The shipping industry must clean up its act.
Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
Phasing out greenhouse gas emissions entirely by mid-century is possible, and promising trends are emerging. But the next five to ten years will be the real test of whether we can make that happen.
Cape Grim, on the northwest tip of Tasmania, is exposed to some of the cleanest air in the world.
CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology
Cape Grim’s air pollution station has recorded some of the biggest changes to the world’s atmosphere over the past 40 years.
Policy uncertainty within government surrounding climate change complicates efforts by carbon-intensive companies to develop a long-term strategy.
Nikki Short/AAP
Managers from carbon intensive companies are holding off on long term emissions strategies because of uncertainty around regulations and policies, new research finds.
China’s concerns about air pollution from burning coal is one reason behind the emissions slowdown.
China coal image from www.shutterstock.com
For three years, carbon emissions from fossil fuels have grown little or not at all, opening a window of opportunity to halt climate change.
Replanting trees is one of the better ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
CIFOR/Flickr
Many models used by policy-makers suggest we’ll have to remove CO2 from the atmosphere - but if we can’t, we have to get much more serious about cutting emissions.
We’ve come a long way since the agreement was formed in 2015.
Stephane Mahe/Reuters
November 3, 2016
Bill Hare , Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research ; Harald Winkler , University of Cape Town ; Julia P G Jones , Bangor University ; Luke Kemp , Australian National University ; Meraz Mostafa , Independent University, Bangladesh ; Pep Canadell , CSIRO , and Stefan Rahmstorf , Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Experts agree that a new era for climate policy here. But the hard work starts now.
Janitors/Flickr
While action on air pollution is welcome, there may be better ways to cut car emissions.
Brett Ciccotelli/Flickr
New technologies that can help us to meet climate change targets are struggling to see the light of day. Incentives need to be fixed, and carbon pricing is at the heart of the matter.
Australia’s LNG exports have driven domestic gas prices higher.
AAP Image/Origin Energy
With gas prices high, coal-fired power has been increasing, which is bad news for carbon emissions.
Companies have been caught off guard by campaigns to divest from fossil fuels.
Kamyar Adl/Flickr
Most businesses construct climate risk solely through the lens of profitability and market opportunity.
Australia’s car industry got left behind on emissions standards.
Exhaust image from www.shutterstock.com
Australia’s lax attitudes to vehicle emissions has been overlooked in Ford’s exit.
It’s not quite time for international airlines to fly off into the sunset.
Aviation image www.shutterstock.com
A global deal on airline emissions leaves a number of loopholes.
Solar power generation is experiencing rapid growth.
Alexandra Wey/EPA/AAP
Renewable energy could be considered a central part of Malcolm Turnbull’s innovation ‘ideas boom’.
Miradortigre/Flickr
The Norwegian capital shows other cities how it’s done, by setting out a tailor-made plan to reduce emissions to zero by 2030.
Plants absorb carbon and store it in the land.
Blue mountains image from www.shutterstock.com
Australia is pumping 6.5 times more carbon into the atmosphere than the land can absorb.
South Australia is leading the way on wind energy - but that’s posing problems for the electricity sector.
Wind image from www.shutterstock.com
South Australia’s electricity price shock in July showed that Australia hasn’t worked out how to put large amounts of wind energy into the grid.
The Hazelwood power station has been named Australia’s ‘dirtiest’ for its carbon emissions.
Takver/Flickr
Victoria’s brown coal Hazelwood station produces 5% of Australia’s electricity, and 3% of the country’s carbon emissions.
Many businesses are committing to sourcing all of their energy from renewable sources.
Wind farm image from www.shutterstock.com
A swell of business action is continuing following the Paris climate agreement.
Fires in 1997 in Indonesia released over a billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Indonesia’s forests burned again in 2015.
AAP
The world has lost 10% of its wilderness areas in the past 20 years and, with it, vast stores of carbon.
Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley is one of the emissions intensive power stations that remains open.
AAP Image/David Crosling
Environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg said that eight out of Australia’s 12 most emission intensive power stations closed in the last five years. Is that right?