Because the truth is, although the impact of climate change will be felt by all, the extremes will hit some harder than others. The irony is that the people and communities least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions will bear the brunt of the impacts. While this is in part due to geography, the overwhelming reason is poverty.

Dan Cass writes: There is great news this week that US President Barack Obama is about to commence the end of the age of coal. The US EPA is about to bring in a greenhouse gas emission standard for new coal fired power plants that is so stringent that it effectively bans any new ones being built. [...]

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu yesterday announced it was scrapping the former Brumby government’s climate change target of reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2020. And he’s not the only premier dismantling climate change programs. New Queensland premier Campbell Newman is busy cutting eight green energy schemes, including: the $430 million Queensland Climate Change Fund, the [...]

Clancy Moore writes: “Solving climate change can not be separated from the struggle to alleviate poverty.” This was the message on the opening day of the UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa. In his opening address, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa highlighted how the Pacific island nation of Kiribati is set to become the [...]

On Sunday evening, after reading the Dr Seuss classic “If I ran the zoo” to my three year old daughter, I sat on the couch, fortified myself with a strong drink, and began to read the Treasury modelling on the carbon price (I know, I know, it’s an exciting life). After reading the projections for [...]

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A document that outlines 14,000 conversations about climate change from across the nation says that the majority of Australians want a stronger emphasis on renewable energy, leadership on climate issues and support businesses being held responsible for their pollution. The 100% Renewable Energy group — an amalgamation of 110 different Australian climate action groups — [...]

Another day, another rent-seeking whinge from the richest companies in the country.  Yesterday the Australian Coal Association(ACA) released more ‘independent economic analysis’ that said just how hard done by they would be under a carbon tax. It was a pre-emptive strike before the much awaited Productivity Commission report, due today, that analyses the effective carbon [...]

I’m walking down a dusty road on the outskirts of the old citadel in Damascus, Syria. Lugging my backpack and avoiding donkeys, taxis and potholes in the road, I suddenly come across a patch of green. It’s a garden – about as big as three suburban sized Aussie backyards put together – and it’s filled [...]

I confess to being a little taken aback by the swing back towards campaigning for immediate adoption of a cap-and-trade emissions scheme that appears to be gaining ground in sections of the environment movement. This, in my opinion, is a misguided strategy that risks stifling progress at a critical moment instead of opening the space [...]