Greg Hunt (left) says he doesn’t want an emissions trading scheme; Clive Palmer says he does. But Hunt’s Direct Action plan might ultimately take us there anyway.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
There’s little point in getting too excited just yet about the details of Direct Action and its merits (or otherwise) as compared with emissions trading. Why? Because all of the current debate about Australia’s…
Bernie Fraser of the Climate Change Authority, environment minister Greg Hunt, and Clive Palmer announce a deal on a plan to cut Australia’s emissions this decade. What happens after that isn’t so clear.
AAPImage/Alan Porritt
With the passage of the Emissions Reduction Fund through the Senate last night, the federal government has taken a step towards achieving Australia’s minimum target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to…
Environment minister Greg Hunt will now push forward with his Direct Action policy, after successfully negotiating with Clive Palmer.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The federal government’s Direct Action climate policy, a A$2.5 billion scheme aimed at paying polluters to cut their greenhouse emissions, is set to be approved in the Senate after a deal between environment…
Fracking for gas - not a silver bullet for emissions reduction.
US Geological Survey/Wikimedia Commons
The boom in natural gas supplies brought about by techniques like fracking will not automatically deliver the anticipated cuts to greenhouse emissions, a new analysis has warned. Burning natural gas produces…
Having two children could leave more carbon emissions than you can save by changing lightbulbs.
p.Gordon/Flickr
You’ve changed your lightbulbs, you recycle, you’ve retrofitted your house, cycle when you can, and drive an electric car when you can’t. You’re doing your bit to reduce your carbon emissions and prevent…
Chinese President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will both skip the UN climate talks, but that doesn’t mean the world’s biggest emitters aren’t acting.
EPA/AAP
There are a few notable absentees among the more than 120 world leaders gathered in New York for today’s United Nations Climate Summit. Perhaps most notable of all is the head of the world’s highest-emitting…
Economic reforms such as a national carbon price could usher in dramatic changes on China’s energy landscape.
Vmenkov/Wikimedia Commons
In the lead-up to the UN leaders’ summit on climate change, China is shifting up a gear in its drive towards national emissions trading. Yet for carbon pricing to be effective, market reform in China’s…
Clive Palmer, with the unlikely backing of Al Gore, may have found a way to salvage something from Australia’s looming climate policy vacuum.
AAPImage/Alan Porritt
Climate policy is back on the agenda in Canberra this week, with the focus on the government’s centrepiece Direct Action plan. The Coalition will have to negotiate with the Palmer United Party, which will…
Forestry is credited under New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme.
World Resources Institute/Flickr
The Coalition government has recently axed Australia’s carbon “tax”, leaving us with no carbon price. Alternatives include the government’s “Direct Action” plan, or Clive Palmer’s proposed emissions trading…
Even before it was born, the carbon price had plenty of friends – and lots of enemies.
Shutterstock
The Carbon Pricing Mechanism, known to its friends as the carbon price and its critics as the carbon tax, passed away today in Canberra, aged two, after a long battle with slogans. While it won praise…
After more than a week of delays, the Senate has scrapped the carbon tax.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
James Whitmore, The Conversation; Michael Hopkin, The Conversation e Sarah Hall, The Conversation
The government has succeeded in getting legislation passed to repeal the carbon tax, despite some last-minute doubts cast by the Palmer United Party’s temporary withdrawal of support last week. Today…
Emissions from Australia’s power network fell sharply as a result of the carbon price.
Peripitus/Wikimedia Commons
Carbon emissions in Australia’s national electricity market would have been 11 to 17 million tonnes higher if Australia had not introduced a carbon price. New research using the latest data indicates that…
Leader of the House Christopher Pyne and Environment Minister Greg Hunt when the carbon tax repeal passed through the lower house on Monday.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The bill to repeal Australia’s “carbon tax” is poised to pass the Senate, potentially leaving Australia without a working price on carbon. In the short term, the repeal may provide some relief for businesses…
Clive Palmer announced his climate policy at a press conference with former US vice president Al Gore last night.
AAPImage/Alan Porritt
In a surprising announcement last night Clive Palmer promised to abolish Australia’s current carbon price, and block the coalition’s Direct Action policy. But Palmer has said he will vote to retain the…
A new benchmark to measure the economic response to climate change.
Mario Sánchez Prada
The UK government’s senior adviser on science has made an entirely sensible call for researchers and policy makers to move the climate change debate towards workable strategies and solutions. The trouble…
A reform silver lining lurking behind the clouds?
Arnold Paul
Luca Taschini, London School of Economics and Political Science e Josh Gregory, Imperial College London
In 2008, the European carbon market crashed. Carbon emission allowances in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) plunged from €30 per tonne of C02 in June 2008 to €7 at the beginning of 2009. Prices have…
Politically, the carbon tax issue has been great for Tony Abbott, allowing him to position himself as a friend to business.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Nine years ago, I spent long days inside Downing Street working with the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair on how to position his government on the global climate problem. Blair was keen to work out…
The key to reducing carbon emissions?
Caroline Ford
What if carbon trading – where companies must bid for limited permits to emit pollutants, and so pay a price in order to do so – could be applied on an individual level? Personal carbon trading is a policy…
It’s about climate change, but it’s not ALL about climate change.
John Giles/PA
Erik Gawel, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research; Paul Lehmann, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research e Sebastian Strunz, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
The European Commission has presented a new climate and energy policy framework for 2030 that focuses heavily on emissions reductions. Currently the EU implements “20-20-20” targets, which require a 20…
Making too much money can be the undoing of an emissions reduction scheme.
Images_of_Money/Flickr
Carbon (emissions) taxes have proved unpalatable world-wide, compared to (carbon) emissions trading schemes. But taxes give stable carbon prices while prices in emissions trading schemes yo-yo, plunge…