We need 100 million new electric machines, and we’ve got 17 budgets to get it right
Giles Parkinson
In the race to a renewable grid, the household and the energy decisions made there often get overlooked. This needs to change – and fast.
On This Day
Climate Change
How a dying glacier became a tourist attraction
Peru’s “Route of Climate Change” takes visitors to a melting glacier — and aims to teach them along the way.
National
Tuesday’s federal budget will include changes to a key tax levied on gas exporters, aimed at bringing billions in additional revenue to the budget over the next few years. But some say it still falls too far short.
‘They’re getting the gas for free’: government dodges tougher tax reform
The Albanese government’s changes to the PRRT will net about $13 billion less than one of the reform options identified by Treasury.
Can farmers help to slow the flow in a flood, or even reduce the height by a couple of metres?
As the painstakingly slow recovery continues for flooded communities across parts of Australia, a land management group says it’s possible to take more than 2 metres off the flood peak by slowing the flow of water across the landscape.
‘Trashed and trampled by feral horses’: Alpine species at risk of extinction
With feral horse numbers soaring in the Australian Alps the federal government’s own threatened species advisory body has called on it to intervene.
Rooftop solar slumps in April, but PV system sizes just keep getting bigger
Rooftop solar growth hit a 12 month low in April, according to new data from SunWiz, with total installations for the month slumping 23% compared to March.
Albanese urges Coalition to back gas tax rise to sideline Greens [$]
Greens and teal independents want the oil and gas giants to be hit with a heftier tax increase than the ‘timid’ changes Labor has proposed.
Fishers say they’re losing more and more fish to sharks. While some are calling for increased fishing quotas or culls, researchers say there’s no simple answer.
Weekend warriors: Electric car makers poke fun at ScoMo’s no-no
The push for one million electric vehicles on Australian roads by 2027 has received a boost from a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign poking fun at comments by the former prime minister.
How First Nations can help keep Australia in the global clean energy race
Jonathan Kneebone
Following Canada’s lead, the US Inflation Reduction Act supports First Nations as equity owners of major energy projects. Australia has an opportunity right now to get the settings rights.
Labor’s timid fossil rent tax should be revamped into a Norway-like wealth fund
Rachel Williamson
Gas companies have long been gaming the resources rent system, but copying the Norwegian scheme would have vast benefits.
Big batteries as “virtual power lines” could be quick solution to unleash wind and solar
Rachel Williamson
Renewable energy curtailment isn’t going away yet grid infrastructure upgrades are years off, so batteries acting as “virtual lines” could be the answer.
Our tropical fruits are vulnerable to climate change. Can we make them resilient in time?
Rajeev Varshney and Abhishek Bohra
Plants provide almost every calorie of food we eat. Grains like rice, wheat and corn make civilisation possible. For millennia, farmers have bred grains, fruit and vegetable varieties to get larger harvests and plants better able to tolerate different climates.
Australia has a net-zero authority at long last. Here’s what it’ll do [$]
Emma Elsworthy
The energy minister has called the world’s climate emergency ‘Australia’s jobs opportunity’. That’s where the National Net Zero Authority comes in.
Gas armistice as industry realises it could have been a lot worse [$]
Jennifer Hewitt
Public accusations between the gas industry and the government have temporarily eased as both sides try to negotiate deals.
Ordinary responses to extraordinary threats
Peter Boyer
At opposite ends of Australia, on vastly different scales, we are seeing the politics of climate change playing out in ways that are both disturbing and predictable – and all too human.
What Australia’s new gas tax will mean for new projects, the economy and the climate
Samantha Hepburn
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced higher taxes on gas industry profits, which he says will give Australians a “fairer return” on their natural resources.
Is Treasury driving the ‘Big Australia’ debate?
Abul Rizvi
As the two major parties continue to debate which of them is pursing a policy of ‘big Australia’, Treasury has quietly forced both of them to accept its preferred long-term net migration target of 235,000 per annum – net migration, that is the difference between long-term arrivals and departures, is the key driver of Australia’s population.
Thank goodness for the decent hardworking scientists at the Bureau of Meteorology! OR ARE THEY? – cartoon
First Dog on the Moon
Well-meaning weather boffins or a scheming hive of traitorous warmists?
Victoria
Victoria’s koalas: abundant and widespread? Or diseased and dwindling? It’s complicated
Victoria still has a large koala population, but they face threats like poor genetic diversity, the risk of disease and climate change.
New South Wales
‘Unique’ frogs in NSW rainforests feared locally extinct after black summer bushfires
Pugh’s mountain frog, which has been ‘evolving since Australia was connected to Antarctica’ was worst affected of nine threatened species, researchers say
Tooran Alizadeh et al
A massive project is unfolding in Sydney’s Western Parkland region. The building of a new city from the ground up is central to an infrastructure-led restructuring of metropolitan Sydney. The catalysts are the Western Sydney City Deal and the Western Sydney Airport being built alongside the new Bradfield City.
Queensland
The billion-dollar Brisbane bridge with no one yet to fund it
A new traffic bridge between Chelmer and Indooroopilly could cost up to $1.3 billion, a preliminary study has found, with six possible routes being investigated.
Rubbish rating on managing waste [$]
Queensland is on track to fail seven of nine of its own rubbish management targets, despite a $1.1bn Recycling and Jobs Fund
South Australia
Premier off to spruik SA green hydrogen in Europe
Premier Peter Malinauskas will meet with investors in Europe to spruik the state’s green hydrogen project before attending the World Hydrogen Summit in the Netherlands during a four day trade mission this week.
Big month for the Big Australian
Belinda Willis
It has been a tumultuous month for BHP in South Australia as it juggled a takeover of OZ Minerals, won government approval to expand its highly prospective Oak Dam holdings and faced scrutiny over a worker dying at its Olympic Dam copper mine.
Northern Territory
Italian firm pushes ‘carbon bomb’ gas export project in the Territory
Eni is working to get its Evans Shoal gas field, which is comprised almost one-third of carbon dioxide, off the ground by December.
Western Australia
This town was taken off the map to deter thrillseekers. Now the last buildings are being demolished
The former mining town of Wittenoom in Western Australia will be demolished and asbestos buried, but authorities warn blue asbestos could remain.
Conservationists call out ‘disappointing’ response to WA black cockatoo plight
The WA government’s response to calls for a moratorium on logging the Carnaby’s black cockatoo habitat has been less than ideal, despite its own numbers forecasting a major decline in the species’ northern population.
South West forest protection team beefed up in WA budget
The WA government will employ 50 more people to look after South West forests ahead of a ban on felling trees for timber starting in January.
Sustainability
How technology is helping farmers grow more food with less chemicals
Regulators, consumers, and farmers want to use less chemicals to grow food; chemical companies are changing their business models in response.
Residents evacuate Ukraine’s nuclear town
The United Nation has raised serious concerns after residents near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant began to evacuate, saying the situation in Ukraine’s south-eastern region is “increasingly unpredictable”.
Experts believe knowledge sharing and collaboration between countries and research organisations are the best ways to prevent the outbreak of future pandemics.
Tiny microbes could brew big benefits for green biomanufacturing
Scientists find new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals. A research team has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals.
The investment boom in ‘renewable natural gas’ is sparking debate
Oil and gas giants are spending billions to develop RNG projects from trash, food and manure. But experts say there’s a limited future for the waste-derived fuel.
Why you don’t want ‘phantom energy’ on a spacecraft
Ronald T. Leon et al
Measuring and removing unexpected ‘phantom’ levels of electricity from energy harvesting devices has been challenging – until now
Nature Conservation
Lawsuit asserting the ‘rights of salmon’ ends in a settlement that benefits the fish
In an accord with an Indian tribe, the city of Seattle agrees to create passageways so salmon can swim upriver past three hydroelectric dams.
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