Farmers know you can’t fatten a pig on market day and scientists know you can’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 while expanding coal, oil and gas production.  

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.

This weekend, Canberrans can look forward to balmy back-to-back days in the mid-20s.

The latest quarterly greenhouse gas emissions survey shows that Australia is heading in the wrong direction – and that needs calling out.

For the first time in decades, Australia is talking about industry policy.

Neoliberals are always worried about government ‘picking winners’, but strangely never seem to have a problem when governments back obvious losers, like perennial failure carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Australia gives more aid to foreign fossil fuel companies than it does to our neighbours in the Pacific.

Some critics argue we should lay off metallurgical coalmines because they’re used for steel, not energy. But that ignores the big picture.

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

There’s nothing politics loves more than a good rort or scandal, like the recent revelations of PwC’s misconduct, which is finally throwing a spotlight on the vast tentacles of the big four consulting firms into the business of government. But it’s concerning that one of the biggest and longest-running rorts in climate change policy—carbon capture

The climate wars are far from over. They will not be over until the fossil fuel industry stops waging them. While their progress has been slowed in recent years, the relentless bombardment of our future by the coal and gas industries continues unabated.

Just as the recent economic policy debate about tax breaks for multimillionaire superannuants has been overshadowed by sensationalist tabloid journalism (instead of what constitutes a dignified retirement), now the debate about climate policy risks being dominated by history wars and partisan politics – instead of what the science has been telling us for decades.

Carbon credits are a core pillar of Australia’s climate change strategy. However, depending on offsets to meet emission reduction goals is mathematically impossible and a recipe for climate disaster.

When a mining magnate is backing a more credible decarbonisation policy than some climate groups, it’s a sign of just how degraded Australia’s climate debate has become.

The enormous PEP-11 gas project off Sydney’s northern beaches is back in the headlines and the timing couldn’t be worse for a federal Labor government trying to rush a new climate policy through the parliament; a policy that does nothing to stop new gas and coalmines being built and doesn’t even stop major polluters increasing their emissions. Labor’s Madeline King must now remake the decision made by our undercover resources minister, Scott Morrison.

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?