George H.W. Bush, who has passed away aged 94, was US president when the world began grasping the climate issue in earnest. But he was pivotal in setting the US on a course of blocking climate action.
Bill Shorten will hope his new energy policy package is a crowd-pleaser.
AAP Image/Ben Rushton
Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
The Labor Party’s newly announced energy policy could finally set Australia’s electricity sector on the path to a renewables-driven future. But policies are still needed to cut emissions elsewhere.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks at an anti-carbon-tax rally in Calgary, in October 2018.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)
In order to address a warming planet over the medium and long-term, climate policy must be designed to be adaptable and indeed attractive to those across the political spectrum.
Valero’s Benicia Refinery, less than 40 miles from San Francisco.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Exxon Mobil has a clear motive to back a new plan to tax carbon with its clout and money. And a carbon tax that is high enough to work might prove politically impossible to enact.
Australia’s climate stance risks its standing on the world stage.
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Climate policy is clearly a threat to the job security of Australian prime ministers, but it could upend our international diplomacy as well, with a string of key summits looming in coming months.
A real fire in southern New South Wales - not to be confused with the metaphorical one in the halls of Canberra.
AAP Image/Darren Pateman
With New South Wales suffering winter bushfires and temperature records tumbling around the globe, our leaders in Canberra have picked a bad time to jettison climate policy in favour of political bickering.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg have been forced to back down on plans to legislate emissions reductions for the electricity sector.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has abandoned the emissions-reduction component of his signature energy policy, in the latest chapter of a brutal decade-long saga for Australian climate policy.
Josh Frydenberg and Malcolm Turnbull both know that the history books make for uncomfortable reading when it comes to emissions policy.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The National Energy Guarantee faces a crunch test this week. And if the climate wars of the past few decades are any guide, Australian policies more often sink than swim when the waters get choppy.
The survey revealed 84% support for renewable energy among the Australian public.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The latest annual survey from the Lowy Institute shows that 59% of Australians support strong climate action, and 84% want the government to embrace renewable energy even if it’s more expensive.
As the world prevaricates over climate action, Antarctica’s future is shrouded in uncertainty.
Hamish Pritchard/British Antarctic Survey
What will Antarctica look like in 2070? Will the icy wilderness we know today survive, or will it succumb to climate change and human pressure? Our choices over the coming decade will seal its fate.
Livestock is a significant source of methane, a potent but short-lived greenhouse gas.
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Dave Frame, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Adrian Henry Macey, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington e Myles Allen, University of Oxford
New research has suggested a fresh way to account for greenhouse gases with different lifetimes in the atmosphere.
Solar panels being installed in new housing under construction in Sacramento, Calif.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
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.
Enviva’s wood pellet plant in Ahoskie, NC.
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Deriving fuel from trees costs more than wind and solar power and it emits more carbon than coal. There are many heated debates about this kind of energy, known as forest or woody biomass.
Peter C. Doherty, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Scientific problems require evidence-led solutions. A new proposal to create a federal environmental decision-making body would take some of the politics out of climate policy.