Date: 8 December 2023 at 8:02:46 am AEST
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Dec 8
Post of the Day
Top 10 climate science insights unveiled
A new report equips policymakers with the latest and most pivotal climate science research from the previous 18 months, synthesized to help inform negotiations at COP28 and policy implementation through 2024 and beyond.
On This Day
Hanukkah (until Dec 15) – Judaism
Feast of the Immaculate Conception – Catholicism
Bodhi Day – Japanese Buddhism
UN Climate chief: ‘Good intentions won’t halve emissions, we need finance’ [$]
On the seventh day of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, U-N climate chief Simon Stiell has urged attendees to agree on a phase out of fossil fuels. It comes as Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has arrived in Dubai with pressure mounting for Australia to increase financing for Pacific countries.
Agroforestry is a key climate solution, Director-General says at FAO Council side-event
Agroforestry is a key climate solution with huge potential to simultaneously improve food security and nutrition and alleviate
poverty, while halting deforestation, conserving biodiversity, building resilience, and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the
Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) QU Dongyu said today.
South Korea pushes ‘carbon-free’ plan at COP28. But its shift to renewables has slowed
South Korea is rolling out a new “carbon-free” campaign at this year’s COP28 that it says will reposition Seoul as a global leader in decarbonization.
Climate change shown to cause methane to be released from the deep ocean
New research has shown that fire-ice — frozen methane which is trapped as a solid under our oceans — is vulnerable to melting due to climate change and could be released into the sea.
Good COP, bad COP: why costs are the difference [$]
Bjorn Lomborg
Despite 27 previous conferences with iterations of ominous speeches and bold promises, global emissions have increased, punctuated just once, by the Covid-19 shutdown.
Getting the right money on the right terms at COP28
Rosemary Addis
When financial investors come together to contribute to blended finance options for climate change, it can amount to much more than money
National
WA gas giant Woodside confirms it’s in discussions regarding a possible merger with fellow Australian energy company Santos.
Stark numbers show ‘Big Australia’ is coming
Australia’s population is set to get bigger and older as a relentless immigration boom adds millions more to the country even as natural births decline.
Australia commits $150m to climate finance for vulnerable Pacific countries
However the Albanese government has not contributed to a newly created global loss and damage fund at Cop28
Reduce carbon footprint if you want cheap finance: NAB
Australia’s largest business lender has said it is inevitable banks will charge higher interest rates for businesses that aren’t reducing their emissions.
Fire ant eradication still underfunded [$]
Fire ants have crossed into NSW but five governments have not contributed to the national fire ant eradication program.
Woodside-Santos merger makes sense. Now for the hard part [$]
Chanticleer
Global energy giants have got even bigger in 2023, and doubled down on fossil fuels. A merger between Woodside and Santos would create a national champion to stand among them.
Wesley Morgan
The federal government has announced an extra A$150 million for climate finance – including $100 million for the Pacific to help protect its people, housing and infrastructure from the escalating impacts of global warming.
A different kind of climate movement: the Kaldor Centre Principles on Climate Mobility
Tamara Wood and Jane McAdam
Every second, someone is displaced by a disaster. Each year, nearly three times as many people are displaced within their own countries by disasters than by conflict – the vast majority in the Asia-Pacific region.
The new face of old-fashioned climate change denial
Stephen Long
Australia’s government isn’t so gauche as to deny climate change out loud at a COP meeting. But it does support fossil fuel expansion completely at odds with the science.
Victoria
Energy prices to soar for many vulnerable Victorians [$]
Three schemes that gave more than 360,000 homes access to cheaper energy have been axed just weeks before Christmas, in what has been described as a “new low” for the state government.
Hundreds of trees die on Victorian floodplain as governments clash over water policy
Victoria’s floodplain restoration projects have stalled after the state and federal governments reached a stalemate over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
New South Wales
Transport boffins’ anti-car attitude to blame for Rozelle chaos [$]
Tom Forrest
Transport for NSW’s cultural bias against roads exposed a ramshackle department and the Rozelle debacle highlighted the need for a stand-alone roads authority.
Queensland
Tropical Cyclone Jasper could intensify to category four overnight, forecast to hit north of Mackay
Cyclone Jasper is currently south of the Solomons and was upgraded to a category three late yesterday afternoon.
Zen Energy inks deal to power supermarkets and offices with Queensland solar
A solar farm in Queensland’s Western Downs region will power more than a dozen retail, office and industrial sites as part of a new six-year deal.
How Brisbane solved its ‘horrible stench’ to become a riverside city
Whenever the Brisbane River ran low in the early 1900s it was often accompanied with the overpowering stench of human waste, dead fish and industrial gas. A lot has changed since then, but experts say there’s more to do ahead of the 2032 Olympics.
We thought we’d find 200 species living in our house and yard. We were very wrong
Matthew H Holden et al
We are biodiversity researchers – an ecologist, a mathematician and a taxonomist – who were locked down together during the COVID pandemic. Being restricted to the house, it didn’t take long before we began to wonder how many species of plants and animals we were sharing the space with. So we set to work counting them all.
A tribute to my favourite tribute video and a legacy not lost
Courtney Kruk
Earlier this week, an anniversary relating to Steve Irwin quietly passed. But not of his death.
Anti-renewables hypocrisy will not save koalas
Stephanie Gray
Politicians and conservative media commentators drumming up anti-renewables sentiment in the guise of protecting biodiversity and koala habitat is blatant hypocrisy.
Tasmania
Council set to approve solar farm after considering plans in cold light of day [$]
A 200-year-old farming property is getting closer to a new dawn.
Foundation threatens stop logging injunction in swift parrot habitat
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation
Swift parrot habitat, ten kilometres from Geeveston in Tasmania’s south, continues to be logged, despite consistent lobbying by Bob Brown Foundation for protection of the habitat and forty records of parrots in the forests. Bob Brown Foundation campaigners have been asking Premier Rockliff and Forestry Tasmania not to destroy this swift parrot habitat since early October.
Andrew Wilkie
Salmon farming is obviously an important industry in Tasmania, but it’s not so important that it should be allowed to ride roughshod over local communities and the environment generally, or continue to drive the Maugean skate to extinction in Macquarie Harbour in particular.
Northern Territory
Santos lawyers accuse traditional owners of altering dreaming stories to block gas pipeline
A group of Tiwi Islands elders have faced off against Santos in the Federal Court, over the gas giant’s plans to build a pipeline past the islands for its $5.6 billion Barossa project.
Western Australia
A lawyer for Yugunga-Nya traditional owners believes loopholes in WA’s legislation will allow Sandfire Resources to escape prosecution for disturbing sites near Meekatharra.
Reece Whitby named minister “to spearhead” W.A.’s clean energy transition
Western Australia environment and climate action minister Reece Whitby will add energy to his portfolio and be tasked to “spearhead” the state’s clean energy transition which is emerging as one of the most ambitious in the country, if not the world.
Sustainability
Researchers develop grassroots framework for managing environmental commons
A team of sustainability scientists recently announced that they have developed a community-based framework, founded on extensive local and traditional knowledge, to help assess and respond to the kinds of ecological threats that are widely dispersed across a varied landscape and whose solutions are not immediately obvious.
To fight plastic waste, an Indonesian campaign aims high
Since attorney and activist Tiza Mafira cofounded Plasticdiet Indonesia in 2013, the group has helped more than 100 local governments pass single-use plastic bag bans and is now tackling straws, cutlery, and sachets. Next up: slashing subsidies for petrochemical companies.
Colombia activists risk their lives to protect the environment
For sounding the alarm about water pollution in and around this industrial city in northern Colombia, Yuly Velásquez seems to have a target on her back: Over the past two years, she has survived three assassination attempts.
How China’s buses shaped the world’s EV revolution
In the 2010s, China rolled out a rapid and widespread electric bus network. Today, China’s electric buses are influencing not just the country’s EV uptake, but the world’s.
At COP28, a growing sense of alarm over the harms of air pollution
A study released on the eve of the conference found that 8 million people around the world die annually from air pollution. And experts say the crisis is worsening.
Soaring pollution in Pakistan’s Lahore fills wards with sick children
In the packed paediatric emergency room of a Lahore public hospital, parents holding sick children lined up for treatment this week, part of a surge of young patients caused by the air pollution crisis in Pakistan’s second most populous city.
Nature Conservation
‘Worst tiger-related deaths in decades’: Malaysian government begins trapping endangered big cats
After ‘the worst tiger-related deaths in decades’, Malayan tigers are being trapped and moved away from humans.
Overfishing in the Mediterranean and Black Sea falls to lowest level in a decade
The percentage of overfished stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Sea has fallen below 60 percent for the first time, following a decreasing trend that started a decade ago, according to a report launched today.
Feathered friends can become unlikely helpers for tropical coral reefs facing climate change threat
Tropical coral reefs are among our most spectacular ecosystems, yet a rapidly warming planet threatens the future survival of many reefs. However, there may be hope for some tropical reefs in the form of feathered friends. A new study has found that the presence of seabirds on islands adjacent to tropical coral reefs can boost coral growth rates on those reefs by more than double.
Alarm at plan to stash planet-heating CO2 beneath US national forests
A proposal that would allow industries to permanently stash climate-polluting carbon dioxide beneath US Forest Service land puts those habitats and the people in or near them at risk, according to opponents of the measure.
‘Unprecedented mass coral bleaching’ expected in 2024, says expert
2023 is first year of potential pair of El Niño years and since 1997, every instance of these pairs has led to mass coral mortality
Artificial light is luring birds to cities and sometimes to their deaths
Scientists used weather radar data to map bird stopover density in the United States and found that artificial light is a top indicator of where birds will land. City lights lure birds into what can be an ecological trap — with buildings that lead to collisions, less habitat, scarcer food, and more people and cats.
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
p | 1800 223 669 t | @AusConservation
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