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Articles on Greg Hunt

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Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must put some substance behind their climate rhetoric. Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Shorten can wedge Turnbull on climate

It was all a bit much for me to see Environment Minister Greg Hunt wallowing in the signing of the Paris Agreement on emissions reduction in New York this week. His commitment to its ratification by year…
The new assistant minister for cities, Angus Taylor, has expressed a ‘deep belief that consultation and proper public debate gets to wise outcomes’. flickr/Crawford Forum

Memo to our latest cities minister: here’s what needs to be done

Effective development planning must anticipate where growth might occur and its wider impacts. So, if the federal government is serious about cities policy, it needs a proper settlements plan.
Bernie Fraser, Greg Hunt and Clive Palmer announce the Climate Change Authority’s emissions trading review last year, after Palmer prevented the authority being abolished. AAP/Alan Porritt

Ignored by the government, shrunk by resignations – where now for Australia’s Climate Change Authority?

The Climate Change Authority, rocked by this week’s resignation of its chairman Bernie Fraser but saved last year by the Senate, will continue reviewing climate policy - even if its advice is ignored.
Attorney General George Brandis believes a recent court decision backing an environmental group is an illegitimate use of the law. Is he right? AAP/Lukas Coch

The government vs the environment: lawfare in Australia

The federal government want to stop green groups from using “lawfare”. But proposed changes threaten to seriously curtail public interest litigation in Australia.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s same-sex marriage plebiscite idea. Mick Tsikas/AAP

Abbott no doubt is recalling Howard’s playbook for the 1999 republic vote

Tony Abbott is burnishing his lines for a popular vote on same-sex marriage in the next term, if he wins one. Abbott told parliament on Wednesday: “Going into the next election there will be two parties…
John Howard is a role model for the Abbott government, but the world remembers his hardline climate tactics in 1997 less fondly. AAP Photo/ Bluey Thomson

Australia hit its Kyoto target, but it was more a three-inch putt than a hole in one

Australia’s government boasts of being one of the few nations to hit its Kyoto emissions target. But is it any wonder, when the Howard government successfully lobbied to make it almost unmissably easy?
Solar thermal technology is still an outside bet - and not the kind of investment the CEFC was set up to make. WorleyParsons/AAP Image

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is meant to back winners, not minnows

Environment minister Greg Hunt wants the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to focus on new technologies, not wind and solar. But that’s not what it was set up to do, and Australia already has an agency for that.
Has any other country achieved a greater reduction than Australia in the intensity of their emissions per unit of GDP over between 1990 and now? AAP Image/Dan Peled

FactCheck: Has any country bested Australia in emissions intensity reduction since 1990?

Recent comments by Federal Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, implied that Australia is leading the world in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP. Is that right?
Tony Abbott and Greg Hunt at last year’s Green Army launch. Funding for the initiative has been slimmed down but is still more than A$700 million. AAP Image/Britta Campion

Federal Budget 2015 – environment experts react

The Federal Budget 2015 makes little mention of emissions reductions or renewable energy, but does feature funding boosts for drought assistance and the Great Barrier Reef. What else is in?
Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister’s business advisory council, has written that climate change is a United Nations power grab. AAP/Julian Smith

Government’s RET compromise guarantees uncertainty for renewables

As the Abbott government prepares Australia’s post-2020 emissions targets for this year’s Paris conference, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s business advisory council has make an extraordinary intervention in the climate debate.
The wrong track? The biggest emitters, such as power stations, were largely absent from the government’s first round of greenhouse reduction contracts. AAP Image/Dan Peled

On these numbers, Australia’s emissions auction won’t get the job done

Federal environment minister Greg Hunt has hailed the first round of Emissions Reduction Fund auctions as a “stunning result”. But extrapolating the numbers puts Australia behind on its carbon targets.
Growth industry: forestry will account for much of the carbon reductions under the first round of Emissions Reduction Fund contracts. CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons

Infographic: emissions reduction auction results at a glance

The first round of contracts for Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund have been awarded, at an average price of just under A$14 a tonne. How do the numbers stack up, and what projects are the big winners?
The World Heritage Committee has called for a comprehensive assessment not just of the threats to the Great Barrier Reef, but of their cumulative effect. AAP Image/Australian Institute for Marine Science, Ray Berkelmans

Is Australia meeting the UN recommendations for the Great Barrier Reef?

The government says it has met all of the recommendations for safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef. But a close reading of the dozens of UN recommendations shows that many have been only partly fulfilled.
The new Reef 2050 plan is taking the long view on protecting the Great Barrier Reef - but does it have the right vision? Nickj/Wikimedia Commons

Government unveils 2050 Great Barrier Reef plan: experts react

The federal and Queensland governments have unveiled their blueprint for protecting the Great Barrier Reef for future generations. Will the $2 billion plan succeed? Our experts give their verdicts.

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