If you use the full Kyoto period — 1990 to 2020 — the US is minus 5% and Australia is almost exactly the same. Environment minister Greg Hunt, Radio National, November 17. *We and the United States are…
Climate change could make your hay fever much worse, thanks to three times more pollen allergens in the air.
Serhiy Kobyakov/Shutterstock
It’s now late spring, with summer just around the corner, and many people with hay fever suffer at this time of year in Australia. Although the cause of this suffering is invisible to us, it is actually…
Many G20 members have now pledged contributions to the Green Climate Fund, but Australia has signalled it will not.
PR handout/AAP
The G20 summit in Brisbane has put the pressure on Australia to boost its action on climate change not just at home but also internationally through a new UN-backed fund. The summit yielded major pledges…
G20 leaders agreed to an economic growth target of 2.1% by 2018.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Despite Australia’s best efforts, climate change muscled its way onto the G20 agenda. The summit’s final communique included one paragraph restating the importance of international negotiations in Paris…
Antarctica has actually been protected from sea ice melt by the ozone hole.
Vassil Tzvetanov
Many people think of sunburn and skin cancer when they hear about the ozone hole. But more ultraviolet (UV) radiation isn’t the only problem. The ozone hole has also led to dramatic changes in Southern…
Tony Abbott used his closing remarks at the G20 to reaffirm his commitment to coal.
AAP/Lukas Coch
G20 nations have supported “strong and effective” action on climate change, but included some equivocal wording on the timing for issuing post-2020 targets and on the Green Climate Fund to accommodate…
US President Barack Obama addresses a crowd at the University of Queensland.
AAP/Dan Peled
US president Barack Obama has given Australia a sharp prod on climate change, saying he wanted his future grandchildren to be able to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef. Obama, addressing an enthusiastic audience…
Tony Abbott’s round of summiteering has given him a good opportunity to have discussions with a range of other leaders, but it complicated preparations for the G20.
EPA/Barbara Walton
Tony Abbott finds himself the party host caught somewhat off-balance as his guests set off crackers all over the place. The government is – and has been all year – shouting that it wants this weekend’s…
The real background would be too polluted.
EPA/Petar Kujundzic
The joint US-China announcement on tackling climate change has been described as “historic”, a “turning point” and a “positive signal”. It has also been written off as insubstantive or even “hype”. The…
Some great news at last, as China and the US announce a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their carbon emissions. After years of seeming to get nowhere at all it looks like we have the beginnings of meaningful…
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a press conference in Beijing, at which they announced the deal.
EPA/How Hwee Young
After Tony Abbott did everything he could to keep discussion of climate change out of the G20, he has been ambushed almost on the eve of the weekend meeting. The Prime Minister did not have forewarning…
By 2100 there could be 11 billion people on Earth, but there’s no quick way to slow growth.
James Cridland/Flickr
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…
Kids need to learn about climate change in a way they can understand, and that teaches them they can help.
350.org/Flickr
The conclusions published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this week provide a wake-up call about the importance of teaching kids about sustainability. The IPCC’s…
Nationals MP George Christensen told Parliament that the hot temperatures of 1896 have been “wiped from the official record”. It’s a bit more complicated than that.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
“How could it be getting hotter … if it was really hotter 118 years ago? It’s relatively simple: the early years are simply wiped from the official record.” – Nationals MP George Christensen, House of…
By addressing climate change, Charlie Baker bolstered his image as a pragmatic problem solver.
Charlie Baker 2014 campaign
On an urgent mission to shift the political debate over climate change, environmental groups spent an unprecedented $85 million in the 2014 U.S. midterm elections, focusing their efforts on a handful of…
As both a word and an idea, ‘medieval’ carries centuries of connotation of a murky and brutal pre-scientific age.
US Fish & Wildlife Service/Swanson Scott
“Medieval” has become the accusation du jour in Australian domestic politics, used with equal conviction across the spectrum to discredit opponents’ views. One debate where this accusation has taken centre…
Climate change is one of the few scientific theories that makes us examine the whole basis of modern society. It is a challenge that has politicians arguing, sets nations against each other, queries individual…
Ambassador for the Environment Peter Woolcott, as president of the final UN conference on the Arms Trade Treaty.
Twitter
Australia has a new ambassador to lead its negotiations for the December 2015 United Nations climate change conference in Paris, which is tasked with hammering out an international agreement for post-2020…
The IPCC’s latest report sets the record straight on science (again), but could be stronger on the economic case for climate action.
EPA/Niels Ahlmann Olesen/AAP
The headline statements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new Synthesis Report – unequivocal climate change, almost certainly driven largely by humans, and an urgent need to cut emissions…
Members of the public photograph an ice art installation outside the Copenhagen building where the IPCC met to finalise its latest report.
EPA/Soeren Bidstrup/AAP
Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say they are confident their latest report, released in Copenhagen today, will help give politicians the impetus to commit to the deep emissions…