Government 'falling behind' industry views on climate change

Representatives from around 200 countries, including Australia, are meeting in Madrid this week to discuss climate targets and how they'll meet their commitments under the Paris agreement.

Ahead of the talks, the Australian Climate Roundtable group issued a statement, urging Australia to adopt policies that put it on a stable path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The climate roundtable brings together an unusual alliance of industry representatives, unions, farmers and environmental NGOs.

Listen to the interview from Radio National by Hamish Macdonald - “Government 'falling behind' industry views on climate change.

German plan to phase out coal would cost a cool $64 billion.

Berlin: Germany will spend tens of billions of dollars to end its use of coal power within two decades, if a plan agreed to by representatives of the power industry, environmental movement, miners and local interest groups becomes official policy.

Protesters hold a poster before the meeting of a panel
of experts on the exit of the use of coal in Germany on Friday.

The deal, hammered out on Saturday after more than 20 hours of intense, often fractious negotiating among a 28-member commission appointed last year by Chancellor Angela Merkel, would be one of the most significant energy transformations a nation has yet attempted in the face of climate change.

Read the story from The Age by Melissa Eddy - “German plan to phase out coal would cost a cool $64 billion.”

Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news

In Incheon, South Korea, this week, representatives of over 130 countries and about 50 scientists have packed into a large conference center going over every line of an all-important report: What chance does the planet have of keeping climate change to a moderate, controllable level?

Delegates and experts attend the opening ceremony of the 48th
 session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in
Incheon, South Korea, on Oct. 1, 2018.

When they can’t agree, they form “contact groups” outside the hall, trying to strike an agreement and move the process along. They are trying to reach consensus on what it would mean — and what it would take — to limit the warming of the planet to just 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, when 1 degree Celsius has already occurred and greenhouse gas emissions remain at record highs.

“It’s the biggest peer-review exercise there is,” said Jonathan Lynn, head of communications for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It involves hundreds or even thousands of people looking at it.”

Read the story from The Washington Post by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis -  “Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news.”

The Nationals should support carbon farming, not coal

National Party MP George Christensen has invited other Nationals to join the recently formed pro-coal “Monash Forum”. But is coal in the best interests of their rural constituents, particularly farmers?

The carbon farming initiative gives pig farmers the opportunity to earn
carbon credits for reducing methane emissions from manure. The
proposed change to this government policy may stall, or even end, this market. 

Farmers stand to lose from any weakening of the government’s climate change policies. That is why farmers and their political representatives should be concerned about a current review of the government’s greenhouse gas reduction policy.

What is at stake here is the strange-sounding idea of carbon farming. To explain this idea takes several steps, so bear with me.

Read the piece from The Conversation  by the Emeritus Professor of Sociology from the Australian National University, Andrew Hopkins - “The Nationals should support carbon farming, not coal."

Plenty of energy went into doing nothing about our energy crisis

In 2017 we heard a lot from the federal government about energy. In fact, there was too much talk, and very little action. As we head into the new year, it's time to reflect on the past 12 months, and ask ourselves whether our elected representatives have been naughty or nice when it comes to climate and energy policy?

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

The year began on a prescient note, with federal ministers cheerily handing about an actual lump of coal in Parliament, supplied by the Minerals Council of Australia.

Read Petra Stock’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Plenty of energy went into doing nothing about our energy crisis.”