Business, unions and farmers urge Australia to cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero

Groups representing business, unions, farmers, investors, the environment and social policy advocates say Australia should adopt climate change policies that can put it on a stable path to net zero national greenhouse gas emissions if it is to play its part in the Paris agreement.

The Australian Climate Roundtable
 warns unconstrained climate change
will have serious consequences unless
 net greenhouse gas emissions are cut to zero.

Launched to coincide with UN climate talks in Madrid, a joint statement by 10 groups under the Australian Climate Roundtable banner warns that unconstrained climate change would have serious economic, environmental and social impacts in Australia, and avoiding it would bring benefits and opportunities.

“Our overarching aim is for Australia to play its fair part in international efforts to achieve this while maintaining and increasing its prosperity,” the statement says.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Morton and Katharine Murphy - “Business, unions and farmers urge Australia to cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero.” 

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’.”

Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter joins climate science deniers and Islamophobes for Australian LibertyFest

Steve Baxter, climate science
deniers, Islamophobes, and other
libertarians gather at LibertyFest.

What do you get when you bring together some of Australia’s most fervent climate science deniers with anti-Islam activists, fledgling right-wing political groups, and an American “free market” Libertarian?

The answer, apparently, is the one-day conference titled LibertyFest scheduled for Brisbane this Saturday.

Two mainstays of Australia’s “fever swamp” of climate science denial, Professor Ian Plimer and Jennifer Marohasy, are set to kick-off the proceedings on Friday evening.

Organizing the conference is Brisbane-based group LibertyWorks, founded 18 months ago by local businessman and libertarian Andrew Cooper.

For those uninitiated, libertarians will tell you governments should be small and stay out of people’s lives, regulations should be drastically scaled back, and economic markets left to function with little to no regulation.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Graham Readfearn - “Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter joins climate science deniers and Islamophobes for Australian LibertyFest.”