While a privatised energy market has delivered stable and cost-effective electricity to Britain’s national grid for 25 years, the world and the pressures it faces are changing. A group of Newcastle University…
Bee population variations are linked to climate change, new research has shown. The study highlights warnings about the effect…
US summers are longer and hotter, which the new report warns is affecting power supplies. Last summer, the Pilgrim nuclear plant near Boston had to reduce its power output because the bay’s water was too warm to cool the reactor.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission/Flickr
It’s been talked up as a “game-changing” new report, which shows ordinary Americans how climate change is already affecting their lives on everything from summer heat and power shortages, to pollen allergies…
Britain’s warm, wet winter brought floods and misery to many living across southern England, with large parts of Somerset lying underwater for months. When in January rainfall was double the expected average…
The chair of the Commission of Audit, Tony Shepherd, on the release of the report today.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The message from the federal government’s Commission of Audit is loud and clear: science, research and education are expenses to be trimmed rather than investments to be nurtured. Yes, there are few big…
In the industrial era, economic growth has become equated with human progress, with a fundamental assumption that material growth and consumption inevitably leads to improvements in our well-being. Over…
Despite their party’s potentially pivotal role in climate policy, Clive Palmer (left) and Jacqui Lambie have both misconstrued basic facts about climate change.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
When you ask Australians what proportion of climate scientists agree on the reality of human-caused global warming, the average answer is around 58%, despite evidence that the true size of the consensus…
Clive Palmer and his party’s senators and allies will play a crucial role in the Senate from July.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
The Palmer United Party has threatened to block the Abbott government’s Direct Action climate policy in the Senate. Last week, there was even speculation about it sparking a constitutional crisis. But…
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…
IPCC leaders release their climate mitigation report in Berlin - but governments already have one eye on next year’s UN climate summit.
EPA/Joerg Carstensen
In the wake of this month’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on ways to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, accusations began to fly in the media that the report had been censored…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report tells us that CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise and that, unchecked, climate change will likely…
Attorney-General George Brandis during a debate at Parliament House in Canberra.
AAP Image/Daniel Munoz
The Australian Attorney General, Senator George Brandis, is no stranger to controversy. His statement in parliament that “people do have a right to be bigots” rapidly gained him notoriety, and it isn’t…
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…
Believers in alien abduction do not have a right to be taken seriously, and nor do those who simply reject the evidence of climate change.
Photobank gallery/Shutterstock
In a recent interview, federal attorney-general George Brandis laments that deniers of climate science are being “excluded” from the debate. On the surface this seems a justifiable complaint, but the point…
Sanjay Lanka, University of Essex; Flávia Naves, Federal University of Lavras, and Yuna Fontoura, Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas (FGV/EBAPE)
The global food system contributes to climate change through industrial farming practices, the increasing use of fertiliser to fight dropping yields and the transport of food around the world. But the…
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – shown at UN headquarters with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop last year – is urging governments and businesses to bring “bold pledges” to a UN summit later this year.
EPA/Jason Szenes
After a week of mostly bad news on climate change, new figures reveal that Australia easily beat its first internationally-agreed climate target, with nearly 131 million tonnes of emissions to spare. That’s…
The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands could avoid being swamped entirely, although it will still suffer profoundly from sea-level rise.
Christopher Johnson/Wikimedia Commons
Paul Kench, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
It is widely predicted that low-lying coral reef islands will drown as a result of sea-level rise, leaving their populations as environmental refugees. But new evidence now suggests that these small islands…
Stephan Lewandowsky, chair of cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol, answered questions posed by the public on Reddit. The Conversation has curated the highlights. Conspiracy theories Under…