Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey hosting the recent G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Sydney, a lead-up event to November’s Brisbane Summit.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
When Australia hosts the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November, a top agenda item for its “Brisbane Action Plan” will be “practical actions to improve productivity and competitiveness”. So here’s a good place…
A mini power plant in a North Sydney basement. Trigeneration plants like these generate electricity, heating and cooling far more efficiently than with mains power.
AAP/Short Communications, Girrit Fokkema
The debate about the future of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) has largely focused on the issue of immediate costs to business. But if we’re thinking about Australia’s long-term economic interests…
The political fallout over the ill-fated Home Insulation Program continues, with former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard now having been summoned to appear before the Abbott government’s royal…
Restructuring the market is harder than it looks.
David Cheskin/PA
With high energy prices all anyone can talk about this winter, Ofgem’s interim chief Andrew Wright appeared before MPs today to defend the regulator’s performance. Predictably, he was met with some hostile…
What’s the world’s most important fuel, as we head into the 21st century? Oil, coal, gas, renewables? A recent International Energy Agency report stated the most important fuel for the future is energy…
Energy efficient houses are often thought to be a promising way to reduce our environmental footprint by using less energy and producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, surprisingly, if you consider…
Rent is free, but scientists turn your lights on and off and open and close your doors remotely.
University of Salford
Britain’s housing stock is old and leaky. The vast majority fails to meet modern energy efficiency standards, is responsible for over a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, and is often very…
Solving energy problems requires more than just putting on a jumper.
Steve Parsons/PA
The nights are drawing in, leaves are changing from green to gold, and energy suppliers are announcing price hikes. Along with animals disappearing into hibernation, energy price rises have become what…
First the banks lost the public’s trust, then the tax activities of some large corporations were brought under scrutiny. So perhaps taking on the “big six” UK energy companies as household fuel bills incessantly…
Electricity prices, renewable energy, climate change, uranium exports: what does the Coalition plan to do about our energy future?
akeii/Flickr
The Coalition has returned to government at a time of uncertainty and rapid change in almost every area of energy policy. With an energy policy released and a responsible minister named, what can we determine…
An aerial view of the Cononaco River in the Ecuadorian Amazon, with a huge emergent Ceiba tree in the foreground.
“Nothing would do more to rapidly decrease the risk of climate change than a major plan to protect global rainforests” – Opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt, media release, 30 August. Launching…
Bricks and mortar, yes, but how much insulation under the tiles?
Rui Vieira/PA
The UK has some of the oldest – and leakiest – housing stock in the western world. The vast majority of it will still be standing in 2050, the year by which the government has set itself a target to cut…
Switch off the heater, you won’t need it.
IceSabre/Flickr
A new study says that all Australia’s existing housing could be retrofitted to be zero emissions within ten years. Households could halve their energy use and go gas free. Australian households currently…
In the UK, a third of all the energy used goes towards heating buildings and providing hot water, most of this, a quarter of the total, in homes. The thermal efficiency of UK homes has increased by one…
Winter is coming, and all across the southern states eyes turn to energy bills and minds towards how to make them smaller. What is the most efficient way to heat your house? As with anything to do with…
Making power-hungry datacentres like these more energy efficient is vital.
Schlüsselbein2007/Flickr
Do you have a computer on a desk somewhere? Fans whirring, screensaver flickering, left on for days. Would you leave your washing machine running for days? Because over time, a desktop computer draws on…