When announcing the media enquiry in September this year, Senator Conroy committed to regulatory processes that support “a healthy and independent media that is able to fulfill its essential democratic…
Passing the carbon price through the Senate is a victory, but there is plenty yet to be done.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
At long last, the Gillard Government’s carbon price is law. On July 1 next year, approximately 500 of our biggest companies will start paying the government $23 for every tonne of greenhouse gas they emit…
Argument has raged outside parliament - is there anything left to say inside?
AAP
It all started in February when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced her government would seek to introduce a carbon tax. This signalled the start of a policy debate marathon that still shows no sign…
The planet is warming up but a carbon price is not the way to help.
Flickr/Pilottage
The world is getting warmer and wetter, almost undoubtedly due to the fact that we are burning up fossil fuels at an incredible rate. While this change in our climate will lead to some positive opportunities…
Cate Blanchett is among the celebrities pressed into service to persuade us on political issues.
AAP/WWF
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: This afternoon, Andrew Hughes examines which recent political adverts have been a success, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our…
The carbon tax is the latest attempt by an Australian government to legislate in order to avert disaster, this time to the climate. Whether the tax will become law sits on a knife edge, and the stakes…
Price-gouging might occur under the carbon tax regime, but market discipline will keep it in check.
Flickr/dmcneil
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has announced that the government will provide the competition watchdog with almost $13 million in extra funding to tackle carbon tax-related price-gouging. In this context…
Locking carbon dioxide in soils and crops also stimulates emission of other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide, a study found, meaning the capacity of land ecosystems to slow climate warming may have been overestimated.
Flickr/AndyCarvin
The ability of land ecosystems like crops and soils to slow down climate change may have been overestimated because some of these ‘carbon sinks’ actually emit more greenhouse gases than first thought…
Julia Gillard claims Peabody’s $5bn bid shows international confidence in the coal industry’s future.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has claimed that US-based Peabody Energy’s $5bn takeover bid for Queensland’s Macarthur Coal represents an endorsement for the government’s carbon tax. But does Peabody’s bid…
A survey of 140 economists found 60% were in favour of the Gillard government’s carbon tax policy.
AAP
A survey of 145 economists released today found that 60% believe the Gillard government’s carbon tax is good economic policy. The carbon tax package, announced on Sunday, penalises 500 heavy polluters…
Households will bear more financial burdens as Gillard’s carbon tax regime matures.
AAP
The carbon tax is short-term carrot and long-term stick. The Coalition’s campaign against “a great big new tax” drove Gillard to introduce a tax for which most people and businesses affected will be compensated…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet address a press conference on Sunday. A carbon tax package announced today includes compensation measures and a radical overhaul of income tax policy.
ABC News24
The Australian government announced on Sunday it would introduce a carbon tax at $23 a tonne next July, rising 2.5% annually plus inflation and moving to a market-based emissions trading scheme in 2015…
An emissions trading scheme and a carbon tax are not the same thing.
AAP
Since July 2012, Australia has had in place its carbon pricing scheme. It is commonly referred to as a “carbon tax”, but also as an “Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with a fixed price”. And the plan is…
An oil extraction project in Canada – a country absent from the Productivity Commission’s carbon report.
AAP
One of the most basic questions to ask in any analysis of Australia’s carbon policy has always been: what is the rest of the world doing? Last week, the Productivity Commission (PC) published a partial…
Swan is confident the carbon tax won’t hurt Australia’s economy.
AAP
The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has put out an appetiser for the Treasury modelling of the introduction of a carbon tax. In his speech to the National Press Club he reiterated the necessity of introducing a…
A carbon price won’t help much unless it keeps going up.
AAP
To achieve actual reductions in Australia’s emissions, the carbon price will need to rise from its likely starting point in the $20s. A price floor in the trading phase could help bring about efficient…
With a bit of effort, we can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
tuey/Flickr
How many wake up calls do we need? The latest International Energy Agency figures, published in today’s Guardian newspaper, show global carbon emissions are at their highest ever levels. As IEA chief economist…
It’s easier to sell a Green Deal in the UK’s political climate.
Cabinet Office/Flickr
The UK government has released a Green Deal that, at face value, seems impossible to replicate in Australia. But how radical and ambitious is this policy? The first thing to note is that the Green Deal…
Are carbon campaigns failing miserably on strategy?
jondoig/Flickr
Braying climate naysayers are annoying; but so are all those well-intentioned carbon tax advocates who fail to address the core problems and make the same mistakes time and time again. If we’re going to…