Victoria's plan to legislate its own renewable energy target of 40% by 2025 shows how states are increasingly taking the energy policy reins away from the federal government.
Solar panels are still a rarity in WA’s lower-income areas.
Orderinchaos/Wikimedia Commons
Western Australia has huge amounts of sunshine and wind, yet only 7% of its energy comes from renewables. What's more, most households in the poorest suburbs are still locked out of the solar panel boom.
Enough blue-sky thinking: economists back the emissions policy that Alan Finkel has put on the table.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
A panel of leading economists has given its majority verdict on Alan Finkel's proposed Clean Energy Target: it may not be the best possible emissions policy, but we should get on with it anyway.
Over a period in which the Australian economy saw around 600,000 additional people get jobs, employment in the renewables sector has been going backwards.
AAP Image/City of Sydney, Damian Shaw
Estimates released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that the number of direct full-time equivalent jobs in renewable energy activities has continued to fall from its 2011-12 peak.
Will 2017 be the year Australia sorts out its energy policy?
Power image from www.shutterstock.com
The goals are clear: clean, cheap, reliable energy. But no-one can agree how we get there.
Renewable energy targets were a controversial topic at a recent COAG meeting between the Prime Minister, State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Skirmishes over funding for renewable energy research are just the latest battle in a saga that stretches back to the early 1980s – years before the public became widely aware of the climate threat.
A price on carbon introduced by the Labor government, dubbed the “carbon tax”, was more effective at motivating big emitters to act, compared to the current Direct Action plan.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Australia's energy policy has lost its way over the past couple of decades, which is unfortunate because the challenges – to move to a low-carbon economy without high prices – have never been tougher.
Hepburn Wind is one of Australia’s largest community renewable energy schemes.
Hepburn Wind/Flickr
There's a wealth of climate policies to choose from this election – but what will they do electricity prices?
An LNG tanker leaves Gladstone, Queensland. Gas development is one of the drivers behind Australia’s increasing emissions and electricity demand.
AAP/Dan Peled
Over the past year Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from electricity rose 2.7%.
Malcolm Turnbull’s speech to the Paris climate summit lacked real focus, but he still has time to grab the issue with both hands before the election.
EPA/Christophe Petit Tesson
Australia has been mired in climate confusion for years - as reflected by its underwhelming performance at last year's Paris climate summit. Here's how to get things back on an even keel.
