Australia’s new $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which will provide investment and green loans to businesses, is similar in concept to policies underway in the United Kingdom and the United States.

In Victoria, HRL announced yesterday that it would it was putting on hold its plan to build a new coal and gas fired power plant at Morwell following a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus write: As two Americans watching from the sidelines as Australia tears itself apart over a carbon tax, it is impossible not to be reminded of our own country’s self-destructive battle over cap and trade in 2009 and 2010. And little wonder why: the Left and Right partiesin Australia have adopted [...]

Tom Dreyfus writes: Recently a series of reforms seriously diminished Victoria’s capacity to protect its natural environment and respond to the transitional challenge of cleaner energy production. As each one was announced, the signal to investors and manufacturers strengthened: Victoria will no longer support the renewable energy sector. So while the state’s major newspapers were [...]

The science culture war started by tobacco, nuclear and fossil fuel industries took a curious twist this afternoon, with the release of a Senate report into so-called ‘turbine sickness’. This inquiry was initiated by Family First’s Steve Fielding and is his last hurrah in the Australian Senate.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is often seen as coal’s redeeming feature. Its supporters claim that the carbon dioxide emissions caused by coal-fired electricity can be captured and then stored in geological formations, for geological time periods. If I am correct, then it is a technological failure and its primary function has been to delay climate action and divert funding that should be going to solar, wind and other proven technologies.

The United Kingdom is set to become a world leader on clean energy and climate policy, after announcing an ambitious plan to halve carbon emissions by 2025.

Nearly 80% of the world’s energy needs could be met by renewable energies by 2050, according to a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).