Date: 12 April 2021 at 8:16:59 am AEST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Apr 12
Top Indian bank drags its feet on billionaire Adani coal loan
Two senior State Bank of India executives, who asked not to be identified, said the bank was dragging its feet on extending part of a funding line of as much as $1 billion to Adani Enterprises Ltd., which plans to use the money for the controversial Carmichael mine.
Post of the Day
The curse of coal: Greenhouse gases up the chimney, toxic ash in the ground
If you think burning coal only pollutes the atmosphere with its greenhouse gas emissions, think again – the ash dumps from those power station furnaces pose their own toxic risks.
On This Day
Ecological observance
Climate Change
Racism, inequities move to the center of the climate debate
Systemic racism and inequity has always run as a powerful undercurrent through environmental and climate change impacts.
National
Government accused of pressuring experts who questioned its gas-fired recovery plan
The government is accused of pressuring experts who questioned its gas-fired recovery plan, Four Corners can reveal.
ACF statement on passing of Prince Philip
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Chief Executive Officer, Kelly O’Shanassy, said: “It is with sadness that ACF’s staff, board and council acknowledge the passing of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.”
The curse of coal: Greenhouse gases up the chimney, toxic ash in the ground
If you think burning coal only pollutes the atmosphere with its greenhouse gas emissions, think again – the ash dumps from those power station furnaces pose their own toxic risks.
No need for coal, but 100pc renewables ‘too expensive’: Grattan
Scaremongers who say power prices will skyrocket without coal are wrong, says the Grattan Institute, but so are those who insist Australia should commit to a 100 per cent renewable electricity system.
Efficient energy transition needs carbon price [$]
AFR editorial
Grant King’s appointment to lead the nation’s top climate advisory body shows Australia’s climate and energy policy is converging towards the centre.
Gas can get us to net zero [$]
Tony Wood
Modelling the future NEM shows we don’t need coal to keep the lights on and electricity prices down. But a 100 per cent renewables grid is also the wrong goal.
Advantage Australia: the energy transition can deliver [$]
Ticky Fullerton
There are calls aplenty for business investment to pull Australia and the world out of economic crisis. The task carries huge responsibility and risk.
How to make electric cars affordable for everyone [$]
Tony Davis
The result of letting the market determine how many electric vehicles we drive is that our roads are packed with vehicles much larger and more powerful than necessary.
Victoria
Business lobby accuses Victoria of ‘putting cart before the horse’ with electric vehicles tax
Australian Industry Group calls for moratorium on EV taxes, warning extra costs will deter consumers and curb efforts to lower emissions
Plastic ban creating headache in public servants’ offices [$]
Bureaucrats are struggling to find a new way to handle wet umbrellas after plastic bags in foyers were banned.
New South Wales
Damage bill from natural disasters to treble by 2061
A NSW Treasury report predicts more fires and floods, and tens of thousands of homes to be hit by rising sea levels by 2061.
Queensland
Taylor is helping to protect endangered ‘dry rainforest’ by fighting the enemy — weeds
Rangers are training local, young Indigenous people to care for Australia’s endangered dry rainforest, that’s under threat from weeds, fire and coastal development, but say more permanent positions would help repair degraded land.
Government’s own report raises questions about CSG proposal near contaminated site
An independent report has found “sufficient uncertainty” about the contamination risk and questioned the accuracy of a proposal to drill hundreds of coal seam gas wells near a controversial Linc Energy site in southern Queensland.
South Australia
A fast economic path using hydrogen to tackle climate change will boost regional SA, especially Whyalla, the Riverland and Mid North, experts say.
Sanjeev Gupta’s letter to South Australia about Whyalla steelworks [$]
Read Sanjeev Gupta’s open, passionate letter to South Australia – and Whyalla in particular.
Tasmania
Liberal choose to dredge upper Tamar despite TEMT scientific report yet to be released
Premier Peter Gutwein says the Liberal Party has decided to dredge areas of the upper kanamaluka/Tamar “regardless” of what an upcoming scientific report says on the practice.
Liberals plan to fix Tamar’s sediment clear as mud
A promise by the Tasmanian Liberals to reinstate the dredging of the Tamar Estuary is on the surface a sound policy, but when you dig deeper, there are a few cracks.
Northern Territory
Fears ‘iconic treasure’ will fade unless Kakadu’s promised millions are fast-tracked
Two years ago, Canberra promised more than $200 million to revitalise the national park and transition a mining town into a tourism hub. Only $5 million has been delivered so far, sparking fears for the future of the World Heritage-listed park.
Deep-sea reef study in the ‘twilight zone’ could uncover new species
Between the sunlit shallow waters of Australia’s northern coastline and the darkest depths of the ocean floor lies a world between worlds — mesophotic coral ecosystems that could hold new information on reef conservation.
Western Australia
Threatened species thrive in protected Australian reef – video
A new long-term study of the Rowley Shoals, an isolated archipelago of reefs 260 kilometres off Australia’s northwest coast shows what a healthy coral reef with minimal human impact could look like.
Shell expects to pay Australia no resource tax on gas drawn from Gorgon project
Fossil fuel giant’s petroleum resource rent tax projection for country’s biggest gas project is contained in its latest annual report
Sustainability
Iran calls Natanz atomic site blackout ‘nuclear terrorism’
A blackout at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday was an act of “nuclear terrorism”, according to the country’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi.
Seed monopolies: Who controls the world′s food supply?
Seed laws criminalizing farmers for using diverse crops that stand a better chance of adapting to climate change are threatening food security. Seed sovereignty activists want to reclaim the right to plant.
This wild-looking domed house is made out of dirt by a giant 3D printer
These 645-square-foot domed buildings were printed in Italy over the course of 200 hours.
They’re back from the brink, but how did humpbacks recover when other whales couldn’t?
Pushed to the brink of extinction, humpback whales have made a remarkable recovery. So how have they succeeded where other species have failed?
Sharon Matola, who opened a zoo in the jungle of Belize, dies at 66
An Air Force veteran and former lion tamer, she helped her adopted country fall in love with tapirs, macaws and peccaries.
Climate scientists race to track shrinking sea meadows
Seagrasses store more than twice as much carbon and as land forests – but human activity is killing them off.
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