Category: Climate

Over the last week we have been treated to the depressing spectacle of the Prime Minister and his government reacting in a knee jerk, wrong-headed manner to two sensible and useful reports that have been released by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).  This highlights the folly of not having a national plan for transitioning the National Electricity Market towards an increasingly renewable energy system. (more…)

 Massive losses in Texas, Florida and across the Caribbean in recent days reminds us again of the capacity of tropical cyclones to wreak havoc. (more…)

In 2015 Australia’s businesses made the mistake of thinking the Coalition government was serious about tackling climate change, and solemnly lined up to support it….There won’t be any new coal power stations and the lives of existing ones won’d be extended unless the government bizarrely and unnecessarily pays for it. If that happened,it would bring about the final divorce of business and the Coalition and the final retreat by Malcolm Turnbull into the loony fog inhabited by Donald Trump and the coal dancers on the Coalition’s right. (more…)

One of the late billionaire Kerry Packer’s famous quotes about business was that you only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, a reference to his ability to sell the Nine Network to the late entrepreneur for a small fortune and then buy it back at a fraction of the price. (more…)

This article examines the contents of a recently aired 4 Corners episode, Pumped, which included allegations of water theft, corruption and regulatory capture in the Murray-Darling Basin. (more…)

Australia’s most pre-eminent solar researcher, Dr Martin Green, says the cost of solar PV technology will fall substantially in coming years, and while bad for the country’s thermal coal industry it will spell good news for other Australian mineral and materials exports.’ Any loss in thermal coal sales due to strong solar PV uptake will be offset 5 times over by increased demand for more valuable resources- coking coal,iron ore,alumina and copper’ (more…)

Australia has rich energy resources, both fossil and renewable, and a well considered electricity market design, as evidenced by the National Electricity Market (NEM), so why is our electricity market policy overall in such a shambolic state?  Successive national governments have failed to address the core policy issues that are fundamental if the ‘trilemma’ of current challenges are to be resolved. (more…)

One of the most dangerous threats to the human future in this, the Age of Perils, is … optimism. (more…)

Events that could permanently and drastically curtail humanity’s potential or even cause human extinction are often referred to as existential threats.   A moderate sized asteroid hitting our planet is a prime example.  It could wipe us all out in a flash, as apparently happened to 75% of the species on earth at the time a 10 Km diameter asteroid hit the Earth about 65 million years ago. (more…)

Although Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, many cities in the US (and in Australia) are taking climate change matters into their own hands, thumbing their collective noses at ideological-driven policy paralysis at the federal level. (more…)

If you ever wondered just how comprehensively the Far Right has hijacked the Coalition’s energy policy, it’s worth reading the speech by NSW energy minister Don Harwin we reported on last week. (more…)

The coal industry is facing a new crisis point as a group of leading scientists call for the construction of new coal generators to cease within three years, and as the industry’s flagship “clean coal” and carbon capture and storage project went up in smoke in the US. (more…)

Australia’s  policies on climate adaptation and disaster preparedness are not being brought together across jurisdictions to make the nation more resilient to inevitable shocks, let alone the insidious effects of reduced rainfall and water supplies. Professor Bruce Thom suggests how the imbalance between  emission control and adaptation can be addressed with three related policy suggestions. (more…)

 As the Coalition’s relentless internal struggles over energy ideology capture media headlines, a dramatic roll-back of protections for nature is underway. At State and Commonwealth levels Coalition governments have defunded environment programs and unpicked key legislation. Even fundamental conservation actions like the creation of protected areas have stalled as governments appear to see protections of nature as impediments to economic progress. But this is a false dichotomy. (more…)

Alan Finkel’s electricity review offers a chance to break the political impasse over climate and energy policy. Its key recommendations, including for a clean energy target – which would support a gradual transition from coal to renewables – are supported by cabinet, accepted by the Labor party, and embraced by large parts of Australia’s energy industry. But some Coalition parliamentarians are pushing for new coal fired plants, which would further weaken the environmental ambition of the package and lessen the prospect for a bipartisan approach. (more…)

Capitalising on failures of US leadership, China is emerging as a potential ‘great green power’ of the 21^st century.  (more…)