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…
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, and 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…
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…
Third time lucky: after a deal between Clive Palmer (right) and his Senate PUPs with the government, the carbon tax has finally been repealed.
Alan Porritt/AAP
UPDATED THURSDAY 17 JULY, 11:20am: Australia’s “carbon tax” has been axed – so what does it mean for you and for Australia? We asked Conversation readers to tell us on Facebook and Twitter what questions…
Ross Garnaut says Australia is becoming a drag on the international climate effort.
Joe Castro/AAPIMAGE
Ross Garnaut was the architect of the Labor government’s carbon pricing scheme, which looks likely to be scrapped this week despite last week’s brinkmanship in the Senate. The Conversation asked Professor…
In the media spotlight: Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer outside the Senate chamber at Parliament House this week.
Lukas Coch/AAP
If you heard Clive Palmer and his Palmer United senators say today that they will only scrap the carbon tax with stronger rules to protect consumers, you might have thought they sounded quite fair and…
A property in South Australia’s Clare Valley, where the farmer has planted hundreds of gum trees.
David Clarke/Flickr
Australian farmers and rural land owners are being told that they will be given powerful and direct incentives to store carbon in the land under the federal government’s new climate policy. But is that…
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…
The new budget has served up a big hit to Australia’s environment.
Anton Balazh/Shutterstock
Budgets are often framed as give and take. But in the case of the environment, the government is taking large amounts of money in cuts, while giving little back beyond funding the Direct Action climate…
Greg Hunt says he is confident the Emissions Reduction Fund will meet its target of cutting carbon pollution by 5%.
AAP Image/Daniel Munoz
The long-awaited White Paper on the A$2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund answers some questions about how the Abbott government’s Direct Action climate plan will work. But it looks like the policy will…
Better appliances and energy-efficiency rules saved Australians more than A$3 billion on electricity last year alone.
Shutterstock
The latest review of Australia’s energy-saving appliance scheme has delivered a rare trifecta: a good news story for the economy, the community and the environment. According to my estimates from data…
Changing how we consume energy is the best way to mitigate climate change.
Adam Bowie/Flickr
While the latest IPCC report on mitigation doesn’t recommend any particular strategy for reducing carbon emissions, it suggests changing energy consumption is a key mitigation strategy. According to the…
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 Senate is becoming a battleground over the Abbott government’s carbon policy.
JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons
A Labor-dominated Senate committee has set the stage for the post-July tussle over carbon policy, recommending that Australia commit to much deeper emissions cuts than the current 5% target, and advising…
The UK’s coal revival is set to continue.
Gareth Watson
The big energy policy headline in the budget was well trailed. As expected, the level of the UK’s carbon tax on electricity generation will be frozen from 2016/17 until the end of this decade. Conceived…
Is the city shrouded in a carbon bubble?
Lars Plougman
Sam Fankhauser, London School of Economics and Political Science
The number of climate change laws on the statue books of the world’s leading economies grew from less than 40 in 1997 to almost 500 at the end of 2013. Most leading countries now have legal provisions…
Fuel efficiency standards would reduce carbon emissions and pain at the pump.
yewenyi/Flickr
The federal government has begun the process of unwinding the carbon price, moving to cancel further auctions of carbon permits, ahead of its hoped-for repeal of all carbon-pricing legislation after the…
Australia’s new climate policy fails on three fronts: global action, crediting, and land.
Flickr/mrhong42
The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), the central pillar of Australia’s Direct Action climate policy, continues to attract a fair bit of derision with its credibility said to be “hanging by a thread”. Is…
Stormy weather hits New Zealand’s capital, Wellington.
Flickr.com/wiifm69 (Sean Hamlin)
Jim Salinger, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
A recent headline – Failed doubters trust leaves taxpayers six-figure loss – marked the end of a four-year epic saga of secretly-funded climate denial, harassment of scientists and tying-up of valuable…