to also adopt the target.
8 July ABC News online article

Kosciusko-Morizet: Climate deal key to 'EU's credibility'

Reaching agreement on the EU's energy and climate package before this year's UN conference in Poland is crucial if the bloc is to retain its position as the "motor" of international action on climate change, argues French State Secretary for Ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet in an interview with EurActiv France.
7 July EurActiv.com article

Eastern EU states unite for overhaul of CO2 curbs

The European Union has geared up for deep cuts in greenhouse gases as eight ex-communist states sought help in overhauling their infrastructure for a low-carbon future. France, which has taken over the EU's rotating presidency, has made climate change its top priority and hosted a meeting on the outskirts of Paris to identify the main areas of disagreement.
7 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Don't count on long-term success in climate policy, study

Long-term climate change policy in the US and abroad is likely to change very slowly, warns a researcher who calls for stronger short-term goals to reduce carbon emissions, according to a new study. Lead author Prof. Mort Webster writes that climate policy decisions are normally made as sequential decisions over time under uncertainty – given the magnitude of uncertainty in both economic and scientific processes, the decades-to-centuries time scale of the phenomenon, and the ability to reduce uncertainty and revise decisions along the way.
6 July ScienceDaily article

UN Secretary calls for global action to save global growth

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, calls on the leaders of the G8 nations to set firm targets for combating climate change and the global food crisis when they meet in Hokkaido, Japan.
3 July The Washington Post article by Ban Ki-moon

Climate risk from flat-screen TVs

The rising demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist warned. Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions, and as the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4,000 tonnes. As a driver of global warming, nitrogen trifluoride is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
3 July Guardian article

Climate change: EU ministers clear some hurdles on 2020 plan

European Union environment ministers cleared some ground as they debated how to achieve the vaunted dream of slashing the 27-nation bloc's carbon pollution by 2020. Ministers, staging an informal meeting in Paris, agreed to complete a deal by year's end and backed the principle of helping poorer EU countries worried by the cost of meeting the 2020 target, delegates said.
3 July AFP article

G8 nations fail to meet climate change promises: report

A new study says none of the leading industrialized nations have come close to meeting their promises to slash greenhouse gas emissions, with the US, Canada and Russia trailing especially far behind.
3 July Deutsche Welle article

China warns of 'empty talk' before G8 climate change meet

China said it is open to general discussion of longer-term goals and industrial targets to combat global warming at the G8 summit, but fended off talk of any specific pledges, stressing rich nations should lead the way. Despite its growing economic and diplomatic clout, China is not a member of the Group of Eight industrialised countries whose leaders are preparing to meet in northern Japan.
3 July Reuters article

Next US president likely to agree to CO2 cuts: UN

There is good chance the next US administration will agree to tight controls on its carbon emissions and help reach a deal by the end of 2009 to slow climate change, Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said.
3 July Reuters article

No climate breakthrough on G8 horizon: UN climate chief

The top United Nations climate official called on rich nations to lead the fight against global warming, but said a breakthrough was unlikely the upcoming G8 summit in Japan. "At this moment it doesn't look very encouraging," said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
3 July AFP article through Yahoo News

Governments must make people face up to climate change

The time has passed for subsidies and grants. The time has passed for our leaders to treat us like clients - advertising, cajoling, giving incentives and subsidies. It is time now for a leadership that does not attend to popularity ratings or re-election percentages. Climate change is happening. We, and the generations before us, have caused it. It should not matter whether we believe it or not.
3 July Guardian opinion

Climate change: Time for deeds not words to reach emissions target, PwC study warns

Severe adverse effects from climate change can be avoided at reasonable cost but only if politicians stop talking and start acting, a major report from PricewaterhouseCoopers says. Updating a study it conducted two years ago, it calls on leaders of the Group of Eight leading economies, particularly the United States - the world's largest per capita polluter - to commit themselves to firm timetables for emissions reductions at next week's summit in Tokyo.
3 July Guardian article

Thailand keen to pick up CDM tips

At a time when major developing and developed nations are finding it difficult to control carbon dioxide emissions, green house gas emissions and the environment pollution level, official records show that maximum number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects have been registered by Indian companies. CDM is one of the three major mechanisms for reducing carbon dioxide emission to 5.2 per cent lower than 1990 level, according to Kyoto Protocol standards.
3 July The Business Standard article

Bush makes final push for global climate deal

In his final months in office, President Bush is mounting a last-ditch effort to forge a new global deal to limit greenhouse-gas emissions but finds himself once again at odds with much of the rest of the world on how to address climate change.
3 July The Washington Post article

Which countries would you pick for your climate team?

Tackling climate change calls for global teamwork, but some countries have been less-than-perfect partners. In order to understand why some nations fall behind in their international climate duties, Michèle Bättig and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, created a Climate Cooperation Index.
2 July New Scientist article

Developed countries declarations on climate change make no sense

Industrialized countries should meet their own commitments in the fight against climate change rather than asking countries like India and China to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Indian prime minister's principal negotiator on climate change Shyam Saran said.
2 July China View article

World's top 16 emitters to create climate forum, Nikkei says

The world's 16 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are likely to create a forum to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, Nikkei English News said. An agreement on the forum is expected on July 9 on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Japan, the newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
2 July Bloomberg article

UN's Ban presses China on climate change

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told China to accept its global responsibilities on climate change, as he began a three-day visit to the world's most populous nation. "It is important that we have China on board for this common effort to address climate change," Ban told reporters just before leaving Tokyo for the Chinese capital.
1 July AFP article through Yahoo News

'We've passed the safe CO2 concentration' - Hansen

Renowned NASA climate scientists James Hansen argues that the "safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is no more than 350 parts per million, and it may be less." This recommended level is less than the amount currently in the atmosphere - 385 ppm. His views have gained wider support in the scien