Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke – or as the Greens call him, Minister Against the Environment – on Monday signed conditional approvals for three new coal and coal seam gas (CSG) mines in New South Wales. The three projects are Whitehaven’s Maules Creek coal mine (despite Burke having said last week he would defer that …
Tag Archive: Gas
Jan 24 2013
Aussie coal exports 2nd biggest “carbon bomb”
A new report by consultancy Ecofys for Greenpeace, called Point of No Return, details 14 proposed fossil fuel projects, dubbed “carbon bombs”, that would together effectively lock in dangerous climate change. If the 14 projects go ahead, they would add 6.3 Gt/year (greater than present US emissions) to global CO2 emissions in 2020, a 20% …
Dec 24 2012
Australia embraces Paris Hilton’s energy policy
The Australian government last month released the final version of its long-awaited Energy White Paper. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson’s speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) launching the White Paper was interrupted by Quit Coal protesters, one playing a fictional mining magnate thanking Ferguson for supporting the coal industry. After the protesters …
Sep 11 2012
Laggard to Leader
A landmark report was launched a few weeks ago by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), Laggard to Leader: How Australia Can Lead the World to Zero Carbon Prosperity. Laggard to Leader is at its heart a response to the oft-heard arguments that Australia is too small for our actions to make a significant difference to global …
Sep 04 2012
Australian climate policy: 10 revealing graphics
I’ve written a great deal about the holes in Australian (and global) climate policy. As such discussions can get very complex and confusing, I decided it was time to try a more visual format for a change. The following graphics dramatically illustrate just how ineffective the Gillard government’s climate change policy is. 1) We’re heading …
Jun 25 2012
The Not-So-Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Today, the Australian Senate is considering legislation to set up a Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). CEFC is the last (but certainly not least) of the Not-So-Clean Energy Future policies agreed by the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee a year ago. It is supposed to complement Australia’s low carbon price by funding emerging renewable energy technologies. …
Feb 14 2012
Real-world measurements confirm gas is no cleaner than coal
Figure 1: Methane emissions from natural gas fields are much larger than the industry claims. (Nature, 2012) I have written before about why natural gas is not, as is fashionably believed, a bridge fuel to a zero-carbon economy. Even if gas were cleaner than coal, it’s still a fossil fuel and switching to it would …
Feb 12 2012
Australia’s real climate policy
If you live in Australia you’ve no doubt heard of the Gillard Government’s climate and energy policy: a carbon price branded as the way to a “Clean Energy Future”. But just as a magician misdirects an audience’s attention, the Clean Energy Future diverts attention from Labor’s real energy policy. The Draft Energy White Paper (EWP), …
Oct 13 2011
Top 10 Flaws in Government’s “Clean Energy Future”
Yesterday the Australian House of Representatives passed the Clean Energy Future legislation, but it doesn’t feel like much of a victory. A carbon price is a first step in Australia’s necessary transition away from its current fossil fuel economy toward the renewable energy one of the future. The Clean Energy Future includes significant improvements on …
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