Vaunted plan to cut power emissions will have 'negligible impact’

New analysis has found the Turnbull government’s plan to tackle climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power generators is superfluous because the pollution cuts would be achieved regardless, largely due to state policies.

The national energy guarantee aims to cut pollution from the electricity sector..

It means the government’s much-heralded national energy guarantee will force an administratively complex overhaul of the national electricity market without applying targets ambitious enough to tackle global warming beyond action already being taken.

But Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg says the analysis does not consider the need to make electricity supplies more reliable, which is an aim of its proposed policy, along with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story from The Age - “Vaunted plan to cut power emissions will have 'negligible impact’.”

Sea levels could rise an extra 60cm if emission reductions are delayed until 2035, study finds

Global sea levels will continue to rise until at least 2300 regardless of how much we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research published today.

Scientists say sea levels will continue to rise until at least 2300.

But for every five years until 2035 that we delay reaching net-zero carbon emissions, as committed to under the Paris agreement targets, sea levels will rise by about an extra 20 centimetres, the researchers found as part of the study published in Nature Communications.

They estimated average global sea levels would be between 0.7 and 1.2 metres above 2000 levels by 2300, depending on how quickly we can reduce our emissions.

The Paris agreement, to which Australia is a signatory, has a core aim of limiting global temperature rise this century to "well below" 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to keep the rise below 1.5 degrees.

Read the ABC News story by Nick Kilvert - “Sea levels could rise an extra 60cm if emission reductions are delayed until 2035, study finds.”