Government’s gas-led economic recovery plans questioned

Australia should follow the example of New Zealand and a growing number of European nations and design a long-term green stimulus package that both rebuilds the economy and cuts emissions, says the chairman of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Martijn Wilder.

Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister, Angus Taylor.

“New Zealand policymakers have taken the view that since they are borrowing money [for stimulus] from future generations the manner in which it is spent has to serve those generations,” he said.

So far 17 European Union nations have signed on to a European Green Deal, agreeing to shape their recovery around policies designed to speed up their efforts to reach net-zero emissions.

A letter outlining the plan describes it as, “a new growth strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use.”

Read the story from The Age by Nick O’Malley and Mike Foley - “Government’s gas-led economic recovery plans questioned.”

Climate change is threatening to break cricket apart, from putting players in danger to disrupting matches

When I was in the middle of treatment for cancer a few years ago, the place I’d go for comfort was my local cricket ground.

“Unless we act, extreme heat will worsen. This will result in
more games being postponed, poorer performance because
 of heat influenced cognitive deterioration and increased
 likelihood of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.”

One reason I found this place so comforting while being physically and emotionally demolished by chemotherapy were the friendships I’d made from years of playing, coaching and cooking thousands of sausages.

When confronted with a nasty tumour that seemed hellbent on trying to kill me, my cricket club helped keep me sane. The friendships made on and around the ground were the source of love and humour that made it possible for me to withstand a really crap experience.

The game is important to me because I know at its best it unites individuals who then become capable of doing great things together.

Anyone who has seen the Adam Goodes films knows sport is about much more than games. It’s a window into who we are as a community – for good or ill.

At my own community cricket club the game is a glue binding together people born in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, South Africa, England and Australia.

Climate change threatens to break cricket apart.

Read the story from The Guardian by Paul Sinclair - “Climate change is threatening to break cricket apart, from putting players in danger to disrupting matches.”

New Zealand caught in the middle of Australia's climate change tussle with the Pacific

New Zealand has become caught in the middle of the stoush brewing between Australia and Pacific leaders in Tuvalu over climate change.

The 50th Pacific Islands Forum is being held in Tuvalu,
 a small Pacific country north-east of Australia.

Pacific countries want Australia to take stronger action on climate change domestically, a demand Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has so far rebuffed.

As the leaders meet for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu's capital, Funafuti, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's position will be crucial to determining what the group of leaders can agree upon.

Mr Morrison yesterday announced a $500 million package of funding, redirected from aid spending, to help Pacific countries invest in renewable energy and become more resilient to climate and weather events.

Read the ABC News story Melissa Clarke - “New Zealand caught in the middle of Australia's climate change tussle with the Pacific.”

Jacinda Ardern says Australia has to 'answer to Pacific' on climate change

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda
 Ardern, has warned Australia that it
has to ‘answer to the Pacific’ over climate
change.

Jacinda Ardern has declared that “Australia has to answer to the Pacific” on climate change, saying that New Zealand is doing what it can to limit global emissions to 1.5C and expects other nations to do the same.

However, the New Zealand prime minister stopped short of saying New Zealand would throw its weight behind the smaller Pacific nations who are urging Australia to commit to a rapid transition from a coal-based economy at this year’s Pacific Islands Forum.

“Issues around Australia’s domestic policy are issues for Australia,” she said, when asked about Australia’s coal use.

Ardern said she had “every expectation that this Pacific Islands Forum will be dominated by climate change” and reiterated her government’s commitment to reducing emissions, citing the goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2035, which is currently working its way through New Zealand parliament.

Read the story from The Guardian by Kate Lyons - “Jacinda Ardern says Australia has to 'answer to Pacific' on climate change." 

‘Not very happy': Tasman Sea warmth puts the heat on key fisheries

Back-to-back summer heatwaves in the Tasman Sea that have affected marine life and seafood industries in Australia and New Zealand could be another sign of the warming climate, scientists say.

The Tasman Sea has endured back-to-back summer
marine heatwaves - with consequences that could
take time to play out.CREDIT

Australia has just had its warmest summer by far, with the role of so-called blocking highs in the Tasman seen by meteorologists as key to the build-up of record-breaking heat over the country's south-east.

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hannam - “‘Not very happy': Tasman Sea warmth puts the heat on key fisheries.”

New Zealand’s productivity commission charts course to low-emission future

New Zealand has set itself a target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

According to a recent report, New Zealand will need to increase
renewable electricity generation, plant more trees and continue
switching to electric transport more rapidly to achieve
 its zero carbon goal by 2050.

A recent report issued by the New Zealand Productivity Commission has found that this is an achievable goal, even under modest forecasts of technological progress and increases in carbon price.

New Zealand already had a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050. That target had been in place since 2002, but emissions continued to rise through the 2000s.

Read the story on The Conversation by a Professor in Applied Mathematics from Massey University, Robert McLachlan - “New Zealand’s productivity commission charts course to low-emission future.”

New Zealand bans all new offshore oil exploration as part of 'carbon-neutral future’

The New Zealand government will grant no new offshore oil exploration permits in a move that is being hailed by conservation and environmental groups as a historic victory in the battle against climate change.

 New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern
looks to the future with oil exploration ban. 

The ban will apply to new permits and won’t affect the existing 22, some of which have decades left on their exploration rights and cover an area of 100,000 sq km.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said her government “has a plan to transition towards a carbon-neutral future, one that looks 30 years in advance”.

Read Eleanor Ainge Roy’s story from The Guardian - “New Zealand bans all new offshore oil exploration as part of 'carbon-neutral future’.”

Beyond the seawall: a changing climate calls for dynamic solutions

On the face of it, it’s difficult to see similarities between the San Francisco Bay Area and Christchurch, New Zealand. The former is a major hub for one of the largest economies in the world with a population of over 7.5 million people, and home to tech giants like Apple, Google and Facebook. The latter is a gateway to Antarctica, historically a market town and port that services an agricultural hinterland, and home to just under 400,000 people. However, when landscape architect and UC Berkeley Professor Kristina Hill examines the two places through the bi-focal lenses of geology and landscape, unexpected parallels emerge.

Christchurch's 2011 earthquake shifted the city's water
table, leading to structures sinking into the Avon estuary.

Both places face similar challenges: how to adapt their coastal and estuarine environments to sea level rise, how to live with a high and rising groundwater table, how to factor increasing salt and freshwater flooding into planning their urban environments and infrastructure while surviving, and preferably thriving, in highly active seismic zones.

Read the Foreground story - “Beyond the seawall: a changing climate calls for dynamic solutions.”

Powering Past Coal Alliance: 20 countries sign up to phase out coal power by 2030

Twenty countries including Britain, Canada and New Zealand have joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030.

The Hazelwood power station in Victoria's La Trobe Valley.

The Powering Past Coal Alliance was unveiled at the COP23 climate talks in Bonn, Germany, which were working out the technical details of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"I think we can safely say that the response has been overwhelming," Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said.

The alliance, which isn't legally binding, was launched days after a pro-coal presentation by the Trump administration jarred with many ministers who wanted the talks to focus on cleaner energy sources.

Read the ABC News story - “Powering Past Coal Alliance: 20 countries sign up to phase out coal power by 2030.”

A New Zealand visa could trigger the era of 'climate change refugees’

Berlin: New Zealand could become the world's first country to recognise climate change as an official reason to seek asylum, a government minister said in an interview on Tuesday. If implemented, up to 100 refugees per year would be admitted to the island nation on a newly created visa category.

A child wades through sludge and water on the Island
 Republic of Kiribati in the Central Pacific Ocean.

It may appear relatively insignificant, given that the US Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre predicts 150 to 300 million people to be forced out of their homes due to climate change by 2050. Yet the announcement has still stunned environmental activists who have long demanded such resettlement programs, but have been blocked by governments and courts - including New Zealand's own Supreme Court.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Rick Noack - “A New Zealand visa could trigger the era of 'climate change refugees’.”

New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern signs coalition deal, names Winston Peters Deputy PM

New Zealand's incoming Government is hoping to make the nation greener by planting 100 million trees each year, ensuring the electricity grid runs entirely from renewable energy, and spending more money on cycle ways and rail transport.

Prime minister-elect Jacinda Ardern outlined a
 slew of new policies focusing on climate change.
She isa pictured with Winston Peters.

Prime minister-elect Jacinda Ardern and NZ First Leader Winston Peters — who will serve as deputy prime minster and foreign affairs minister in the new Government — signed the coalition agreement on Tuesday and outlined their priorities.

In addition to the environmental initiatives, Ms Ardern also outlined plans to raise the minimum wage, stop foreigners from buying existing homes, and possibly change how New Zealand's Reserve Bank operates.

The 37-year-old will be New Zealand's youngest leader in more than 150 years and hopes to take the country on a more liberal path following nine years of rule by the conservative National Party.

Read the ABC News story - “New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern signs coalition deal, names Winston Peters Deputy PM.”

Severe storms trigger emergency declaration, evacuations in New Zealand

The southern New Zealand city of Christchurch has declared a state of emergency amid a severe storm that has already resulted in hundreds of homes evacuated across the nation, highways cut and soldiers called in to help provide emergency services.

Evacuations are under way in New Zealand after a severe storm. 

The New Zealand Defence Force mobilised additional troops overnight to help rescue those trapped by rising floods.

Christchurch declared a state of emergency after the Heathcote River burst its banks and flooded southern parts of the city on Saturday morning, becoming the fourth area to do so after the storm lashed the South Island during the past 24 hours, causing widespread flooding.

Local media reports about 1500 people in settlements further north were told to leave their homes as water levels rose overnight, while more than 100 homes were evacuated outside Dunedin, the South Island's second-largest city.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Severe storms trigger emergency declaration, evacuations in New Zealand.”

A new approach to emissions trading in a post-Paris climate.

Despite the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, other countries, including New Zealand, remain committed to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate teams: if countries pooled resources,
they could support a low-emission transformation.

In our report, we explore how New Zealand, a trailblazer for emissions trading, might drive a low-emission transformation, both at home and overseas.

Emitting greenhouse gases is a lot like overflowing a bathtub. Even a slow trickle will eventually flood the room.

The Paris Agreement gives all countries a common destination: net zero emissions during the second half of the century. It is also an acknowledgement that the world has only a short time to turn the tide on emissions and limit global temperature rise to below two degrees. The sooner we turn down the tap, the more time we have for developing solutions.

Read the piece on The Conversation by an  Adjunct Professor with the School of Government at the Victoria University of Wellington, Suzi Kerr - “A new approach to emissions trading in a post-Paris climate.”

Three rivers are now legally people – but that’s just the start of looking after them

In the space of a week, the world has gained three notable new legal persons: the Whanganui River in New Zealand, and the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers in India.

Three rivers are now recognised as persons.

In New Zealand, the government passed legislation that recognised the Whanganui River catchment as a legal person. This significant legal reform emerged from the longstanding Treaty of Waitangi negotiations and is a way of formally acknowledging the special relationship local Māori have with the river.

In India, the Uttarakhand high court ruled that the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers have the same legal rights as a person, in response to the urgent need to reduce pollution in two rivers considered sacred in the Hindu religion.

Read the story on The Conversation by a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environment Law at the University of Melbourne, Erin O’Donnell and a PhD candidate from the  Environmental/Institutional Economics at the Australian National University, Julia Talbot-Jones - “Three rivers are now legally people – but that’s just the start of looking after them.”

Hospitals and health services in Australia and New Zealand recognized as ‘Climate Champions’ in global awards

Health care providers and hospitals in Australia and New Zealand are being recognised internationally for their leadership in greening the health sector and improving global public health by taking action on climate change.

Three local health services scooped five awards in three categories at the global 2020 Health Care Climate Challenge awards. They are: Koowerup Regional Health Service in Victoria; Mater in Queensland; and Counties Manukau Health in New Zealand.

All are members of the Pacific region of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) network and participants in the 2020 Health Care Climate Challenge.*

GGHH is an international network of hospitals, health care facilities, health systems, and health organizations dedicated to reducing their environmental footprint and promoting public and environmental health.

Read the story - “Hospitals and health services in Australia and New Zealand recognized as ‘Climate Champions’ in global awards.”

Plastic waste into concrete

A New Zealand company is turning plastic waste into high-quality concrete.

Enviroplaz director Stephen Swart (left) and
founding director Peter Barrow at their
factory in Manukau. 

Plazrok, the brainchild of south Auckland-based company Enviroplaz, is unique in that it can transform absolutely any type of plastic into a rock-like substance that forms the aggregate of concrete.

"We don't take the labels off, we don't have to disassemble it or take any of the other components off it, we can use it in its entirety," said Enviroplaz founding director Peter Barrow.

"We don't even need to clean it - the process we put it through does everything for us.”

What's more, concrete companies would not have to change their processes at all in order to use the Plazrok in their product.

Yet they would end up with concrete that is 10 to 40 per cent lighter than usual. That spells big savings.

Read Matthew Theunissen’s story in the New Zealand Herald - “Plastic waste into concrete.”

Landmark Hobart deal creates world's largest marine park in icy Antarctic seas

Ice on the Ross Sea.

The Antarctic Ross Sea is the healthiest marine ecosystem on the planet – home to toothfish, seals, a range of penguins and a unique population of killer whale.

Lying south of New Zealand, it is vast, cold and largely untainted by human contact.

After a landmark deal reached in Hobart on Friday, it will stay this way for at least the next 35 years. More than 50 countries including Australia, the US, China, Russia and members of the European Union agreed to make the Ross Sea the world's first large-scale marine park in international waters.

It means 1.55 million square kilometres of ocean – an area nearly twice the size of NSW – will be protected.

Read Adam Morton’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Landmark Hobart deal creates world's largest marine park in icy Antarctic seas.”

A 1912 news article ominously forecasted the catastrophic effects of fossil fuels on climate change

The much discussed 1912 article.

A short news clip from a New Zealand paper published in 1912 has gone viral as an example of an early news story to make the connection between burning fossil fuels and climate change.

It wasn’t, however, the first article to suggest that our love for coal was wreaking destruction on our environment that would lead to climate change. The theory—now widely accepted as scientific reality—was mentioned in the news media as early as 1883, and was discussed in scientific circles much earlier than that.

The French physicist Joseph Fourier had made the observation in 1824 that the composition of the atmosphere is likely to affect the climate. But Svante Arrhenius’s 1896 study titled, “On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature on the ground” was the first to quantify how carbon dioxide (or anhydrous carbonic acid, by another name) affects global temperature. Though the study does not explicitly say that the burning of fossil fuels would cause global warming, there were scientists before him who had made such a forecast.

Read the Quartz story - “A 1912 news article ominously forecasted the catastrophic effects of fossil fuels on climate change.”

UoM study observes unsual warming for Australasian region

A study led by UoM researchers
has defined 1000 year warming.

Warming observed in the Australasian region between 1985-2014 is unusual in the context of the past 1000 years, a landmark study has reported.

The study, led by University of Melbourne researchers and published on Monday, July 11, in the Journal of Climate, is the most comprehensive, long-term temperature reconstruction for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands region.

It shows that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are required to produce the rate and magnitude of post-1950 warming observed in the Australasian region, strongly pointing towards human influence in rising temperatures.

Climate scientists used natural climate indicators, such as tree rings, corals and cave records, in conjunction with climate modeling to delve a thousand years back into the region's temperature history.

Read Rebecca Scott’s Phys.org story - “Thousand-year study reconfirms recent warming in the Australian region.”

Battery storage costs halved by 2020

The Enphase pack that will see storage
costs and prices halved by 2020.

US energy technology company Enphase says it expects battery storage costs and prices to fall by one half by 2020, as it prepares to launch its first battery storage product into the Australian market in a few months.

Enphase on Tuesday unveiled its new R&D facility in New Zealand, which will drive further improvements in its battery storage and micro inverter technology, and enable it to refine its home energy management systems that will be launched in Australia and New Zealand within a few months.

Read the RenewEconomy story - “Enphase sees battery storage costs falling by half by 2020.”