Proponents of a new debate about the role of nuclear power stations in Australia should start with a discussion about their location, said The Australia Institute.

Government subsidies for residential solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems are ineffective, costly and unfair, new research published by The Australia Institute shows. The research, by Andrew Macintosh, Associate Director of the ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy, and Deb Wilkinson, evaluated the outcomes from the Australian Government’s decade-long residential solar PV rebate program. It

Australian families could be more than $2,100 better off if the government introduced a carbon tax, according to a new proposal by The Australia Institute.

A proposal by Victoria’s Premier John Brumby to shut down one quarter of Hazelwood power station, Australia’s dirtiest power station, shows that effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is actually cheaper than the symbolic action favoured by the Rudd and Gillard Governments, according to The Australia Institute’s Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss.

The government’s climate change announcement is a shameful attempt to cover-up a lack of leadership and policy, according to The Australia Institute. Rather than ‘moving forward’, the government is delaying what the scientists and economists tell us is inevitable – the need to put a price on carbon.

A group of leading Australian academic, policy and business economists has issued a statement supporting the replacement of royalties on mineral outputs by a resource rent tax.

Another mining boom will be a mixed blessing for Australia unless the government heeds the lessons from the previous boom and sets up a resources fund, according to The Australia Institute.

The Rudd Government is at odds with a majority of Australians in prioritising the needs of business in its climate-change policy, according to a new paper by The Australia Institute.

Australia is at risk of failing its Pacific neighbours on climate change if the Rudd Government doesn’t move beyond rhetoric to concrete action on mitigation, adaptation and, ultimately, migration, according to a new report by The Australia Institute. The report, ‘A fair-weather friend? Australia’s relationship with a climate-changed Pacific’, finds that despite Labor’s strong commitments

The announcement today that Robert Hill will head the Australian Carbon Trust is a triumph of politics over policy. It speaks more about the government’s desire to wedge the opposition than to actually address the flaw in the CPRS, which will make it impossible for ordinary people to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions. Under the CPRS,

The new solar rebate announced by Peter Garrett will not reduce Australia’s emissions by one kilogram below the five per cent emissions target announced in the White Paper because, under the CPRS, the unfortunate reality is that every time households reduce their energy use or install solar panels, all they will be doing is freeing

The proposed CPRS announced by the Prime Minister is one of the most generous industry assistance packages in Australian history and should be known as the Carbon Polluter Rescue Scheme. What began as a scheme designed to make polluters pay has evolved into a scheme in which the polluters get paid billions of dollars.

The introduction of an Australian emissions trading scheme in 2010 makes it pointless for households to reduce their energy use.

The Rudd Government hopes to incorporate agriculture into its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) in 2015 but this initiative is unlikely to be successful.

The Treasury modelling of the economic cost of tackling climate change shows that, despite all the scaremongering by some industries, the economic costs associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions are trivially small.

Calls for the introduction of accelerated depreciation provisions for investment in clean energy. Because the price of this equipment is likely to fall sharply in the coming years, firms which invest today will experience ‘first mover disadvantage’.

The electricity industry generates around 45 per cent of Australia’s carbon emissions so it is surprising to see so little R&D in this industry. The electricity industry should be at the forefront of exploring lower emissions and renewable technologies, but the figures suggest the industry is not serious about doing so.

Calls for the introduction of accelerated depreciation provisions for investment in clean energy. Because the price of this equipment is likely to fall sharply in the coming years, firms which invest today will experience ‘first mover disadvantage’.