Renewable energy sources such such as solar photovoltaic and onshore wind could generate the lowest electricity costs in Australia by 2030, according to a report released today by the Bureau of Resources…
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency’s 2012 report, indicates that global CO₂ emissions increased by 3% in 2011…
Sold to the lowest bidder! The carbon price will not transform Australia’s power supply without further steps to help low-emission technologies into the market.
Flickr/sashafatcat
When it comes to reducing emissions, most serious analysts agree: the market works best, but the market is not enough. The International Energy Agency, the OECD, leading British climate economist Nicholas…
Nice when a few sandstone houses get smoking, but what are people breathing in bigger rural towns where wood stoves are common?
Flickr/welshmackem
Winter in many Australian country towns is accompanied by a pall of smoke from wood-fired heaters that lasts from late afternoon to the following morning. In larger towns and cities burning wood has been…
Behind the times: Europe already had carbon taxes in 1992 back when Vanilla Ice topped the Australian charts.
AAP/Musicbiz
We price carbon. This is nothing new. The first time this explicitly happened, Vanilla Ice hit number one in Australia, and Bryan Adams was topping the global charts with “(Everything I do) I do it for…
Ross Garnaut: “One can’t avoid the reality that some political leaders have said that they would like to remove carbon pricing.”
AAP/Alan Porritt
Tomorrow Australia will place a price on carbon. The former climate change adviser to the Federal Government, Ross Garnaut, a Professorial Fellow in Economics at the University of Melbourne, led the push…
This is carbon. The carbon you keep hearing about on the news is probably carbon dioxide. It doesn’t look like this.
Rui Costa
You’ll doubtless have heard Australia is introducing a “carbon tax” this Sunday to reduce “carbon pollution”. What is being controlled is not just any carbon but emissions of a specific gas, carbon dioxide…
The media tends to portray Chinese achievements as lacking credibility.
Trey Ratcliffe
Recent analyses that China’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions might be 1.2 gigatonnes or 20% higher than previously estimated have generated something of a feeding frenzy in the media; and not just the daily…
China’s emissions keep increasing, but it’s burning less fuel for every increase in GDP.
Bert van Dijk
The numbers are just in. At a time when we need to be urgently reducing our CO₂ emissions, we are now emitting more than at any time in human history. However, it’s not too late to turn things around…
Australia is on the lookout for new ways to dig up and burn coal without blowing our emissions budget.
AAP/Wesfarmers
From time to time, new technologies are proposed to help us use even more of Australia’s abundant coal. Many of these technologies are designed to reduce emissions, either by drying the coal or capturing…
We need a more intelligent discussion about how to use our finite carbon, and it needs to be about metal.
AAP
The recent furore about the carbon tax in this country has not been a celebration of enlightened debate. I think much of the debate misses a vital aspect of carbon use, namely, that using carbon to make…
State governments are walking away from emissions reduction, but it’s thanks to poor policy from the ALP.
Takver/Flickr
In the past few days we have seen two states, Victoria and Queensland, announce cut-backs on action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They have been able to justify this by pointing out, correctly, that…
Melting Arctic Sea ice should be the warning we need about expanding coal exports.
Michael Sonnabend
Despite peak global temperatures in 2005 and 2010 (unprecedented in the instrumental record), a recent sharp plunge in volume of the Arctic Sea ice and a spate of extreme weather events, coal mining, coal…
There are limits to the amount of carbon dioxide plantations can absorb.
David Clarke
Australia’s agriculture and forestry - land-based abatement - can make a valuable contribution to lowering Australia’s greenhouse emissions. The scale of contribution has been widely discussed. But the…
Emissions spiked, thanks to more intensive energy use.
Louis Vest
Recessions are not the way to permanently cut greenhouse gas emissions. Global emissions surged during 2010, cancelling out the reductions from the global financial crisis (GFC). Emissions took off in…
Looking at how other jurisdictions, such as Germany, are reducing emissions can help guide Australian policy.
AAP
Around the world an increasing number of detailed policy road maps are demonstrating the possibility, necessity and urgency of a rapid transition to a just and sustainable post carbon future. The key barriers…
There may be no belching smoke stacks to be seen, but every time we thoughtlessly put up a poorly designed structure or resort to energy-intensive solutions to cool, heat, and operate an inefficient building…
Recent articles on low carbon homes and life cycle measurement difficulties left carbon groupies concerned about the complexity involved in measuring our emissions. Measuring emissions isn’t as hard as…
Modern motorists have a pile of engine choices.
Flickr/ Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden
Like many countries, Australia is seeing a growth in the number of diesel vehicles on our roads. Since 2006 the number of registered diesel vehicles has increased by a remarkable 40%; diesel passenger…