Australian Financial Review
Professor Ross Garnaut, releasing his draft climate change report for the federal government, has said that immediate and decisive measures are necessary to prevent serious damage to the Australian economy. Recommending the adoption of a broad-based emissions trading scheme, Professor Garnaut warned of the dangers of failure to make the scheme as broadly based as possible.
posted by patrick on July 4, 2008 at 2:25 pm · filed under 
ACF
Yesterday’s COAG meeting has completely failed to address the ecological crisis that threatens to turn the Murray River’s Lower Lakes and Coorong into a toxic wasteland, according to ACF healthy rivers campaigner Dr Arlene Buchan. Dr Buchan has accused the state governments - particularly Victoria - of using the national water plan as a revenue raising scheme, rather than a solution to a massive environmental and social problem.
posted by patrick on July 4, 2008 at 11:34 am · filed under 
Greenpeace
A viable and robust renewable energy generation industry must be one of the outcomes of the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, according to Greenpeace chief executive Steve Shallhorn. The proposed scheme, to be adressed in tomorrow’s Garnaut Review report, is an opportunity to create the right conditions for investment in wind, solar, and geothermal energy technologies.
posted by patrick on July 3, 2008 at 11:34 am · filed under
Environment Victoria
The watered down feed-in tariff policy announced by the Brumby government in May 2008 was based on inaccurate costings, leading to exaggerated concerns about the cost to consumers of a gross metered system, according to Environment Victoria. A flawed costing model containing inaccurate assumptions about the amount of electricity likely to be generated domestically and its value contributed to the policy error.
posted by patrick on July 3, 2008 at 11:17 am · filed under 
Planet Ark
Professor Ross Garnaut of the Australian National University (ANU) will release his blueprint of the national emissions trading scheme (NETS) tomorrow, providing a plan for how emissions trading could operate. Yesterday, experts close to Garnaut pronounced that the scheme plan will automatically include fuel and within a short period, agriculture as well. In the 1980s and 90s, Garnaut was an economic adviser to the Hawke labour government and drove radical reforms that liberalised trade and floated the Australian dollar currency.
posted by amelia on July 3, 2008 at 9:38 am · filed under
ABC News
At the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting today, Prime Minister Rudd is said to approve a multi-billion dollar deal to save the Murray-Darling basin and is determined to get approvals from all states. Rudd says he will not accept delays such as those made by the Victorian state government who are resisting to sign up to the emergency rescue package. Rudd says the Murray-Darling is a long-term problem and thus needs a long-term solution which he is determined to provide.
posted by amelia on July 3, 2008 at 9:28 am · filed under 
ABC news
Asian countries have been urged by analysts to increase investment in geothermal power. Nations on the Pacific ring of fire, such as Indonesia and the Philippines could fully power their own economies, due to their geological settings, but a deficiency of research is preventing the development of geothermal resources to major economies of scale.
A recent report says that the US alone has enough geothermal energy to supply 30,000 years of current global consumption.
posted by shaun on July 2, 2008 at 9:45 pm · filed under
Minister for Climate Change and Water
Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, released a design options paper for an expanded national renewable energy target.
“We expect the 20 per cent renewable energy target to help drive strong investment and job creation in the renewable energy sector“ said Senator Wong as she encouraged stakeholders to make submissions on a target that will support the emissions trading system.
posted by shaun on July 2, 2008 at 9:32 pm · filed under
ABC News
Following a 12-day cull of kangaroos on Maria Island in which 400 animals were killed to reduce their population, there has been a call by a Tasmanian veterinary pathologist for reviews in the way in which the cull is carried out. Many of the culled kangaroos had been shot in the body instead of the head, which could have resulted in a slow and painful death, and some of the dead kangaroos still had live joeys in their pouches. Both these findings show breaches in State and national guidelines.
posted by steve on June 30, 2008 at 7:37 pm · filed under 
ABC News
The Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has been called upon by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW to stop the export of shark fins from Australia. In the past 13 months Australia has exported 133,000 kg of frozen shark fin, which equates to the slaughter of 10,000 sharks. There is too little information on shark populations at the present time to predict the effect of this cull on the different shark species specifically and on marine biodiversity in general.
posted by steve on June 30, 2008 at 7:24 pm · filed under 
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