June 13, 2014
Australia posted (click here) its biggest annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 24 years of records in 2013 as the carbon tax helped drive a large drop in pollution from the electricity sector.
Australia posted (click here) its biggest annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 24 years of records in 2013 as the carbon tax helped drive a large drop in pollution from the electricity sector.
The latest greenhouse gas inventory, released online without fanfare by the federal government, showed annual emissions excluding changes in land use were estimated at 538.4 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent in 2013, down 0.8 per cent on the previous year.
While the final figures may be revised, the annual drop is likely to exceed the only two other years of emissions falls – in 2009 and 2010 – since the tally began in 1990.
The electricity sector reported emissions fell 5 per cent last year, with all but one other sector showing an increase. The carbon tax has its most direct impact on power generators, which account for about one-third of Australia’s emissions outside changes to forest cover.
The carbon price, now at $24.15 a tonne, will rise to $25.40 a tonne from next month and will apply until its likely scrapping when the new Senate votes on the Abbott government’s repeal bills, expected soon after July 1....
"Three baskets of strategy that we can think about. There is carbon pricing and trading...incentives...and thirdly there are regulations...."
"Three baskets of strategy that we can think about. There is carbon pricing and trading...incentives...and thirdly there are regulations...."
June 12, 2014
Nick O'Malley
Former US vice-president Al Gore (click here) has told Fairfax Media that “history will not be kind” to politicians who stand in the way of climate action, and he expected President Barack Obama would raise the issue with Tony Abbott when the two leaders met on Wednesday at the White House.
“I am not a citizen of Australia and I don’t feel I have the privilege of entering your political debate,” said Mr Gore.
“But we have had deniers of the climate crisis in office in the US as well. History will not be kind to those who looked away, much less those who sought to prevent [action on climate change].”
