Meanwhile, underlining that next week will see a tough internal debate, Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin has contradicted Malcolm Turnbull’s statement that the NEG had already been endorsed by the party room.
Salim Mazouz, Australian National University; Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, and Hugh Saddler, Australian National University
The final design of the National Energy Guarantee promises that the policy will drive down power prices. But there is precious little evidence for this assertion.
Images of the aftermath of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam collapse in Laos went around the world. But many other dam projects harm locals and the environment in less visible ways.
Australia needs to accelerate its transition to clean energy, and not prolong the use of high-polluting, coal-fired infrastructure. Otherwise it risks missing out on an economic windfall.
Australia’s consumer watchdog has concluded that rooftop solar incentives have distorted the market unfairly for those who cannot afford solar panels, and has recommended the scheme ends ten years early.
There are calls from the backbench and elsewhere for the federal government to safeguard the future of coal. But do those calls make economic sense? A look at Queensland’s energy landscape suggests not.
After the G7 fiasco, it’s clear that a trade war is in the making. US justifications of “national security concerns” for its tariffs suggest a legitimate target for EU countermeasures: coal.
Households that are most likely to go solar are those that can afford solar panels, but aren’t so rich that they don’t have to worry about their electricity bill at all, says a survey of 8,000 homes.
New Zealand has set itself a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and a recent report by the Productivity Commission lays out how it could hit that target.
They may not say ‘climate change,’ but many Republican US mayors support clean energy, jobs in renewable industries, and other climate-friendly policies. And so do majorities of their constituents.
Joachim Seel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Andrew Mills, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Large-scale solar and wind tend to push energy prices down, which sounds great as a consumer. But that makes keeping the grid in constant balance harder.
Environmentalists and climate hawks are cheering, but many experts aren’t excited about the state making rooftop solar panels mandatory on most new homes beginning in 2020.
Producing ammonia, which is a key ingredient in fertilizers, is one of the world’s most energy-intensive chemical manufacturing processes. Now there’s a new low energy option in development.