If Donald Trump turns away from climate action as George W. Bush did, Europe and China can respond by forming an alliance that will turn the United States from a climate leader into a follower.
The latest climate summit began the long slog towards putting the Paris Agreement into action. But it generated more questions than answers, particularly on how to handle a Trump-led United States.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced plans to ratify the Paris climate agreement, a day after US participation in the treaty was thrown into dought by Donald Trump’s election victory.
Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which languished for years, the Paris climate agreement is rocketing towards the threshold for it to enter into international law – leaving Australia in its wake.
Australia’s greenhouse emissions are once again rising, after a decade of consistent declines. But the right policies are already in place to turn things around - they just need to be ramped up.
The UN climate talks in Bonn last week left many key issues unresolved, creating big challenges for forging a global deal in Paris later this year that would avert the worst effects of climate change.
The Renewable Energy Target now includes wood waste from forestry. But a more sustainable use of Australia’s native forests would be to leave them alone and earn carbon credits from the avoided emissions.
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?
Throughout his prime-ministership, which ran from 1996 to 2007, John Howard’s perspective on climate change was informed by geopolitics more than science. The Kyoto Protocol, the key international climate…
Over the weekend the latest round of international climate negotiations concluded in Bonn, Germany. Offering some encouragement, the talks are inching towards a new global agreement in Paris 2015 for global…
After a week of mostly bad news on climate change, new figures reveal that Australia easily beat its first internationally-agreed climate target, with nearly 131 million tonnes of emissions to spare. That’s…
Anyone who has watched in frustration as the United Nations repeatedly failed to secure a meaningful climate treaty could be forgiven for taking a rather glum view on this weekend’s report by the Intergovernmental…
A Labor-dominated Senate committee has set the stage for the post-July tussle over carbon policy, recommending that Australia commit to much deeper emissions cuts than the current 5% target, and advising…
It looks as though everyone will be happy to sign the next global climate agreement, due in 2015. Why? Because there will be very little in the agreement that will force countries to act on climate change…
At the Doha climate conference, Australia has submitted a 99.5% emissions target for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Why is Australia doing it, and what does it mean? Setting a good example…
Australia is on track at the end of this year to meet its emission reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol. We’ve also signed up to the new version of Kyoto. But that should not encourage us to believe…
The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, announced on Friday that Australia is “ready” to join a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework…