A National Climate Disaster Fund should be established to reduce the cost burden of natural disaster response and recovery to Australian households and taxpayers.It should be funded by a levy on coal, gas and oil production, as multinational fossil fuel companies profit from climate change but make a very small contribution to the communities that

Victoria’s brown coal fired power stations suffer from frequent breakdowns and Loy Yang A is the responsible for largest number of breakdowns on the National Energy Market, since monitoring began in December 2017, and Loy Yang A’s Unit 2 is the most unreliable unit on the grid.

The projected rise in extremely hot days as a result of global warming presents a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of the Queensland community. There has already been a clear increase in numbers of these extreme heat days over recent decades, as demonstrated in our profiles on: The Gold Coast; Brisbane; The Sunshine

The electorate of Herbert stands to be heavily impacted by climate change. Increasing floods, drought and heatwaves will impact the community’s health, environment, infrastructure and vital industries, particularly agriculture and mining unless decisive action is taken to tackle climate change

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Mackay. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 degrees could increase from around one day presently to over seventy by 2090 without strong climate policies. Virtually all summer nights by 2090 are projected to

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in the Whitsundays. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 degrees each year could increase fourfold by 2030 and reach over 87 days per year by 2090 without strong climate policies. Hot nights above 25

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Townsville. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 degrees each year could increase fivefold by 2030 and reach over one hundred days per year by 2090 without strong climate policies. Almost two hundred nights

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in South East SA. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 could increase from historical averages of 21 at Murray Bridge and seven at Mount Gambier, to 56 and 22 days respectively by 2090 without

So far in 2018, there have been 27 major breakdowns at gas and coal power stations in NSW. Every coal power station experienced at least one breakdown. The Tallawarra gas power station experienced three breakdowns. Aging plants Liddell and Vales Point experienced the most breakdowns.

In 2018 there were 135 major breakdowns at gas and coal power stations in the National Energy Market.While the oldest coal plants were responsible for a large proportion of the breakdowns, newer supercritical plants were also unreliable.There were three breakdowns at one of the newest gas plants. Victoria’s brown coal plants were the least reliable

A number of federal and state politicians and mining industry groups have called for new supercritical or ultra-supercritical coal-fired power stations to be built in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Data from The Australia Institute’s Gas & Coal Watch shows that coal plants are unreliable and prone to break downs – as they have dozens of times

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Adelaide. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 could increase by 180% without strong climate policies, from historical averages of 18–25 days per year up to 51–69 days per year by 2090.

WA’s moratorium on fracking has been overturned without consideration of economic impacts. Economic logic, and the lived experience of Queensland and the USA, shows the industry has an incentive to expand as much and as fast as possible. This has a negative impact on communities, provides few jobs, little revenue and could increase domestic gas

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Western Sydney. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 could increase by up to five times without strong climate policies from a historical average of 11 up to 52 days by 2090. Some parts

The combination of the projected rise in extreme heat as a result of global warming and the high levels of humidity at the Gold Coast present a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of the region’s population. The Gold Coast has historically experienced a relatively pleasant climate with only around one day over 35

Extracting gas from the Northern Territory through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is one of the largest potential sources of carbon pollution in the world. The Fracking Inquiry that reported earlier this year recommended that unconventional gas extraction should only be permitted if the all 135 recommendations are accepted and implemented. All recommendations were accepted by the

Increasing extreme heat will have profound effects on people, industries and ecosystems in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast region. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 in the region could increase up to tenfold without strong climate policies from a current average of three to 32 days by 2090.

The average number of days over 35 and 40 degrees in Roma has increased annually since the early 1990s. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that, without climate action, days over 40 degrees could rise from five days per year to 58 days in 2070 and as many as 84 days by 2090. Half of the nights in summer are

How over 5 gigawatts of New South Wales gas and coal plants being simultaneously offline pushed the state’s power supply to the brink and drove high electricity prices.

The annual average number of days over 35 degrees Celsius in Gladstone has more than doubled since the mid-20th century. CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology project further increases, with the number of extreme heat days to triple by 2070 – and these projections appear optimistic. Extreme heat will have profound effects on human health,

At temperatures above 35 degrees the human body’s ability to cool itself reduces, making it a common benchmark temperature for occupational health and safety experts, academic and government researchers. Combined with 70% humidity, conditions over 35 degrees are considered ‘extremely dangerous’ by government agencies such as the US Government National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  

GISERA and conflict of interest A fundamental conflict of interest underlies the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Alliance (GISERA), making it an inappropriate organisation to undertake research to evaluate the social and environmental impacts of unconventional gas development. What is GISERA? The Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) is an alliance agreement between

As of 2 September 2018, there have been 100 major breakdowns at gas and coal plants in the National Energy Market – including every coal-fired power station bar one (Mt Piper). While old subcritical coal plants performed poorly, the newer supercritical plants (so-called “HELE” plants) were even more unreliable. There were also breakdowns at some

Liddell is the oldest power station in Australia. It is particularly vulnerable to breaking down in hot weather when demand is high, and electricity is most needed. It has suffered four major breakdowns so far this year. Two of these were within two hours of peak demand on very hot summer days. The continued reliance

How rooftop solar increases reliability and reduces electricity prices Rooftop solar generates best on hot sunny days, exactly the conditions that see gas and coal generation at risk of breakdown. This summer rooftop solar reduced demand peaks in the National Electricity Market by over 2000 MW, while a breakdown at a major coal generator contributed

New analysis from the Australia institute has found that emissions from NT Fracking identified by the Fracking Inquiry would be equivalent to 100 times more than the emissions savings under the Northern Territory Government’s Roadmap to Renewables: 50% by 2030 policy.  Key findings include that NT fracking could result in emissions that: Increase Australia’s total