For 50 years climate research has accumulated on climate change, and governments, with the major democracies at the forefront, have failed to respond. Facing ‘a perilous, all-pervasive climate breakdown’, what will they do now?
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For 50 years climate research has accumulated on climate change, and governments, with the major democracies at the forefront, have failed to respond. Facing ‘a perilous, all-pervasive climate breakdown’, what will they do now?
Read moreIn the 2022 election, too much is at stake for Australians to be duped into thinking that they ”remain well prepared for the future”, and into believing that everything can be fixed by unregulated economic growth.
Read moreTrends in Australia’s emissions growth are disturbing. What questions should be put to the political classes who aspire to take on the responsibility for the wellbeing, welfare, prosperity and security of Australian citizens?
Read moreTo bring about the far-reaching behavioural changes necessary for the transition to a zero carbon economy, will governments be able to rely on the go-to tools of public policy – rational choice theory and behavioural economics, with its so-called ‘nudge’ techniques?
Read moreDoes the Covid-19 vaccine response foreshadow how well the market-based capitalist system will address global warming? If so, and unless governments determine that saving the planet and avoiding a dangerous future for coming generations is at least as important as corporate profits and shareholder dividends, there is little chance of success in the time available.
Read moreAnalysis in new report from the Australian National University’s Centre for Climate & Energy Policy shows that producing hydrogen from fossil fuels carries significant risks, and is likely to be incompatible with decarbonisation objectives. These findings have big implications as Australia looks to become a ‘hydrogen superpower’.
Read moreOn 1 April 2021, Australia’s Emissions Reduction Minister said at the International Energy Agency’s ‘COP26 Net-Zero Summit’ that “removing the price difference between current technologies and low or zero carbon solutions is the key to widespread global adoption” of low emissions technology – and that Australia was focusing on reducing the cost of ‘clean’ hydrogen.
Read moreUS President Biden has today [26 March 2021] invited 40 world leaders to the ‘Leaders Summit on Climate’ he intends to host on 22 and 23 April 2021.
Read moreA new peer-reviewed study has found that the vast majority of Australian voters support climate action, but also highlights that more will need to be done to counter the fact that support for strong climate policy action may be limited by voters’ preparedness to incur personal costs, especially among older and conservative voters.
Read moreOn top of a post-pandemic economic revival, global warming, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation inevitably will require disruptive economic and social transformations. Without a citizenry that has a stake in making the sacrifices involved, the changes won’t happen.
Read moreProfessor Simon Lewis draws attention to the need to make carbon accounting trustworthy, and eliminate ‘carbon deceptions’ from approaches to emissions reductions.
Read moreThe United States officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement on 19 February 2021. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, issued a Statement in which he called the rejoining “momentous”, but noted that “what we do in the coming weeks, months, and years is even more important”. You have seen and will continue to see us weaving climate change into our most important bilateral and multilateral conversations at all levels. In these conversations, we’re asking
Read morePresident Biden’s recognition of climate change, and determination to shift science to the centre of climate policy is important, and welcome. But a program that “achieves a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and puts the US on an irreversible path to a net-zero economy by 2050” will not be enough. Adaptation to a 3.0°C temperature rise this century must now be a focus for governments.
Read moreFollowing US President Biden’s new orders that establish “climate considerations as an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security,” the Secretary of Defense released a Statement confirming that “[Climate change] is a national security issue, and we must treat it as such”.
Read moreCollective emission reduction efforts of nations will not avoid 3 degrees centigrade global warming by the end of the century. Therefore, national adaptation actions will need to prepare for the worse than expected scale and impact of climate change. Earlier ideological assumptions about governments will have to give way to policies that are interventionist and systemic.
Read moreIn energy transition conversations, hydrogen is having a bit of a moment. But, as ever, there’s a catch. So here, from the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Julie McNamara, an introduction to hydrogen as a decarbonisation pathway, to help differentiate between the promise and potential and the distractions and misdirections.
Read moreContemplating a world after COVID, some are calling for a reset of existing models of policymaking. In this essay the authors outline shortcomings in existing neoliberal economic models, and argue that the radical pragmatism of effective crisis response—a willingness to try whatever works, guided by an experimental mindset and commitment to empiricism and measuring results —represents a policymaking model that can and should be applied more widely, not only in times of crisis.
Read moreFuture pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the world economy and kill more people than COVID-19 unless there is a transformative change in the global approach to dealing with infectious diseases, warns a major new report on biodiversity and pandemics by 22 leading experts from around the world.
Read moreThe fact that the International Monetary Fund recognises the urgency of addressing anthropogenic induced climate change and the importance of reducing carbon emissions from human activity by 2050 must be seen as a welcome step. But the report is impractical and naïve in some respects. The next step needs to go beyond the high level of abstraction that smooths over the diversity of economic, political and climate impacts in local situations.
Read moreWithout assistance, emerging economies and developing countries (EEDCs) will continue to add increasing amounts of greenhouses gases to the atmosphere for decades, preventing the curbing of global warming and adversely impacting all countries. While EEDCs were always going to require substantial assistance from the advanced economies, the need for strong multilateral action has become more urgent.
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