Electricity emissions from the National Energy Market in Australia in 2015 increased 2.4 per cent on 2014 levels and have increased by 5.1 per cent since their lowest point in the year to June 2014, when the carbon price was abolished. This CEDEX® Electricity Update contains data for emissions from electricity generation in the National

The Australia Institute, in conjunction with Pitt&Sherry produce the CEDEX monthly. The CEDEX is the benchmark indicator for Australia’s carbon emissions and an up to date snapshot of vital data from the energy sector. CEDEX has been providing a comprehensive and early indication of key GHG and energy trends in Australia since 2009 and is

The Australian government has recently approved Adani’s Carmichael coal project. If built, it would be the biggest coal mine in Australia. This briefing note puts the vast scale of Carmichael into context.

A new report by Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute, identifies an emerging economic risk of building ‘too many coal mines’. The report examines the potential economic harm flowing that a major expansion and construction of new coal mines can result cause, including: Lower coal prices associated increased supply (and associated reductions in

The Australia Institute, in a new partnership with engineering consultants Pitt & Sherry, will now be publishing the highly regarded Carbon Emissions Index (CEDEX) report. The CEDEX is the benchmark indicator for Australia’s carbon emissions and an up to date snapshot of vital data from the energy sector. The new CEDEX report will now, for the

A Renewable Energy Target (RET) of 50 per cent by 2030 is likely to put downward pressure on electricity prices. There is a large body of research, using a number of different methods, that has looked at the effect of the RET’s 2020 target on electricity prices. They have broadly come to same conclusion. Higher

Since 2007, The Climate Institute has produced Climate of the Nation research, which captures the nation’s pulse on climate change, its impacts and solutions. This year’s results show increasing awareness of the cause and impacts of climate change, strengthening support for renewable energy and carbon pollution regulation, and a greater call for government action. 

This report begins by outlining the fast growing campus divestment movement, globally and in Australia, and explores the debate about the ‘moral university’ and fossil fuels. It then explores the first national poll to assess public attitudes towards universities’ ethics and investments, conducted following the national controversy around the ANU divestment decision. The survey data

Australians are no dinosaurs when it comes to climate change and its solutions. There has always been majority support for Australian leadership in finding solutions to climate change. This held true even though attitudes took a battering during the long political battle from July 2007 when John Howard backed an emissions trading scheme through 2012

Investments in coal, oil, and gas increase financial risk without increasing returns, according to the new report Climate proofing your investments: Moving funds out of fossil fuels published by The Australia Institute. To meet the internationally-agreed two degree global warming limit, fossil fuel businesses must leave in the ground two-thirds of the reserves currently on their books.

Competitive grant schemes can be effectively used to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions but they are not sufficient to produce large scale abatement at a low cost.  Competitive grant schemes are best used in conjunction with other policies including a broad based carbon price.  The carbon price is able to achieve large scale abatement at

The political class in Australia needs to overcome its tendency for picking individual climate change policies. Instead we need to take a broader approach to climate change that includes a range of policies if we hope to do our fair share in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013. 

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Australia needs to change the way it uses energy and many of those changes will be taking place over the next decade.  Our current reliance on coal is unsustainable, while Australia’s considerable reserves of unconventional gas – tight, shale and coal seam gas (CSG) – are raising controversy after being

For several decades, the alternative commercial and economic uses and management of Australia’s native forests have generated considerable debate. In the past five years, this debate has sharpened as the native forest sector has contracted in response to increased competition in international and domestic wood product markets. New carbon markets are also emerging that could

The Climate Institute has been measuring the ebbs and flows of Australian attitudes to climate change and its solutions through its Climate of the Nation research and reports since 2007.

On 22 November 2012, the timber industry and environmental non-government organisations released the Tasmanian Forest Agreement 2012 (TFA). The agreement includes a number of components, the most significant of which are the support for the creation of an additional 504,012 ha of forest reserves, a reduction in the high quality sawlog guarantee from 300,000 m3

The object of this report was to analyse the carbon credits that could be generated by stopping all harvesting in the public native forests covered by the Conservation Commission of Western Australia’s Draft Forest Management Plan 2014-2023 (FMP forests). These forests cover an area of ~850,000 ha and have produced 300,000-500,000 m3 yr-1 of logs

With increasing awareness of the dangers of climate change, the world is hunting for other forms of power generation that produce lower emissions of greenhouse gas. While gas is not a zero emissions energy source, it has come to be seen by some as a ‘bridging fuel’. In Australia an increasingly important source of gas

This Spotlight Report provides an objective benchmark of attitudes to the issue of climate change in 2012 in Australia and a rigorous analysis, qualitative and quantitative, of the pros and cons of climate change and its solutions.

The Gillard Government recently passed legislation which will, for the first time in Australia, see big polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions through a price on carbon. While the introduction of a carbon price will not in itself drive a substantial reduction in Australia’s emissions, it does begin to build the necessary policy infrastructure

In the 2007 federal election both major parties committed to introducing an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). By 2009 both parties agreed on an emissions reduction target of five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. But since Tony Abbott became leader of the Liberal Party the bipartisan position for a reliance on a market based

The Coalition has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. It proposes to achieve this target with a “Direct Action Plan”: a competitive grant scheme that would buy greenhouse gas reductions from businesses and farmers. Over the past decade various Australian governments have announced more than seven

The introduction of a carbon price in Australia in July 2012 will raise more than $10 billion per year, help influence industrial and household decision making and, inevitably, increase the costs and reduce the profits of some businesses. Such increases in cost and the subsequent change in behaviour are, of course, the objective of introducing

Contrary to popular belief, the policies that are most effective in driving down greenhouse gas emissions actually raise revenue rather than cost the budget money. The Gillard Government has recently scrapped, or wound back, a range of policies designed to help reduce greenhouse gasses in order to ensure the budget returns quickly to surplus. These

While the 2007 election was fought on a promise by the ALP to introduce a carbon price the 2010 election was fought by both the ALP and the Coalition on a promise not to do so. For the ALP the promised inaction was until at least 2013 and for the Coalition the promise was open

A price on carbon is widely regarded as an essential element of an efficient response to climate change, yet such an approach has been described as a ‘great big tax on everything’ by opponents. While there is no doubt that putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions will lead to an increase in the price

The Climate Institute has commissioned both quantitative and qualitative market research on the attitudes of the Australian public on climate change and climate change solutions, for the past three years. This research aims to understand and track Australians’ attitudes to climate change and policy over the past year, as well as identify and track issues,

If a binding agreement can be reached on a post-2012 international climate regime, it is likely to include a market-based instrument for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and enhancing forest sinks in developing countries (collectively known as ‘REDD-plus’). Under such a scheme, countries that reduce net REDD emissions below a pre-set baseline

As part of its ongoing research into the design of Australia’s climate-change policies, The Australia Institute recently conducted polling to better understand the relevant experiences and attitudes of Australians. Some of the questions asked related to the Australian Government’s roof insulation scheme and these results are presented below to help inform the Senate inquiry into