Post of the Day
‘Largest coastal erosion in years’: Wild weather in northern NSW, Queensland expected to worsen
Wild weather is pounding Queensland and northern NSW, damaging the coast, with authorities warning that dramatic conditions will continue to deteriorate.
On This Day
Climate Change
US to hold world climate summit early next year and seek to rejoin Paris accord
Action points for first 100 days of Joe Biden presidency seen as boost to international action currently falling behind
Ardern and Thunberg in spat over climate emergency declaration
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has strongly rebutted Greta Thunberg after the activist accused New Zealand of not doing enough to deliver on its climate action promises.
Estonia pursuing climate neutrality together with 126 other states
With the Paris Agreement having been signed five years ago on Saturday, altogether 127 states are either already pursuing climate neutrality or mulling over doing so; the aggregate share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions produced by these states amounts to 63 percent.
Paris climate summit is delivering on its promise but in some unexpected ways
Peter Hannam
During an icy December five years ago, almost all the world’s nations struck a climate agreement, but a side meeting had arguably more impact.
The Paris Agreement 5 years on: big coal exporters like Australia face a reckoning
Jeremy Moss
On Saturday, more than 70 global leaders came together at the UN’s Climate Ambition Summit, marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.
We ignored pandemic warnings and now look. Let’s not do the same for climate change.
Peter Dykstra
We are getting grim, daily reminders about what happens when we don’t heed early alarms from public health and science.
National
Watch episode 1: Climate Conversations: Australia in 2029
2020 could be the spark that ignites a positive future for us and for the climate – so what could our hypothetical future look like in 2029?
Climate change, complex projects pave tough road ahead for Murray-Darling Basin Plan
The goals set out in the $13 billion plan finds water recovery to date has been successful but will be more difficult under a drying climate, a new review has found.
Australia ‘gradually losing the Chinese market’: Beijing mouthpiece appears to confirm coal ban
Chinese state-owned media outlet The Global Times appears to have confirmed a ban on Australian coal imports. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham calls on Chinese authorities to rule out the report.
How Australia could end up the big winner from Chinese ‘fear tax’
Australia would end up benefitting financially from China’s fear tax on imports, according to a report from Deloitte Access Economics.
Morrison government should be ‘doing more’ with states driving 33% cut in emissions by 2030
Report says Coalition should lift ambition with existing target likely to be met due to renewables in NSW, Victoria and Queensland
‘Largest coastal erosion in years’: Wild weather in northern NSW, Queensland expected to worsen
Wild weather is pounding Queensland and northern NSW, damaging the coast, with authorities warning that dramatic conditions will continue to deteriorate.
Australia’s Resources Minister Keith Pitt dismisses UN chief’s climate change statement
With Australia isolated on climate change, Resources Minister Keith Pitt has dismissed a global warming statement from the United Nations secretary-general.
Bushfires: Twiggy Forrest mission to save ecosystems
Drones will be used to disperse seeds in bushfire-ravaged parts of Australia as part of a new plan to help our landscapes become more resilient to natural disasters.
Medium-term emissions targets back in Labor’s policy platform [$]
Anthony Albanese would implement a medium-term, emissions-reduction target to put the nation on track for carbon neutrality by 2050, under changes to Labor’s draft policy platform.
Water projects stalled as Basin Plan drags on [$]
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has had “significant negative impacts” on small regional communities along the river system despite being “generally positive” for most others in the basin, according to a landmark review of the scheme.
Bank regulators face climate change grilling [$]
Financial regulators will join banks and insurers in being grilled by a parliamentary committee poised to investigate financial institutions for pulling back on lending and insurance to mining-related businesses because of climate change.
A draft strategy to support electric vehicle take-up details no direct financial help for motorists to make the switch, including no changes to import or luxury car taxes to lower the sticker price of vehicles.
Taylor intervenes in RERT scheme to pay smelter to act like giant battery
Taylor intervenes in RERT market to pay smelter to act like a “big battery”, but not in the way that energy experts have been advocating.
Australia’s solar research groups share $19m funding boost for nextgen technology
Leading Australian research institutions to share in more than $20 million in new funding to accelerate solar energy and sustainable agriculture research.
After last summer’s bushfires wiped out thousands of power poles, new systems are replacing the old way of supplying electricity. With energy companies leading the way, will regulations catch up?
Australia’s path to net zero emissions is massively behind schedule
Greg Jericho
The pandemic makes it look like the government has reduced emissions. But in reality our cuts are nowhere near enough
Scott Morrison feels the pain of rejection
Peter Boyer
The government’s addiction to fossil fuels is making us an international pariah
Scott Morrison right to shun Boris Johnson’s Global Deep Green Club [$]
Judith Sloan
Last week, independent member for Warringah Zali Steggall was all in a tizz about Australia’s failure to be invited to present at a virtual climate jamboree sponsored by the UK, France and the UN held this past weekend.
‘I felt immense grief’: one year on from the bushfires, scientists need mental health support
Daniella Teixeira
One night in January 2020, I couldn’t sleep. I kept waking to check my phone for news from Kangaroo Island, off South Australia. Fires had already burned through several sites where I’d researched the island’s endangered glossy black cockatoos, and now it was tracking towards two critical habitat areas.
Victoria
Grassfire west of Melbourne now under control
Fire officials contain a grassfire that was threatening the communities of Mount Cottrell and Truganina, west of Melbourne. A number of sheds and cars were damaged by the blaze that burned about 110 hectares of land.
Walk this way: Melbourne’s little streets to be transformed into pedestrian paradise
The CBD’s Little streets are soon to be turned into urban oases with stencils of local indigenous flora and fauna as part of a drive to provide more space for pedestrians.
New South Wales
Srisa and Amanda always wanted to switch to solar. It took losing everything to make it happen
After last summer’s bushfires wiped out thousands of power poles, new systems are replacing the old way of supplying electricity. With energy companies leading the way, will regulations catch up?
NSW agriculture minister calls Barnaby Joyce’s opposition to renewable zone ‘prehistoric’
Nationals MP Adam Marshall says it was ‘irresponsible’ to oppose investment in regional areas
Sydney roads surge back to pre-COVID levels
Sydney’s public transport patronage is slowly recovering from the COVID-19 lockdown but road traffic is returning to pre-pandemic levels, and some days even exceeding it.
NSW regulator examines 1000 dams, many for alleged breaches
The NSW independent water regulator is assessing more than 1000 dams, many involving potentially illegal earthworks, as it clamps down on water theft.
‘Evacuation warning’: Australia on notice
Residents of northern NSW have been told to prepare to evacuate as wild weather continues to lash vast sections of the country.
Give golf the boot: there’s no space for a sport that offers so little to so few
Jenna Price
Participation in golf has declined so why we do we devote hectares and hectares of valuable city land to it?
Queensland
‘Coral IVF’ trial on Great Barrier Reef a success, researchers say
Australian researchers said that coral populations from their first “Coral IVF” trial on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 have not only survived recent bleaching events, but are on track to reproduce and spawn next year.
Latest evidence megamine is ready to roll [$]
A major project in far north Queensland is the latest sign the wheels are turning on the controversial Carmichael mine.
‘Really rich Indigenous history’: Victoria Park’s future to celebrate its past
The decision to transform 64 hectares of eucalypt forest in the middle of Brisbane into the city’s version of New York’s Central Park will give the River City a new set of lungs.
Bribie Island braces for high tide and storm surge as erosion worries authorities
Authorities are closely monitoring parts of the northern end of Bribie Island, north of Brisbane, that have been severely eroded by unusually high tides and large waves.
Regulator tips power bills will fall as solar drives down costs by 30pc
Queensland electricity consumers could soon benefit from a cut to their power bills, as wholesale prices fall by between 30 and 40 per cent, according to the Australian Energy Regulator.
Cow collars and virtual fencing trialled by farmers to help protect Barrier Reef
You might be more accustomed to seeing collars on cats and dogs, but collars for cows are the latest technology some farmers are trialling to reduce the impact on the Great Barrier Reef.
South Australia
Green springs new hope from blackened ashes [$]
A heritage-listed park in Lobethal is becoming a symbol of recovery and hope in the wake of the one year anniversary of the Cudlee Creek bushfires.
Hundreds of jobs as new port nears launch [$]
Nearly 200 jobs will be created when a new port is built where SA’s failed coal-fired power station once operated, the state’s planning bosses have been told.
Tasmania
Federal government to own 62.5 per cent of Marinus Link in new energy deal with Tasmania
Feds to own more than half of Marinus Link in new deal
The federal government will own more than 60 per cent of the Marinus Link under a new energy deal with Tasmania.
Aurora Energy’s chairwoman Mary O’Kane holds fears for company’s financial position in 2021
Aurora Energy will face further financial headwinds next year, its chairwoman says.
Clarence City Council won’t renew Rosny Golf Course lease after it expires on April 30 [$]
Clarence City Council will seek to open up for general use land occupied by the Rosny Golf Course as soon as possible after the golf course’s lease expires on April 30.
Northern Territory
Kakadu walking track court battle continues to drag on in court [$]
The court battle between traditional owners and Parks Australia over a walking track allegedly constructed on a sacred site continues to drag on with the case adjourned again
Solar boom burns NT generator [$]
The rapid growth of solar installations in the Northern Territory could make the Top End’s publicly owned fossil fuel generator financially unviable, according to the jurisdiction’s Auditor-General.
Western Australia
Saltwater ranger protecting ocean for the future
Traditional knowledge helps this saltwater ranger do more than his job
Northcliffe quokka population almost wiped out by 2015 bushfire making comeback
A quokka population nearly wiped out by a severe bushfire in WA’s south may take more than a decade to fully recover, research has shown.
Irresponsible happenings: Juukan Gorge, Rio Tinto and the Never Again Report
Binoy Kampmark
While section 17 of the current Act makes the destruction, damage or altering to an Aboriginal site a criminal offence, Section 18 provides a route of dispensation for the aspiring cultural vandal.
Sustainability
Seeking evidence for promising sustainable food systems in Eastern Africa
How can you ensure that Eastern African farmers harvest more from their land, while nature simultaneously flourishes? And can these food systems contribute to solving issues like inequality, poverty and youth unemployment? These questions are at the basis of the new collaboration between the IKEA Foundation and WUR in the project ‘Food Futures East Africa’.
‘Is Exxon a Survivor?’ The Big Oil giant is at a crossroads
Over the last 135 years, Exxon Mobil has survived hostile governments, ill-fated investments and the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill. Through it all, the oil company made bundles of money. But suddenly Exxon is slipping badly.
Shedding light on the dark side of biomass burning pollution
Especially toxic, oxidized aerosol from biomass burning contains a large amount of carcinogens and mutagens. It also cause oxidative stress when inhaled as well as a wide range of diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, and asthma. A study, led by the FORTH foundation in Greece and EPFL in Switzerland, identifies new processes in the forming of these aerosols and suggests their levels are largely underestimated.
Benefits of renewable energy vary from place to place
A new study finds the environmental benefits of renewable power generation vary significantly, depending on the nature of the conventional power generation that the renewable energy is offsetting. The researchers hope the work will help target future renewable energy investments in places where they can do the most good.
Renewable energy: Frequency data for stable power supply
In the renewable energies era, grid frequency will be an increasingly important indicator of stability of power supply. An interdisciplinary research consortium has analyzed frequency fluctuations in twelve synchronous grid areas on three continents. For data recording, scientists have developed a portable, GPS-synchronized recorder based on a new measurement technology.
Plastics ‘causing a long, slow death’ for affected marine animals
Soft plastics pose the greatest threat to many marine animals, but different species face different kinds of threats from the many kinds of plastic pollution in our seas.
Chance played a major role in keeping Earth fit for life
A study gives a new perspective on why our planet has managed to stay habitable for billions of years – concluding it is almost certainly due, at least in part, to luck. The research suggests this may shorten the odds of finding life on so-called ‘twin-Earths’ in the Universe.
Natasha Blaize Gardiner and Cassandra Brooks
Two-thirds of the world’s oceans fall outside national jurisdictions – they belong to no one and everyone.
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