Media // Environment
October 2021
Scott Morrison’s ‘net zero by 2050’ emissions reduction plan will be filled with tricks and rorts
Sometime this month Scott Morrison will announce a net zero by 2050 emissions-reduction target for Australia. This announcement will be made with the expectation of praise. However, much like the world was indifferent when Australia signalled it would no longer be using Kyoto credits to meet its Paris targets, so too will this announcement be
September 2021
Richard Denniss: Australia’s carbon credits are a joke. Taxpayer money is being wasted on ‘hot air’
If a tree doesn’t fall in a forest, was the climate really saved? Sadly, such esoteric questions have become the main game in the topsy-turvy world of Australian climate policy, where rising emissions from the oil and gas industry are ‘offset’ by not chopping down trees. The polite term for the creation of dodgy carbon
Statement in response to the Clean Energy Regulator
Fundamental questions of integrity have been raised by the Australia Institute and the Australian Conservation Foundation in regards to the Emissions Reduction Fund’s avoided deforestation method. Rather than investigate the method in question, the regulator has sought to discredit the analysis, and revealed an alarming lack of understanding of its own methodology. A full statement
AUKUS and the nuclear submarine debacle
Exploring the economic, political and strategic implications of Australia dumping a $90 billion French submarine program to secure a deal with the US and UK for nuclear-powered submarines.
Serious Integrity Concerns Around Australia’s ‘Junk’ Carbon Credits
One in five carbon credits issued by the Federal Government’s $4.5 billion Emission Reduction Fund (ERF) do not represent real abatement and are essentially ‘junk’ credits, according to new research by the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program. Key Findings: Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated by the ‘avoided deforestation’
Economists welcome end of native forest logging in WA
The Australia Institute welcomes the WA Government’s decision to end native forest logging and calls for independent inquiries into native forestry in other states. “The end of native forest logging represents not just good environmental policy, but good economic policy,” said Rod Campbell, economist and Research Director at The Australia Institute. “Australia Institute research has
Australian Government Breaking Promise on Mining Tax Transparency
Correspondence between Resource Minister Keith Pitt and civil society groups involved in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) shows that the Australian Government is walking away from its promise to join the tax transparency initiative for the mining, oil and gas industry. The move comes despite major mining companies and civil society groups supporting Australia’s
Fracked: Gas in the Northern Territory
Extracting gas from the Northern Territory through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is one of the largest potential sources of carbon pollution in the world. In this episode we explore the climate cost of a potential policy backflip on opening up the NT to fracking, as well as the community opposition and the economics of it all.
12 Organisations Open Letter: Abolish Stamp Duty on EVs in SA
An unlikely group of 12 companies and organisations, including car manufacturers, automotive groups and environmental organisations have come together to publish an open letter to the South Australian Parliament, calling on them to abolish stamp duty on electric vehicles. The letter, which appears as a full-page advertisement in The Advertiser newspaper today, comes as the
July 2021
Marine and coastal leaders call for national strategy to protect oceans
The 15th National Coast to Coast Conference delegates have called for the Australian Government to adopt a National Sustainable Oceans and Coasts Strategy. The strategy provides a blueprint for change that Australia’s oceans and coasts need, and outlines the steps needed to transform how we govern and protect oceans and coasts across Australia. Among the
One in Two Australians Support Moratorium on Expansion of Tasmania’s Salmon Farming Industry
New research from the Australia Institute Tasmania finds that one in two Australians support a moratorium on the expansion of the salmon farming industry in Tasmania, while only 15% oppose.
Coming soon: The carbon taxes that cannot be repealed
Carbon taxes are coming to Australia whether we like it or not. They are coming despite the triumphant ‘axing of the tax’ in 2014. They are coming despite the updated but equally loud ‘technology not taxes’ sloganeering from the Morrison government in 2021. They are coming despite our government’s refusal to commit to a net-zero
Majority of Australians support UNESCO Great Barrier Reef ‘in danger’ listing
More than seven in ten (72%) Australians support UNESCO’s recommendation to add the Great Barrier Reef to the World Heritage ‘in danger’ list, just 11% oppose. Furthermore, Queenslanders are most likely (50%) to think that climate change is the largest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and least likely (4%) to think that the health of the Great Barrier Reef is not threatened.
June 2021
Choosing between more jobs and a cleaner environment
The more a company invests in safely handling waste the more jobs it will create, the less damage it will do to the natural environment and the less harm it will do to the tourism, agriculture and fisheries industries that are built on the image and the reality of Tasmania’s clean environment. While it is
The fight for a healthier Murray-Darling must continue
I’m a fifth-generation farmer. My family have run properties alongside the Darling/Baaka River for almost a century. We have watched as the once mighty river system that runs through the heart of our nation has suffered due to government mismanagement and over-extraction upstream. I’ve always said the red dirt of home runs through my veins,
Richard Denniss explains why he’s returning his alumni award for National Leadership the University of Newcastle in the wake of Mark Vaile’s appointment as chancellor
You can’t be a leader if you follow people down the wrong path, which is why, with a heavy heart, I am returning the alumni award for National Leadership the University of Newcastle bestowed on me in 2017. I cannot understand how the council of a university whose motto is “I look ahead” could appoint
Open Letter: G7 Leaders should end not just coal, but also oil and gas finance in 2021
Originally published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Reuters News. On June 11-13, World Leaders will gather at the G7 summit. There, they plan to adopt an agenda to “build back better from coronavirus and create a greener, more prosperous future”. We, the undersigned economists, believe that this means decisively shifting finance
Mice, floods and the climate crisis: why your insurance won’t cover society-wide catastrophes
The best way to keep premiums down is to prevent climate change and the disasters it causes No matter how much you pay for your home or car insurance, if your property is damaged by mouse plague, nuclear radiation, war or rising sea levels you are almost certainly on your own. If you’re lucky, your
Groups in Australia and Japan join forces to highlight damage caused by their nations’ coal trade / 日本とオーストラリア団体、石炭が及ぼす影響を強調
日本語は以下 ↓ Civil society groups in Australia and Japan have teamed up to release a new report that examines the damage caused by coal mining in Australia and coal consumption in Japan, shining a light on the costs of Japan’s reliance on Australian coal. The report by the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australia Institute and
Woodside’s Scarborough Gas Field Equivalent to 15 New Coal Power Plants, Risks Murujuga Rock Art
Woodside’s controversial Scarborough Gas Field would result in an additional 1.6 billion tonnes of emissions—equivalent to building 15 new coal power stations—and places World Heritage Murujuga Aboriginal rock art at risk of being destroyed, new research by the Conservation Council of Western Australia and the Australia Institute shows. Approvals to process the Scarborough gas field
May 2021
Statement in response to National Farmers Federation criticisms of Australia Institute Banking on Australia’s Emissions report
“It is disappointing the National Farmers Federation has chosen to interpret the Australia Institute’s report Banking on Australia’s Emissions as a criticism of the agriculture sector,” said Richie Merzian, climate & energy program director at the Australia Institute. “The Australia Institute recognises that Australia’s farmers are experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change, and similarly
Statement from The Australia Institute
Statement from The Australia Institute regarding Minister Pitt’s claims that the 1200 Bridges Too Far report by Kate McBride, Australia Institute fellow and fifth generation farmer, into the Murray Darling Basin Plan is ‘full of claims based on false assertions.’ “The Australia Institute stands by its 1200 Bridges Too Far report by Kate McBride, Australia
Murray Darling Basin: Billion Dollar SA Water Fund Earmarked for Bridges and Water Storage in NSW
New research from The Australia Institute and Conservation SA shows that money previously earmarked to return 450 gigalitres (GL) of water to the environment in South Australia may be used to upgrade over 1200 bridges and increase water storage capacity in New South Wales irrigation districts. The report investigates the current project proposals under the
Gas Led Retreat: Employment in Gas Shrinking as Economy Growing
New research by the Australia Institute shows that the Prime Minister’s ‘gas led recovery’ led to a loss of 3,800 jobs between May 2020 and February 2021, while employment across the economy grew by 863,000. The report shows that if the $2.9 billion allocated to new gas and oil refinery support measures, announced in and
Australian subsidies give oil refineries the whole carrot farm while electric vehicles get the stick
The only viable long-term solution to our liquid fuel insecurity is to get off fossil fuels. Instead we are giving them taxpayer handouts When I was a kid, every year in early December we would go to the Geelong oil refinery in Corio. The refinery’s fire engine would cruise around, flash its lights and hand
Hunter mines running at 62% of approved capacity
Coal mines in the NSW Upper Hunter Valley extracted 150 million tonnes in 2020, 91 million tonnes less coal than their approved capacity of 241 million tonnes, according to new research released by the Australia Institute. The Australia Institute report also estimates the cost of filling in the Hunter’s mine voids at between $11 billion
What costs Australians almost $20,000 every minute?
Exactly how much do governments hand out to fossil fuel companies every year?
The government’s embrace of ‘clean hydrogen’ helps no one but the fossil fuel industry
Nothing captures prime minister Scott Morrison’s approach to climate change better than his embrace of “clean hydrogen” – a BS marketing term that delivers nothing but obfuscation and helps no one but the fossil fuel industry. Tellingly, this approach isn’t even new: Morrison has simply dusted off an old polluter playbook and changed a few
April 2021
Australian fossil fuel subsidies hit $10.3 billion in 2020-21
Fossil fuel subsidies cost Australians a staggering $10.3 billion in FY 2020-21 with one Commonwealth tax break alone ($7.84 billion) exceeding the $7.82 billion spent on the Australian Army, according to research released today by The Australia Institute. In fact, $10.3 billion in Government subsidies means that in 2020, every minute of every day $19,686
Polling: Majority of Tasmanians Want Pause of Tasmanian Salmon Farm Expansion
New research from the Australia Institute Tasmania finds most Tasmanians (63%) want to suspend the expansion of salmon farms in Tasmania, expressing widespread (63.5%) concern that the health of Tasmania’s coastal waters is declining. More than one in two (56.3%) Tasmanians agree the Tasmanian Government is not doing enough to protect the health of our oceans.
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