A new petition is urging state and federal governments to rein in Australia’s rampant land clearing, which worsens the risk of bushfires and threatens to undo the work of the Emissions Reduction Fund.
Australia’s government insists it is on track to surpass its emissions reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement. But while that may be true, it will only happen with some clever accounting.
Australia’s commitments to cut emissions are on a collision course with urban growth. We need a much more comprehensive strategy to make the transition to a sustainable built environment.
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.
The federal government is primarily to blame for the mess that is Australia’s energy policy. It’s time for the states to step up, to reduce both prices and emissions.
The latest UN climate report makes it clear that the task of limiting climate change is urgent and huge. We must start to transform our economy today, but it will bring rewards as well as challenges.
The world needs to be carbon-neutral by mid-century to give ourselves a chance of holding global warming to 1.5C. With around 1% of the global carbon budget, Australia needs to rapidly do its share.
The late Sen. John McCain was an early – and lonely – Republican supporter of action to fight climate change. His challenge was to regulate sources of energy that underlie much of our economy.
Renewable energy investment is gathering steam throughout the world. Australia’s National Energy Guarantee policy should be made agile enough to jump on board, because this runaway train won’t stop.
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 first IPCC conference on cities has highlighted the challenges of reconciling science, urban practices and politics. But it was an important recognition of cities’ leading role in climate action.
Australia’s flagship climate policy, has spent more than $2 billion on emissions reductions, yet big businesses could wipe all this out. Time to resurrect the idea of a simple carbon tax.
The federal government’s keenly awaited review of Australia’s climate policies continues a longstanding bipartisan traditional of weak policy development in this area.
It’s still possible to hit the more ambitious of the two Paris global warming goals, according to a new estimate of the global carbon budget. But it sure won’t be easy, and we need to start now.
The Turnbull government is still tying itself in knots over the future of coal, as literally decades of policy turmoil on climate and energy continue to roll on.
It’s a good thing that cities aspire to lead the way in acting on climate change in the absence of stronger national action. But a closer look reveals the limitations of current city-based efforts.
A new analysis by ClimateWorks Australia says that the electricity sector needs to do far more to cut its carbon emissions than will be delivered by current policies.
A survey of executives in high-emitting industries such as mining and electricity generation suggests they are not engaging with the government’s flagship policy to cut greenhouse emissions.