Post of the Day
Patricia Ranald
Foreign companies should not be able to sue the government for taking action on climate change
On This Day
Tu b’Av – Judaism
Ecological Observance
Glorious Twelfth – UK
Climate Change
Antarctica losing ice faster than thought
Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish the crumbling ice, doubling previous estimates of losses from the world’s largest ice sheet over the past 25 years, a satellite analysis shows.
New UN disaster preparedness hub built on ‘frontlines of climate change’
A new UN-backed humanitarian logistics hub and training centre in Barbados aims to strengthen emergency preparedness and response across the Caribbean, the World Food Programme (WFP) said in announcing the news on Thursday.
‘It’s a human rights issue’: young adults take Portugal climate crisis to court
Cláudia Agostinho, her siblings and cousins will have case heard at European court of human rights
We should, if we can, cool planet back to pre-industrial levels
Andrew King et al
The world’s focus is sharply fixed on achieving net-zero emissions, yet surprisingly little thought has been given to what comes afterwards. In our new paper, published today in Nature Climate Change, we discuss the big unknowns in a post net-zero world.
Anita Wreford
New Zealand’s national adaptation plan, launched last week, offers the first comprehensive approach to how communities can prepare for the inevitable impacts of a changing climate.
National
AMA & DEA urge health sector to lead on climate change
Over 300 people, including the Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly, attended the AMA and Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) webinar – Climate change and sustainability: leadership and action from Australian doctors on Tuesday.
Labor to back new fossil fuel projects that ‘stack up’ economically and environmentally
Resources minister praises gas industry as ‘ally’ of renewable energy and says she will work with states and territories to encourage new supply
Greens urge Labor to reject international carbon offsets as ‘accounting tricks’
Adam Bandt says allowing global offsets to be traded along with Australian ones would just delay action to cut emissions
Step on the gas: faster green energy push [$]
Chris Bowen and the states will speed up the rollout of renewables, gas-proof Australia and minimise electricity market shocks.
Patricia Ranald
Foreign companies should not be able to sue the government for taking action on climate change
Bold policy can lift the brakes on electric cars
Age editorial
Australia has been a laggard on electric vehicles for far too long. It is time to move out of the slow lane.
Robyn Alders
Foot-and-mouth disease now poses a high threat to Australia. This highly contagious livestock virus is sweeping Indonesia – the closest it’s been to Australia since the 1980s. A large outbreak here could cause decimate the livestock industry and cause A$80 billion in economic damage over the coming decade.
Climate action will drive disruptive change, but we can build on past experience…
Alan Pears
Election May 2022 – a new beginning for climate and energy policy?
Mission accomplished? Labor and the climate wars
Tristan Prasser
The Prime Minister is declaring the ‘Climate Wars’ over. But are they?
Victoria
Vic timber mill closure blamed on Andrews government, greenies [$]
A sawmill in Victoria’s east will be forced to close as soon as Friday as its timber supply runs out.
New South Wales
New hope for Narrabri as Santos steps on the gas [$]
Aussie gas developer Santos has bought out the Hunter Gas Pipeline, shining some light on the hill for the Narrabri gas project after years of delays and green tape.
NSW councils ban 1080 fox baits [$]
A second NSW council has banned 1080 fox baits, despite warnings it will create “more environmental damage”.
Advocate of all-electric homes battles to get gas cut off without a hefty fee
Renewable energy advocate Saul Griffith wrote the book on the need to electrify everything, but the author of The Big Switch is fighting to have the gas removed from his home south of Sydney without paying a fee of more than $1100.
State dropping the ball on Murray-Darling [$]
NSW is lagging behind other states in completing water resource plans for the Murray-Darling Basin and at ‘high risk’ of missing targets needed to deliver savings in the Basin Plan.
Bike track over NSW sacred site back in the spotlight as Greens MP calls for Elder input
NSW Upper House MP Sue Higginson has call for more consultation with Traditional Owners over a proposed 100km mountain bike track on Gaanha-bula (Mount Canobolas) in the state’s central west.
‘Let it rip’: Barangaroo, a masterclass in planning as deal-making
Dallas Rogers et al
A bid to amend plans for the final stage of the Barangaroo project would once again favour developers’ interests over the public interest. It shows how badly the planning process has been undermined.
ACT
New apartments connect to gas despite future ban [$]
Prospective homeowners like Elle Lawless are facing a dilemma when considering new apartments, with developers connecting to gas despite a future ban in the ACT.
Queensland
Qld’s renewable energy sector gets $160m boost
The Australian and Queensland governments have inked a landmark agreement to fast-track connection of the country’s largest wind farm precinct to the National Electricity Market.
Minister urges Queensland to open up more gas fields
Queensland gas is a “natural ally” of renewables and will support the addition of more intermittent energy, Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King told a business audience in Brisbane on Thursday.
Santos touts second Queensland pipeline as east-coast gas crunch fix
Australian energy giant Santos has bought a company planning to build a new pipeline to send gas from Queensland to the nation’s southern states.
Apple backs Queensland wind farm in bid for carbon-zero phone charging
The tech giant is aiming to take the carbon footprint of its entire operations – including the use of its products – to zero by 2030.
Plibersek must choose: Rinehart or climate
The Greens have urged the environment minister Tanya Plibersek to consider the emissions and climate impact of billionaire miner Gina Rinehart’s proposed expansion of a coal seam gas project in Queensland.
Senex supplies $1b boost to natural gas industry
Media release – Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA)
Today’s announcement that Senex will invest more than $1 billion in Queensland will deliver a significant boost to domestic natural gas supply and improve energy security for Australia.
South Australia
Big funding boost puts Southern Downs at centre of clean energy revolution
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will help provide $160 million in concessional finance to the Southern Downs renewable energy zone.
Tasmania
‘Protestival’ against Anti-Protest Bill this Saturday
Hundreds of Hobartians will join together this Saturday from 10am to 5pm, to celebrate their right to protest on the lawns of Parliament House, as an act of community objection to the latest iteration of Tasmania’s anti-protest laws.
Govt on notice over missing environment report
The Honourable Minister for Planning Michael Ferguson MP has been urged to direct the Tasmanian Planning Commission to fulfil its statutory requirements by publishing a long-overdue Tasmanian State of the Environment Report, in a letter from the Environmental Defenders Office on behalf of the Australia Institute, Tasmania.
Sustainability
Engineering enzymes to help solve planet’s plastic problem
Researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) have developed a new enzyme engineering platform to improve plastic degrading enzymes through directed evolution.
New method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment
Engineers at MIT and elsewhere have found that, with no need for any new investment in equipment, the energy output of such wind farm installations can be increased by modeling the wind flow of the entire collection of turbines and optimizing the control of individual units accordingly.
Rise of renewables: How Ukraine war has changed global energy policies
UNSW expert Renate Egan explains how countries around the world have reacted to the oil and gas supply chain issues caused by the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine nuclear plant needs protection -UN
UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for military activity around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex to end as Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for a renewed shelling and the UN Security Council meet to discuss the situation.
Dead fish in River Oder on Polish/German border spur contamination probe
Tonnes of dead fish have been hauled out of the River Oder, which flows along part of Poland’s border with Germany, and officials warned people not to enter the water while the Polish government pledged to investigate possible contamination.
Putin is winning the energy war as Russia milks its cash cow
Javier Blas
No matter what indicator you use, Russia has successfully weaponised energy supplies.
Horror-film moth a killer at navigation
The moth that had a horrifying cameo role in The Silence of the Lambs cult classic has shed new light on the mysteries of long-haul insect migrations.
Synthetic genetic circuits could help plants adapt to climate change
Increasingly, global food production is being threatened by the effects of climate change. As floods, droughts, and extreme heat waves become more common, crops need to be able to adapt faster than ever.
Prehistoric fish may be poised for comeback
Researchers studying lake sturgeon in Northwest Georgia’s Coosa River have found evidence that the fish may be reproducing for the first time since they were wiped out in the 1970s.
Stormwater management ponds may not hold solution for depleting wetlands
Relying on stormwater management (SWM) ponds to restore the depleting wetlands is not sustainable and lacks the critical ecosystem services vital for biodiversity, a new study found.
From 300,000 rabbits to none: a Southern Ocean island is reborn
Macquarie Island, a Unesco world heritage site, was being eaten alive until an ambitious eradication programme restored it
Explainer: Causes and consequences of Amazon fires and deforestation
Brazil vowed last year to halt deforestation by 2030, yet the number of fires burning in the country’s Amazon rainforest hit a 15-year high in June. Burning season began last month and the rate of forest clearing remains high.
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