September 2024
Offsetting into oblivion with George Monbiot
By relying on uncertain and unethical carbon offsets to combat the climate crisis, society is setting itself on a path to destruction, George Monbiot says.
June 2024
The Minerals Council REALLY wants you to feel good about coal: Spin Bin | Video
The Minerals Council recently released an ad promoting the coal industry in Australia, which uses some figures that don’t stack up.
May 2024
3 Gas Myths Debunked
While social licence for fossil fuels has slipped, gas seems to be clinging on longer than the rest.
Australia’s state-sponsored greenwashing
It’s going to be difficult to tackle bogus environmental claims from the private sector until the government itself stops greenwashing, argues Polly Hemming on this episode of Follow the Money.
April 2024
Labor’s pledge to depoliticise the public service is undermined by the government only hearing what it wants to hear on climate change
While last year’s robodebt royal commission exposed a shocking lack of ethics among senior ranks of the Australian public service, the systemic condition still largely seems to be regarded as an aberration.
March 2024
The Climate Crisis is an Integrity Crisis | Polly Hemming
I am starting my address to this year’s summit in the exact same way that I started last year’s address. Because it is just over a year since I delivered these same words, which aren’t actually my words. They are the words of our Climate Change Minister, and they provide a baseline of sorts for what progress has been made in that time.
Robodebt, repeated? How government is failing the nation on climate
The ‘robodebt’ debacle was a shameful episode for the federal government, but was it an anomaly? Our guest today says the same behaviours that enabled robodebt have been playing out for decades in our climate policymaking and questions whether the government has appetite to implement its proposed integrity reforms. australiainstitute.org.au // @theausinstitute Guest: Polly Hemming, Director,
January 2024
Ending Native Forest Logging with Bob Brown | Summer Series
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. Australia’s native forests are not only home to some of our most vulnerable and threatened species, they hold critical cultural and ecological value. While native forest logging is being phased out in Western Australia and Victoria,
December 2023
Big Petrostate Energy
The United Nations annual climate conference, COP28, is wrapping up, and it’s crunch time. Is there going to be a mention of actually phasing out fossil fuels? Or will we have more of avoiding the issue? This was recorded on Tuesday 12th December 2023 and things may have changed since recording. australiainstitute.org.au // @theausinstitute Guest: Polly
The Wellbeing Framework’s metric of greenhouse gas emissions is the same one used by past climate-change denying governments
The most important issue for Australians’ wellbeing is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and yet the government is not being honest about its progress in the the Wellbeing Framework.
15 per cent of Australia’s emissions come from sending fossil fuels overseas
The Australian government talks big on the world stage about how we need to end reliance on fossil fuels, but our exports don’t match our rhetoric.
November 2023
The Government needs to stop using dodgy “land use” accounting to suggest emissions are falling
It is time for the Government to stop using land use figures to make their greenhouse gas emission projections look better than they really are.
....October 2023
Australia’s compromised climate negotiators
Sitting in a bar in Manhattan recently, there for Climate Week NYC and the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, I watched as Australians from both government and the private sector worked the room.
August 2023
An Eventful Trip to Fiji
The Labor Government has been campaigning for Australia to host COP31, the UN climate conference, in partnership with a Pacific Island nation. But Pacific Islanders have several concerns, mainly due to Australia’s track record with new fossil fuels, and lacklustre climate policy. This was recorded on Wednesday 30th August 2023 and things may have changed
As time runs out Australia’s emissions are going in the wrong direction
Australian’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising and with each month the path ahead becomes harder and more costly.
What Transition?
The lifecycle emissions resulting from Tamboran Resources’ proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) processing and export facility in the Northern Territory would be equivalent to 12 coal-fired power stations every year when operating at full capacity. Not exactly on the transition to net-zero… This was recorded on Wednesday 16th August 2023 and things may have changed
July 2023
The Shell Game Behind Carbon Credits with Nick Feik [Webinar]
In his new essay “The Great Stock ‘n’ Coal Swindle” for The Monthly, Nick Feik takes a deep dive into Australia’s carbon offsets industry and its links to fossil fuel expansion. This was recorded on Wednesday 8th March 2023 and things may have changed since recording. The Australia Institute // @theausinstitute Guests: Nick Feik, Writer, journalist
June 2023
Australia’s Olympic Moment on Greenwashing
The Australian Government has proposed that Australia host the 2026 UN Climate Conference, in “partnership” with Pacific nations. But can Australia be considered a credible host for a COP31 while it continues to subsidise and approve fossil fuel expansion? This was recorded on Wednesday 14th June 2023 and things may have changed since recording. The
Time is running out to reach our emissions target, and our path needs changing
With less than 7 years to go till 2030 we cannot wait to transition away from coal and gas
Australia’s greenwash plan to host COP31
Labor announced its desire to host a United Nations climate conference in the lead-up to the 2022 election. Officially called the Conference of the Parties, the UN describes its COPs as “the biggest and most important annual climate-related conferences on the planet”. They bring together nation states to negotiate on how best to tackle climate
May 2023
Green Wall Street Will Crash
The mania around markets and investment in nature has continued at the UN biodiversity conference (#COP15) with Australia promoting the outsourcing of conservation to the private sector and its proposed ‘nature repair market’. This builds on the government’s previous promotion of ‘Green Wall Street’ – a vision that describes the world investing in Australia’s ecosystems.
April 2023
Can carbon offsets save the environment?
If you’ve ever ticked ‘yes’ to offsetting your carbon emissions when you booked a flight, it might have felt like you were doing something good. Planting some more trees to make up for your trip certainly offsets our guilt. But does it actually take carbon out of the atmosphere?
March 2023
Final Warning
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, just released a report with a a very clear message; there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. One of the key messages in the report is that new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with a net zero
Ignore the fears from the gas industry, Australia has more than enough gas
Once again the gas industry is crying wolf and telling us we need more gas to prevent shortages. But if you read beyond the scare quotes today’s report from Australia’s Energy Market Operator report shows we already have more than enough gas.
February 2023
What is Climate Integrity?
The Climate Integrity Summit 2023 brought together leading experts to discuss and address integrity risks that could jeopardise Australia’s emissions reduction policies. The Australia Institute’s Polly Hemming unpacked what climate integrity really is, and why it is the antidote to the Australian government’s state-sponsored greenwash. This was recorded on Wednesday 15th February 2023 and things
What is Climate Integrity? | Polly Hemming
To understand and define what climate integrity is, it is important to have a common understanding of what climate integrity isn’t.
Australian Government Breaching Consumer Law Following Four Corners
The Australia Institute has filed a complaint with the ACCC on the basis that the Australian Government’s ‘carbon neutral’ certification scheme, Climate Active, may be misleading and deceptive under consumer law. The Climate Active scheme certifies Australian businesses who have offset some of their emissions including fossil fuel retailers AGL, Energy Australia, Origin Energy, Ampol
January 2023
The Safeguard Mechanism and the junk carbon credits undermining emission reductions
One of Labor’s key policies to reduce emissions is the Safeguard Mechanism. But how does it work, and how effective is it at actually reducing emissions?
Summer Series – Offsetting Us Up To Fail: The myths of ‘nature markets’ explained [Webinar]
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2022. Australian governments have committed to tackling the twin climate and biodiversity crises but continue to subsidise and approve fossil fuels and habitat destruction. While simple policy solutions exist, governments are instead relying on over-complicated market-based solutions to conceal the
December 2022
Why a biodiversity market doesn’t work
The spot price for squirrel glider credits in New South Wales last month was $425. That was down a touch from $450 in August, when koala credits were going for $600 – they’d more than tripled since June.
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