The MV Shen Neng I spills oil onto the Great Barrier Reef in 2010. Large accidents are rare, but there is still very little monitoring of long-term chronic damage from shipping.
AAP Image/AMSA
Port traffic near the Great Barrier Reef will more than double by 2025, as coal and other exports grow. While major incidents are rare, the chronic toll on the reef itself still remains largely unknown.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most magnificent wonders of our world.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
With the United Nations set to decide on whether to list the Great Barrier Reef as officially in danger, we look at the various threats to the reef’s survival, starting with the biggie… climate change.
What happens to coal in China will play a big role in deciding which climate road we’re all on.
Han Jun Zeng/Flickr
As climate negotiators meet at the United Nations’ Lima summit, which comes hot on the heels of the landmark US-China climate deal, there is a renewed focus on how the world can move to a lower-emissions…
Australia’s official forecasts for expanding fossil fuel exports don’t match up with what’s needed to avoid severe climate change.
Jeremy Buckingham/Flickr
In the last week the US and China announced goals to reduce emissions by 26-28% and cap emissions by 2030 respectively. India also signalled its aim to end coal imports within 2-3 years. These are telling…
Australian coal needs to find some new customers.
Stephen Codrington/Wikimedia Commons
China’s recent move to limit imports of the dirtiest coal from 2015 onwards is a scary prospect for Australian miners. The proposed restrictions will ban the burning of coal with high levels of ash or…
The Mount Thorley Warkworth mine in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales produces coal for both electricity and steel-making.
Lock the Gate Alliance/Flickr
At the recent midyear UN climate negotiations in Bonn, an unprecedented 60 countries (including Germany) called for a total phase-out of fossil fuels by 2050, as part of a global agreement on climate change…
Global action to reduce emissions could threaten Australia’s coal exports.
Lock the Gate Alliance/Flickr
Australia’s economy faces grave threats from climate change, but the greatest threat is if we do not make a serious effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not just the physical impacts of climate…
Two dozen ships anchored outside Gladstone harbour in 2008, waiting to load coal.
milton.v1/Flickr
We are in the coal business. If you want decent hospitals, schools and police on the beat we all need to understand that. – Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, June 2012. It was a rare moment of unscripted…
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…
We need to look at the economic and social cost of our coal.
Beyond Coal and Gas
In the coming months our new federal government will be promoting a massive expansion in Australia’s coal exports. In all likelihood they’ll hail it as “good For Australia”. It isn’t. Most of us are familiar…
Contrary to rumour, the future of Australia’s coal industry is looking pretty solid.
Joost J Bakker IJmuiden
Is coal in trouble in Australia? The Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics recently revealed A$150B-worth of mining and energy projects have been mothballed in the last 12 months. The media is reporting…
The situation is desperate, no-one in power seems to care: what’s a concerned citizen to do?
AAP Image/Greenpeace, James Alcock
Greenpeace’s attempt to stop a ship carrying Australian coal is an opening shot in what is likely to be an escalating campaign of civil disobedience directed at Australia’s export coal industry. The raid…
UNESCO’s warning has done little to turn Australia’s coal development around.
Peter Asquith
Australia has delivered an updated report on the state of conservation in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) that tip-toes around the politically charged issue of constraining major port expansions on the Queensland…
Coal mining is crowding out industries that could bring more benefits to more Australians.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Last week, Greenpeace released a report calling for a halt to Australia’s burgeoning coal exports and pointing to the catastrophic climate impacts they would cause. In response, Mitch Hooke, chief executive…
A coal ship caught on Nobby’s Beach in Newcastle. The city is the biggest in the world for coal exports.
asnewlibrarian/Flick
Why get worked up about our climate responsibilities when Australia’s contribution to global emissions – around 1.5% of the total - is small? Here is the usual reply. Australia’s domestic greenhouse gas…
A bund wall surrounds the Fishermans Landing Wharf expansion in Gladstone.
AAP/Dave Hunt
The sealing of a leak of dredge spoil (harbour-bottom scooped up and dumped in a landfill area) in a bund wall in Gladstone harbour was announced on 25th of June by the Gladstone Ports Corporation. Scientists…
Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Discipline of Politics & International Relations, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie University