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.

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?

The Chubb review talks optimistically about ‘carbon credits’, but we wouldn’t need so many if we weren’t building so many new sources of pollution.

Like Ebenezer Scrooge visiting the site of his neglected gravestone with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Australia’s gas industry has realised it has so comprehensively screwed Australians over with its greed that few will mourn its passing. It’s hard to overstate just how badly gas companies and governments have botched the management of

Just as a fish can’t taste the water it swims in, it is hard for Australians to notice how bizarre our climate and energy policy debates have become. We have seemingly abandoned economics, climate science and even opinion polling when it comes to identifying options for reform. The only way forward is what the fossil

If a flight is so short you don’t have time to finish your complementary cheese and biscuits before having your rubbish whisked away for landing, chances are there’s a more environmentally friendly and convenient way of getting to where you’re going. The French Government’s recent decision to ban short haul domestic flights between cities that

The Climate Change Authority has been strengthened after successive Coalition governments stripped it of its potential, but its role and independence remain in doubt

Unlike in almost any other country, Australia’s corporate greenwashing is being facilitated and encouraged by government. By Polly Hemming

Last week I attended the International Conference on Fossil Fuel Supply and Climate Policy to present on Australia’s state-sponsored greenwash and how carbon markets are being used by the Australian Government and industry to facilitate fossil fuel expansion.

Fossil fuel subsidies from major economies including Australia reached close to US$700 billion in 2021, almost doubling from 2020, according to new analysis by the International Energy Agency and OECD. These subsidies are expected to keep rising in 2022 as governments worldwide attempt to use fossil fuel subsidies to shield customers from the high energy prices caused

AS PEOPLE gathered for the electric vehicle summit in Canberra yesterday, the hope in the air was palpable. But despite the Albanese government’s rhetoric, the so-called climate wars are far from over. In reality, the fight for meaningful climate peace is only just beginning. The policy struggle now is not between Labor and the Coalition,

The unprecedented heatwave and fires engulfing Europe might seem a long way away, but they are a frightening portent of what’s in store for Australia. Britain has just experienced its highest temperature ever, extreme conditions and fires are sweeping Spain, Portugal, France and Greece. This is just the latest in a string of extreme events

Climate change often gets blamed on market failure, but government failure plays a pretty big role as well. Not only do Australian governments spend more than $11.6 billion per year subsidising fossil fuels, at the same time the Federal Government spends billions paying some landholders to grow more trees, state governments perversely continue to subsidise

Amid soaring energy costs, the new Labor government is working to deliver a A$20 billion pledge to rebuild and modernise Australia’s electricity grid. It will help deliver a plan for 122 gigawatts of new renewable energy in the National Electricity Market by 2050, eventually replacing coal generation. The transition will bring significant social, economic and environmental change. Electricity generation

There is an energy crisis. Actually, there are two separate but related crises, an electricity price crisis and gas price crisis. While separate they both have the same problem, our reliance on fossil fuels. The first is a sharp rise in electricity prices, caused almost entirely by our dependence on coal and gas for electricity

Local gas suppliers aren’t in crisis – soaring prices are going according to plan The Australian gas industry isn’t in crisis; it’s in heaven. Its profits and share prices are rising even faster than its greenhouse gas emissions, and everything is going according to the plan it has been working on for more than a

In the week before the election campaign began the IPCC released its latest report that contained warnings that deep, rapid and sustained emissions reductions are needed to prevent temperatures from rising 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels.

We are entering the great era of carbon fraud. Instead of rushing to end fossil fuels, there is going to be a gold rush for carbon offsets, dirty hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS), all designed not to stop climate change, but to actually drive up the consumption of coal, oil and gas. There

Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s no doubt well-meaning attempt to raise money for Queensland flood victims though a GoFundMe appeal this week revealed two concerning disconnects from reality. One was the Government’s failure to grasp the scope of the new era of climate disasters we now face. The second was a failure to meet expectations for

Australia’s largest power station is shutting down in 2025, seven years early. Origin Energy, having bought the power station from the New South Wales government less than 10 years ago, now wants to retire its last remaining coal asset. Upon announcement, the Origin Energy CEO stated “the reality is the economics of coal-fired power stations

Headlines about public funding in an election year are generally accompanied by hi-vis vests, the promise of more jobs and occasionally a bit of Top Gun theme music thrown in for good measure. So it was unusual to see a beachside photo-op with Scott Morrison to announce a “record” $1 billion investment (over nine years)

The return of Summernats to Canberra reminds us the Prime Minister promised Australia would be going into 2022 ‘looking through the front windscreen, not the rear vision mirror’. In reality, National Cabinet seems to be doing the policy equivalent of a burnout (or a doughnut as I called them growing up), spinning its wheels furiously