Climate
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Morrison’s net zero deal with the Nationals won’t deal with climate change
The world will be watching, but on some reckonings, the Australian prime minister’s pledge at COP26 in Glasgow will be around 25 years too late. Continue reading »
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Australia is undermining the Paris Agreement, no matter what Morrison says
We need new laws to stop Prime Minister Scott Morrison undermining the international treaty central to combating climate change. Continue reading »
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Why the road to net zero looks smooth for drivers
An emissions ceiling on new vehicle sales would give Australia a fighting chance of reaching its 2050 net zero target — and provide big savings for drivers. Continue reading »
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How Australia could halve carbon emissions by 2030
Australia needs to cut its emissions by 45-50 per cent by 2030. Australia can realise this near-term target and grasp the opportunities that it also presents. Continue reading »
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Climate of unreality: time to call out the National Party
The Nationals have done a disservice to the farmers they claim to champion. They cannot be allowed to lead Australia’s response to the climate catastrophe. Continue reading »
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‘We share your alarm’ about climate change: Former PMs’ letter to Pacific leaders
Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull and Bob Carr have written to Pacific leaders to apologise for Australia’s inaction on climate change. This is their letter. Continue reading »
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Why we should halve carbon emissions by 2030
Net zero for carbon emissions in 2050 is meaningless without an ambitious target to halve these emissions in the next decade. In a two-part article, Michael Keating sets out why we need a more dramatic target. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up.
I know Scotty is a regular reader, so this week’s round up is a handy cheat sheet to help him as COP26 in Glasgow beckons. Continue reading »
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Australia’s climate policies are a shambles — will our children forgive us? Part 2
It is too late for an orderly transition to a low-carbon future. It’s now imperative that we have scientifically literate, competent leaders acting for the common good. Continue reading »
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The deniers at The Australian with their faux commitment to climate change. Part 1
Not so fast with the good news. To avoid disaster for the planet, we need tougher measures. Nothing short of embracing a war footing will be enough. Continue reading »
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The speech the PM can use to wow his Glasgow audience
If Prime Minister Scott Morrison really wants to make an impression at COP26 in Glasgow, here is what he should say. Continue reading »
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Murdoch’s climate denialists must bear heavy responsibility for national failure
The insistence of denialists at The Australian that the 2050 emissions targets are beyond the world’s reach is damaging and flies in the face of science and technological progress. Continue reading »
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The Nationals and their dangerous search for relevance
Every deputy covets their moment in the sun. This can usually be arranged without harm. In the case of Barnaby Joyce little appears to come without harm. Continue reading »
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One minute to midnight: only fresh thinking can tackle climate and biodiversity crises
The world’s biodiversity will continue to deteriorate even if temperature rise was arrested. The question for the Glasgow summit is whether our emission-driving economic system can respond. Continue reading »
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Barnaby Joyce fills Scott Morrison’s climate policy vacuum
The responsibility for Australia’s climate and energy policies have effectively been handed over to a group of Nationals MPs. It’s a travesty, but it shouldn’t be a surprise. Continue reading »
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National Party is extorting the government for money and favours on climate change
After all the grandstanding, the National Party will make a deal on climate change policy. They are for sale. Continue reading »
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Zero chance of net zero: the human security challenge after 2050
We are condemned to a hot planet. A 4-degree warming is inevitable no matter what measures are taken, so humans must now consider how to cope with this reality. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up.
Climate change creates internal refugees for countries least able to cope. Urgent action required to reduce methane emissions – but it’s easy. Australian companies’ carbon offsetting schemes are corporate greenwashing and nations’ emission reduction promises are just that … promises. Continue reading »
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Raise Warragamba dam, raise the risk to the environment
More housing, less habitat. More extinctions, less vegetation. With the raising of Australia’s largest urban water supply dam, Sydney would be further primed to emulate the flood disasters of Brisbane. Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison shames Australia with abdication to the National Party
Scott Morrison has abdicated any pretence of leadership on climate change, allowing the National Party — which has turned its back on farmers — to hold Australia to ransom. Continue reading »
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News Corp’s climate pivot perpetrates a new fraud and draws us closer to climate catastrophe
Not only does News Corp’s new climate change campaign come after years of spreading climate misinformation, it is also simply replacing its last fraud with another. Continue reading »
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Waking up to the Coalition’s climate change dinosaurs
While the press debates whether the prime minister will go to COP26, members of his government are living in a world where they believe their constituents aren’t worried about climate change. Continue reading »
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After the battle for net zero emissions, more climate battles are coming
The battle for net zero emissions is nearly over, but not the war. A new battle, to cut emissions deeply by 2030, is under way. Following hard behind, another battle is starting, to cut emissions of methane. Continue reading »
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With a five per cent vote the Nationals are holding us to ransom on climate change
What is the meaning of Australian democracy when a minor party, populated by extreme right-wing ideologists, can decide Australia’s position on arguably the most important policy issue of our time — climate change? Continue reading »
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The unrecognised challenge on the left of successfully addressing global warming
Despite the focus on events like COP26 to put pressure on governments, the critical point of leverage in the political domain to adopt the policies needed for a new era will remain at the national level. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up
Thirty per cent of tree species are at risk of extinction, an issue of vital importance to city dwellers. Disasters are linked and compound each other and share human-induced root causes. Summer night-time temperatures rising. Angus Taylor touting ‘positive energy’. Continue reading »
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John Brown: We owe our young people action on climate change
What a pity that beautiful, talented sensitive young Aussies are hamstrung by a government which is condemned around the world for its failure to act on improving the world’s environment. Continue reading »
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Before it even starts in Glasgow, COP26 is a climate change success
Momentum is building for the big climate conference in Glasgow next month. It needs a big contribution from China. This may not happen: their agenda is full. But Glasgow has succeeded already. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up.
The rate of global warming set to double as fossil fuel use falls. Australia’s climate negligence threatening security. Children born today will be exposed to more extreme weather events. Patchwork deforestation creates more forest edges. Continue reading »
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When a forest becomes a means of destruction: The Jewish National Fund, Greenwashing and COP26
In 1901, in Basel, Switzerland, a small group of Jewish men established an organisation which they named, portentously, the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Continue reading »
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