This Month
‘Alltoohardism’ supplants climate denial as obstacle to renewables
Chris Bowen remains upbeat about achieving 82 per cent renewable energy generation by the end of the decade.
- Phillip Coorey
June
- Opinion
- Emissions
Better carrot and stick provides investment certainty for carbon cuts
The climate safeguard mechanism for large emitting facilities means reaching the 43pc emissions reduction target by 2030 is certainly “doable”.
- Kerry Schott
May
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Failure to deliver green pipeline is keeping Eraring open
The NSW government has left its green energy project pipeline languishing for years. Now it is charging a coal keeper tax instead.
- Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson
What is in-flight turbulence, and when does it become dangerous?
While turbulence-related fatalities are quite rare, injuries have piled up over the years. Some meteorologists have linked an increase in reported incidences to climate change.
- Wyatte Grantham-Philips
The $13.6 trillion question: how do we pay for the green transition?
The private sector will have to provide about 70 per cent of climate finance globally, and the heat is building on governments to deliver policies that do that.
- Attracta Mooney
March
- Opinion
- Energy
Power prices to fall but interest rates on indefinite hold
The government is relieved that energy prices will go down a little from July, but the timing of interest rate cuts is far less certain.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Opinion
- Electric vehicles
Automakers not the only ones caught out by slowing EV revolution
Chris Bowen will find it harder to maintain his preferred speed for new fuel efficiency standards as the pedal eases off the metal in EV sales.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Opinion
- Business Summit
Why Dutton is going nuclear
Peter Dutton thinks he can sell nuclear power to the public. The energy industry remains unconvinced by the business case.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Opinion
- Electric vehicles
Bowen goes full throttle on electric vehicles
The Climate Change and Energy Minister’s most intense battle – over fuel efficiency standards – is about to begin.
- Jennifer Hewett
January
Taxpayers to help fund coal-fired steel plant upgrade
Australia’s biggest steelmaker BlueScope will get $137 million in taxpayer funds to help pay for an upgrade of a coal-fired blast furnace making steel in the same way it has for decades.
- Simon Evans
Bass Strait gas deal struck, amid shortfall fears
The east coast’s biggest domestic gas supplier has agreed to help bridge a potential energy shortfall by locking in new supply agreement with the federal government.
- John Kehoe
December 2023
- Opinion
- Satire
From Cro-Magnon to COP: how to stay on the wrong side of history
Chris Bowen is calling the end of fossil fuels. But the record of his ancestors suggests that you should not count them out just yet.
- Rowan Dean
Woodside and Santos exploring merger
Both organisations have been considering the implications and logistics of any such deal, but declined to comment on “speculation”.
- Updated
- Myriam Robin
November 2023
- Updated
- Carbon challenge
Gas critical to renewables transition, says Bowen
Labor’s forecast has angered environmental campaigners and many teal independents who want an accelerated exit from the energy source.
- Updated
- Jacob Greber
Anti-coal kayakers cut shipping with port blockade
Climate protestors shut down Australia’s largest coal port for 30 hours over the weekend, potentially costing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.
- Mark Ludlow
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Chalmers has rebooted energy policy
A mid-term government is now realising that energy and climate must become a focus for the whole cabinet.
- Tony Wood
- Opinion
- Food bowl
The farm revolution that can help reduce emissions
Agriculture is receiving attention as part of the new fervour for valuing “natural capital”, but not enough focus has been on how to keep farmland productive while cutting emissions.
- Jennifer Hewett
October 2023
Murdoch-MacLeod museum gift sends lifeline to sinking island crafts
Former media executive Alasdair MacLeod said the initiative was already helping to revive traditional crafts of the region.
- Samantha Hutchinson
This theatre show uses playful puppets to send a sober message
An inner-city tornado blows Sunday dinner off the table, and a shark swims through a living room, as this Belgian production makes an affecting circus of global warming.
- Michael Bailey
- Opinion
- Climate policy
Look outside the ordinary to get energy transition back on track
We need to pull game-changing financial and legislative levers, including lifting the nuclear ban, compulsory land acquisition and taxpayer subsidies.
- Alexander Danne