February, 2009

The Australian Industry Group is today calling for the introduction of the Government’s emissions trading scheme to be delayed for two years as a result of the global financial mess. According to the SMH, the Australian Industry Group’s national executive, Heather Ridout, declared the Government’s plan to start the emissions trading scheme in July 2010 [...]

Green news for the day: Grand sale, grand sale, grand sale.* Solar panel manufacturers will be slashing prices this year, reports Worldchanging. With a recent increase in investment in the production of silicon, the price of solar photovoltaics could fall between 30-40%. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the cost of installing solar panels in [...]

Today in green news. Obama’s speech, Japanese dyed in the wool greenies and what the credit crunch can teach us about climate changing behaviour.

The issue of voluntary action under the CPRS is one that the Government has tried to avoid talking about since last year. Now it’s finally getting media attention. Penny Wong argued in an op-ed in The Australian on Monday that: “There has also been misunderstanding of the impact voluntary action by households can have under [...]

Today’s green news: Greens go hard on ETS. The Greens plan to play “hardball” on emissions trading in the Senate, says today’s Oz: “We have always said that an inadequate target is worse than nothing,” Senator Brown told ABC television’s Lateline program last night. He said if Australia locked in a scheme with a 5 [...]

It’s been an interesting week. Wayne Swan managed to keep a straight face when he cancelled the Parliamentary Inquiry that he had called only a week earlier, on the basis that it had ‘become politicised’. Now the Government is under pressure from all sides over it’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme. The Coalition, desperate to deflect [...]

News from planet Earth: Brazil’s coffee under threat from climate change? Nooooo: rising temperatures are reducing the amount of land in Brazil suitable for growing coffee beans, according to USAToday. Concerning for those of us for whom coffee is an integral part of our day-to-day existence. Too much space junk in your trunk. The other [...]

Here’s a wrap up of today’s green news: Plants on death row. Rapid climate change could spell the end for many southern hemisphere plants, a study of 11,000 species suggests. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that researchers found most plants – except weeds – have failed to shift to new habitats despite millions of years [...]

A group of ten Australian economists today slammed the Rudd government’s proposed carbon emissions trading scheme, and called for a science-based policy to achieve 25%-40% cuts in emissions by 2020. This is their statement: The Australian government is to be congratulated for its decision to take part in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas [...]

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