Despite there being no reference to the words “market mechanism” or “carbon market” in the agreement, the agreement clearly establishes a new international carbon market mechanism.
After years of squabbling over climate policy, do we now have a prime minister prepared to clean up the mess? Given a fair wind at the Paris summit and an election win, Turnbull might just pull it off.
Australia used to have state-based emissions trading schemes, before they were ditched in favour of the now-abandoned national one. State premiers might say there’s no way to resurrect them, but there is.
China, the world’s biggest greenhouse emitter, will set up a national emissions trading scheme beginning in 2017. Our experts react to the announcement, made during President Xi Jinping’s US state visit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a landmark commitment on climate change, pledging to launch what will become the world’s largest and most important emissions trading scheme when it begins in 2017.
In backing Abbott’s existing climate policy, Malcolm Turnbull looks like appeasing his party. But his prospects would be better served by appealing to voters who are anxious for strong climate action.
From Hawke-Keating to Rudd-Gillard, climate policy has an uncanny ability to cost Australian political leaders their jobs. And it was a key element in the rivalry between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
The Climate Change Authority, rocked by this week’s resignation of its chairman Bernie Fraser but saved last year by the Senate, will continue reviewing climate policy - even if its advice is ignored.
The term ‘carbon tax’ is a political poison in Australia, thanks to the previous carbon tax which was actually an emissions trading scheme. Yet ironically, many economists prefer a tax over an ETS anyway.
Labor says it hasn’t yet decided what climate policy to take to the next election, although this week’s leak has bolstered the idea that it will involve carbon pricing – a subject with a long and vexed history for the party.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has hinted that Australia risks becoming an outsider at this year’s Paris climate talks if it doesn’t match the ambition of many other countries’ climate pledges.
Emissions fell by six times the rate in the five years before the carbon tax than they did under the carbon tax. – Environment minister Greg Hunt, The Guardian, January 17, 2015. Australia’s total greenhouse…
Climate change, now belatedly added to the agenda for this month’s G20 meeting in Brisbane, is a perennial topic whenever leaders gather for international summits. That’s understandable, given that countries…
The rise in population since 1900 has been so rapid that up to 14% of all humans that have ever lived are still alive today, according to recent research. Other research shows that slowing population growth…