Energy Minister Angus Taylor is this week expected to release the government’s first Low Emissions Technology Statement. It’s likely to include ways to remove CO₂ from the air – but do they work?
Australia is awash with options for low-emissions energy.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
A new report from CSIRO outlines four pathways for Australia to hit our Paris climate targets, and get cheaper energy at the same time.
High-emission brown coal power generators including Hazelwood are set to be among the short-term winners from the carbon tax repeal.
AAP Image/David Crosling
When the carbon tax was introduced, there was a lot of discussion about winners and losers. The Labor government limited the number of businesses that had to pay the tax, while it also gave carbon tax…
More cars, even more better cars, is not the answer.
Doo Ho Kim
With the promise that Tesla’s Model S will “liberate its owners from the petroleum-burning paradigm”, this electric car is an example of just how far technological innovation could take us towards achieving…
Lake George, complete with “offensive” wind turbines. Expect more views like this around Canberra soon.
Darcyj/Wikimedia Commons
We now know that Treasurer Joe Hockey is not a fan of wind farms, on aesthetic grounds at least. On Friday he told Macquarie Radio’s Alan Jones he finds the view “utterly offensive” and “a blight on the…
Biomass energy plants, such as this one in the UK, could be crucial for a low-emission future.
Peter Robinson/Wikimedia Commons
The world may have to rely on “emissions-negative” energy technologies in the latter half of this century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new report on reducing the impacts…
For the first time the IPCC has addressed the ethical, as well as technical, issues of reducing greenhouse emissions.
EPA/How Hwee Young/AAP
Frank Jotzo, Australian National University and David Stern, Australian National University
The new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that global greenhouse gas emissions have grown faster than ever over the last decade. Taking action to achieve the world’s goal…
Switch off the heater, you won’t need it.
IceSabre/Flickr
A new study says that all Australia’s existing housing could be retrofitted to be zero emissions within ten years. Households could halve their energy use and go gas free. Australian households currently…
Chemical Looping may eventually replace other carbon capture technologies.
AAP
Chemical looping, a low carbon technology for the fossil fuel industry, is increasingly been viewed as a competitive technology in carbon capture and storage, with the successful completion of pilot plant…
While Australia fears either an environment or economic doomsday, other countries get on with making a cleaner future.
Detail of Hieronymus Bosch's The Last Judgment, from Flickr/profzucker
I sometimes wonder what planet this country of ours is on. The environmental debate we are having seems to be in a parallel universe to the rest of the world. Having spent the last four years running one…
No such thing as a free lunch: nuclear power can do what many renewable energy systems have not yet done on a large scale - deliver.
Flickr/Gretchen Mahan
To paraphrase George Orwell: “All electricity is created equal, but some of its generating technologies are more equal than others”. This is a crucial point – emphasised but typically overlooked – in the…
Sold to the lowest bidder! The carbon price will not transform Australia’s power supply without further steps to help low-emission technologies into the market.
Flickr/sashafatcat
When it comes to reducing emissions, most serious analysts agree: the market works best, but the market is not enough. The International Energy Agency, the OECD, leading British climate economist Nicholas…