From The Australian: The Coalition has vowed not to introduce an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity sector, as Malcolm Turnbull seeks to quell a backbench revolt over climate change policy and target Labor over its plans for a new price on carbon. In a reminder of the policy fight that cost Mr Turnbull his
By Leith van Onselen On Monday it was revealed that Australia’s carbon emissions are on the rise and the nation is on track to badly miss the scientifically based targets set by the government’s Climate Change Authority, as well as those under the Paris agreement. From The Guardian: Australia’s emissions jumped by 2.56m tonnes in
It’s all so very BORING: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull faces a fresh outbreak of party disunity over climate policy, with backbench MPs questioning the government’s timing, scope and tactics after a formal review of the Direct Action plan was finally announced. Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg on Monday launched the long-awaited review – which controversially promises to look at
From The Guardian: The federal government’s Direct Action carbon reduction policy appears to be running out of steam, with participation from industry dropping, the cost of the program rising and the budget for emissions reduction nearly exhausted. The Clean Energy Regulator announced on Thursday it would pay a further $367m to polluting industries, in return
From the FT: Scientists are struggling to understand why a burst of “scary” warming at the North Pole has pushed Arctic temperatures nearly 20C higher than normal for this time of year. …“We’ve been processing this data since 1958 and we haven’t really seen anything like this at this time of year,” said Rasmus Tonboe,
Peter Martin delivers a mighty serve today on the SA blackout: Within minutes of the blackout, Twitter was alive with comments such as: “Bring back coal to SA! – this is bloody unacceptable to have a whole state sitting around in the dark. Aren’t we a developed country?” That one came from @rubensohn_gemma, a Sydney resident
From Domainfax: Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry have stabilised for a third year in a row, in a shift that will reduce the risks of dangerous climate change if the trend continues, researchers say. CO2 emissions from the two sources last year were steady at about 36.4 gigatonnes, slowing from a pace
From the World Energy Council: THE WORLD’S PRIMARY ENERGY DEMAND GROWTH will slow and per capita energy demand will peak before 2030 due to unprecedented efficiencies created by new technologies and more stringent energy policies. Since 1970, demand for energy has more than doubled. New technologies to 2060 will keep energy demand growth moderate relative
The PBOC this morning fixed the yuan at its lowest since 2010: The market has since pulled back but I’d expect it to continue. Capital outflow has not stopped, from Investing in Chinese Stocks: M2 figures come out next week, but unless M2 growth was brought to a standstill in September, reserve coverage of M2
From Knight Frank’s annual ski property review via FTAlphaville: The UK’s decision in June to leave the European Union has not led to a sudden market downturn nor have we seen sales in their early stage of negotiation fall through. Vendors across Europe are less reliant on British demand, there is a broader cohort of buyers
From NASA: August 2016 was the warmest August in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Although the seasonal temperature cycle typically peaks in July, August 2016 wound up tied with July 2016 for the warmest month ever recorded.
From Soc Gen today: … asset price appreciation seems to be worryingly unstoppable. Especially, housing market indicators continued to show a brisk momentum in sales and prices, but a muted construction recovery. Even the officials at the central bank admitted that there is a bubble. New starts growth weakened to 3% from 8%, but housing
A renewed drumbeat for infrastructure, via Macquarie: A recent Chinese State Council meeting held by Premier Li gave a more progrowth tone with a pledge to enforce more active fiscal policy in China. Infrastructure investment is mentioned as a key way to support the economy, policy banks are encouraged to increase credit support to investment
From the FT: China and the US, the world’s two largest carbon polluters, have both ratified the Paris climate change agreement in a big boost to efforts to bring the UN accord into force. …The joint move on Saturday highlighted the determination of both presidents not to let differences over territorial claims in the South
Cross-posted from The Conversation: Australia’s largest listed, carbon intensive companies say management lost focus on carbon matters, abandoned energy projects and didn’t have the commercial imperative to produce long-term strategic action on reducing emissions after the carbon tax was repealed, new research finds. Our research looked at the comparative views of emitters before and after
by Chris Becker Hallelujah. The new minister for science is actually a minister for science! The newly returned Turnbull Government is giving climate risk management another chance by reviving climate research from the beleaguered CSIRO, which faced ridiculous – bordering on criminal – cuts to its budget in the Abbott and post Abbott/Turnbott days. More
From the Socialist Fifth Column, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Greenhouse gases were the highest on record. Major greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide, rose to new record high values during 2015. The 2015 average global CO2 concentration was 399.4 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 2.2 ppm compared
Cross-posted from The Conversation: Like Henry Ford before him, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk is taking a new approach to car making. Where Ford focused on manufacturing a car that the mass market could afford, Musk is keen to build a vehicle that the environment can bear. Much has been made of the use
Cross-posted from Independent Australia: Dodgy data, the Coalition and the Murdoch press have again presented a spectacular performance in renewable energy misinformation, writes RenewEconomy‘s Giles Parkinson. IT APPEARS that the South Australian conservative Opposition may have been the original source for the dodgy numbers that formed the basis of an erroneous front page story on The Australian last week, about wind generation in
What a mess the east coast energy market is. From The Australian: The head of energy policy at the Grattan Institute public policy think tank, Tony Wood, said governments might have to consider paying subsidies to keep back-up power sources such as gas-fired electricity available, even if they were only used occasionally. Mr Wood also
From Reuters: Solar power is on pace for the first time this year to contribute more new electricity to the grid than will any other form of energy – a feat driven more by economics than green mandates. The cost of electricity from large-scale solar installations now is comparable to and sometimes cheaper than natural
From the Premier of Victoria: Victoria has set ambitious renewable energy targets to create thousands of new jobs and cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, 25 per cent of electricity generated in the state will come from renewable energy. By 2025, that will rise to 40 per cent. Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister
Guest post from Kate Mackenzie, former FTAlphaville doyen and Climate Institute senior researcher. Most of you will probably feel there’s already enough to worry about in Australian housing without bringing climate change into it. We are a country that is heavily invested in housing, from households to the macro-economy. But we are also particularly exposed to various effects of climate
The Great Barrier Reef has been saved from the impacts of global warming by shifting it off-planet, from the BBC: All references to climate change’s impact on World Heritage sites in Australia have been removed from a United Nations report. A draft of the report contained a chapter on the Great Barrier Reef and references
From NBC: In a rare prepared speech, Donald Trump outlined his energy policy in Bismarck, North Dakota. Trump is known for bucking conservative orthodoxy but, on Thursday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee largely hewed to the typical Republican line. Reading from a teleprompter, Trump called for reducing restrictions on energy exploration, opening up more federal
