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What does the Paris climate agreement mean for Australia?
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on December 12th, 2015
Guardian: Surely Australia can use this Paris climate agreement to finally end the barren, wasted years of climate policy war.
There’s already an uneasy ceasefire, a let-up in the mind-numbing slogans. Labor is promising some kind of emissions trading scheme and a relatively ambitious renewable energy target – but no details yet lest it once again feels the barrage of a full bore axe-the-tax scare campaign. Under the sceptical gaze of his party’s hard right, Malcolm Turnbull is also unwilling to even hint...
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Australian insurers keep customers in the dark about climate risks, report finds
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on November 1st, 2015
Guardian: Australians are in the dark about the risks climate change poses for the local insurance industry because Australian insurers don’t disclose enough information, a new report claims.
According to the study by WWF, Australian insurers IAG, QBE and Suncorp tell customers far less than overseas insurers about the risks climate change could pose to their businesses, and also shy away from public statements about the need to act on global warming more than their international peers.
Climate change...
Clive Palmer’s $6bn China First coalmine faces last two hurdles
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on October 25th, 2013
Guardian: The future of Clive Palmer's $6bn China First coalmine now rests on two separate environmental decisions by the federal minister Greg Hunt, as the mining magnate prepares to wield his powerful four-senator balance of power voting bloc from next July.
On Friday, the Department of Environment posted a determination on its website that the mine would have to comply with new laws requiring a cumulative assessment of the impact it -- and other coal mega-mines in the Galilee Basin -- would have on water...
Australia: Bushfires: Coalition deploys straw man against burning issue of climate change
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on October 24th, 2013
Guardian: The Abbott government is desperately constructing a straw man to help it fight the potentially big political problem of rising public concern about climate change and scrutiny of its Direct Action policy.
The straw man is the contention that anyone making a perfectly reasonable and scientifically justifiable point -- that climate change is likely to cause a higher prevalence of the weather conditions that pose a bushfire risk -- has actually been making the unreasonable and scientifically unjustifiable...
United Kingdom: Mega-mines will have to comply with tough ‘water trigger’ law: Greg Hunt
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on September 26th, 2013
Guardian: Huge coalmines proposed by Clive Palmer and a company co-owned by Gina Rinehart are among 47 projects that the new environment minister, Greg Hunt, has determined must comply with tough new federal rules about their impact on water, under laws enacted in the dying days of the former Labor government.
Hunt has decided that 47 of 50 projects waiting for a federal government decision did in fact have to complete extra environmental assessments under the new "water trigger" in the federal law.
He...
Australia: NSW under pressure to water down rules on coal seam gas
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on September 23rd, 2013
Guardian: New South Wales is under intense pressure to water down tough coal seam gas regulations announced before the federal election as the Abbott government vows "anarchist" anti-CSG protesters who disrespect the law will not sway its determination to kick-start the industry.
As protests to proposed new coal seam gas wells escalated before the federal election, the NSW government, with the encouragement of the then federal Coalition resources spokesman, Ian Macfarlane, and to the dismay of the gas industry,...
Dumping the carbon tax: easier said than done
Posted by Guardian: Lenore Taylor on June 28th, 2013
Guardian: "Dumping" the carbon tax – the fixed price period of Australia's carbon pricing scheme – makes for a handy headline. But it would be much harder for a Rudd government to actually do.
That's why the Gillard government didn't do it some time back when cabinet examined this option in detail.
To start with, it would require legislation, which can't happen before the election since the parliament has risen and which the Greens leader, Senator Christine Milne – alive for an opportunity for pre-election...