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Australia’s incoming prime minister seen moving cautiously on climate policy
Posted by Reuters: Colin Packham on September 14th, 2015
Reuters: Australia's incoming prime minister Malcolm Turnbull may seek to reposition greater action to fight climate change as an economic booster, analysts and academics said on Tuesday, but will move slowly to avoid losing the support of his colleagues.
Turnbull is set to become Australia's fourth prime minister in two years when he is sworn in later on Tuesday after securing the leadership of the Liberal Party, the senior partner in the ruling conservative coalition, in a vote on Monday.
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As risk of drought rises, Australian farmers struggle to invest
Posted by Reuters: Colin Packham on August 18th, 2014
Reuters: When a scorching drought struck eastern Australia in 2006, cattle farmers Robyn and Paul Kendal had to slaughter nearly all their livestock and spend around a year of their normal turnover on feed to keep the remainder alive. With a recurrence of El Nino, the weather pattern behind the drought, looming and dry conditions already affecting an area larger than South Africa, another major drought could be one struggle too many for farmers such as the Kendals. "In 2006, we saw the lowest amount of...
U.S. ethanol waiver would roil grains market: traders
Posted by Reuters: Colin Packham on August 1st, 2012
Reuters: The U.S. government is unlikely to bow to pressure for a waiver on quotas requiring a proportion of corn is used to make ethanol before November, at the earliest, traders said, despite the expected slump in global corn production due to severe drought.
And any change in the Renewable Fuels Standard, requiring that over a third of the corn crop is made into fuel ethanol, could cause market chaos after dwindling corn stocks had already been priced in, traders at an Australian grains conference said....