Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Australia’s usual approach to big international negotiations is to hold out, before reluctantly making “concessions”. It’s the wrong approach for trade, and the wrong approach for climate change.
Hydrogen could replace fossil fuels, but it’s only as clean as the techniques used to produce it. Almost all production comes from high-carbon sources, but new investments could change that.
Heat pumps are the technology of choice for heating and cooling buildings more efficiently and with fewer carbon emissions than furnaces and air conditioning.
A global energy authority created a roadmap for the world to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, Australia committed $600 million for a major new gas plant.
The Earth should be safe (and habitable) for a few billions of years, but we still need to worry about the impact now of just a few degrees of global warming.
A transcript of episode 7 of The Conversation Weekly pocast, including an extra from Don’t Call Me Resilient on the treatment of migrant workers in Canada.