Australia should not get ahead of Copenhagen Climate Talks
Statement by Mitchell H. Hooke, Chief Executive Minerals Council of Australia
http://www.minerals.org.au//__data/assets/pdf_file/MCA_News/Defer November CPRS vote_MCA_20 Sept 2009.pdf

Snowy Mountain Scheme for the 21st century
The Snowy Scheme provides a governance model for an effective approach to fixing climate change. Nation Building - Leigh Ewbank - posted 14/7/2009

Climate Change: WDR 2009
http://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/upcoming-world-development-report-shedding-light-without-taking-sides
"One of our emerging messages is that poor countries will be disproportionately affected by climate change, even as they strive to reduce poverty and boost economic growth—which remain core priorities."

Learning to live with climate change will not be enough
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions now will be easier, cheaper, and more ethical than dealing with runaway climate destabilisation later. Feature - David Orr - posted 19/6/2009

The black fingerprints of the greenhouse mafia ...
Twenty lost years in climate policy is a crime against humanity.
Feature - Anne O'Brien - posted 2/6/2009

Can we reverse global climate change? Part II
The decisions that determine the world’s fate will take place in Beijing, New Delhi and Jakarta - not Washington, New York or Europe.
Feature - Chandran Nair - posted 2/6/2009

Al Gore warns on latest climate trends
25 May, 2009 At TED2009, Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on "clean coal."

Climate's challenge to liberalism
Tolerance, freedom and democracy can only survive if core elements of the liberal tradition are transformed, writes David West

When heat waves become killers
In Australia our attitude to the elderly must take some of the blame for the high death rate from heat waves.Health - Malcolm King - posted 21/5/2009

Opinion

The great global warming debate, Phase 2
The debate has shifted from whether global warming is happening to what should be done about it.Environment - Peter McMahon - posted 15/5/2009

Councils seek help in preparing for climate change

The State Government needs to provide more funding and guidance to councils to help them prepare for the impacts of climate change, says the Local Governmentand Shires Associations of NSW.
http://www.lgsa.org.au/www/html/2950-13-may-2009-councils-seek-help-in-preparing-for-climate-change.asp?intSiteID=1

European Commission publishes a report on the relationship between IPR and climate change

In March 2009, the European Commission published a report titled ‘Are IPR a Barrier to the Transfer of Climate Change Technology?’. The report traces patent protection data for seven emissions-reducing energy technologies in a representative sample of low-income developing countries and emerging market economies from 1998-2008. The study finds that IPRs do not constitute a barrier to the transfer of carbon abatement technology from developed countries, neither to low-income developing countries nor to emerging market economies. Economic factors are said to stand in the way of achieving the carbon abatement objectives of low-income countries. For emerging market economies that have the capacity and market size to use innovative technologies, further improvements in patent protection could actually stimulate domestic innovation and the transfer of technologies from foreign patent holders.
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/february/tradoc_142371.pdf

Suburbs and climate change: a home-grown brawl

Suburbs and climate change: a home-grown brawl
There is great debate about the environmental impacts of dense inner-city zones v car-loving city fringes.Environment - John Muscat - posted 8/4/2009

Climate change could be harmful to your health

(Media Release)PORTFOLIO: Innovation, Industry, Science and ResearchURL: http://www.csiro.au/news/GREENHOUSE-09-Health.html

SNIPPET: In an address today to the GREENHOUSE 2009 conference in Perth, Dr Cope said the number of days Sydney experiences temperatures of 30&#176C or more is projected to increase significantly in the future. 'We have modelled climate and ozone pollution for Sydney for a 2050-2060 climate change scenario and found that the number of hospital admissions due to ozone pollution is predicted to increase by up to three times the current rate.'. In a related address to the conference, a consultant with sustainability firm Net Balance, Nicole Joffe, said that between 2081-2100, extreme heat stress cases in the Melbourne region could increase by at least 100 per cent and up to 226 per cent above levels recorded in 1981-2000.

Climate change in Australia: risks to human wellbeing and health

Climate change in Australia: risks to human wellbeing and health Anthony McMichael / Nautilus Institute This paper argues that climate change belongs to a wider range of human-induced global environmental changes that are now assuming great and urgent importance. Collectively, these changes signify that human pressures are weakening and endangering the planet's life support systems. Posted 24-03-2009

Economy versus climate: where do we spend next?

The latest research shows that spending on economic recovery and climate change must be coordinated and complementary, writes GREG GARDINER

WHAT is the greatest threat to humankind: a sinking global economy, or a warming planet? We know the big and ongoing story has been the crisis in the global economy, a crisis addressed by governments worldwide, including Australia’s, with record spending packages. But this crisis has masked another: the crisis of accelerating climate change. New research has shown climate change is accelerating at a rate no one predicted or expected. The projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which last reported in November 2007, may now be redundant.

Radical New Hypothesis on the Effect of Greenhouse Gases

CLIMATE is complex but in an attempt to understand the effects of increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on global temperatures simplified General Circulation Models (GCMs) have been developed and are used by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Al Gore, in his famous movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, explained that as the concentration of carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, more energy is trapped, warming the planet. This assumption is central to the GCMs and the current consensus on climate change.

Muzzled Australians Gain a Voice on ETS

The Australian Environment Foundation today launched an online petition opposing the federal government’s “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme”. The petition will eventually be presented to Parliament by Dr Dennis Jensen, MHR for Tangney.

AEF Chair Dr Jennifer Marohasy said there is a strong need for the petition because none of the major political parties are offering an alternative to carbon trading.

Climate change policy: Brazil, China, India and Russia

An emerging common theme amongst the policies of Brazil, China and India is the growing realisation of the potential severity of the impact of climate change upon them. This appears to have led to increased efforts on their part to meet these challenges. This is a positive sign for their undertaking increased commitments to reduce their GHG emissions in the context of any new international agreement. Indeed, developing countries generally committed to undertaking ‘nationally appropriate mitigation actions…in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner’ at the United Nations Bali Climate Change Conference in late 2007.[48]

Yet, these countries still appear to insist on a firmer commitment by developed countries, including Australia, to reduce emissions before they will commit to setting a formal target for their GHG emissions. As the above conference decision indicates this commitment may depend the willingness of the developed world to assist in this task via financing emissions control measures in the developing world and appropriate technology transfer.

Climate change, sea level rise, and coastal subsidence

Climate change, sea level rise, and coastal subsidence along the Gippsland coast
Eric Sjerp and Allan Charteris / Gippsland Coastal Board

The impacts of climate change are complex, difficult to predict, yet too far-reaching to ignore. This 2008 report outlines potential threats to assets and infrastructure in Gippsland and address issues like erosion and sand transport. When storms wash away our beaches where does the sand go? The authors describe, among other things, how the highly erodible Gippsland coast can be shaped by storms and other events.

Is climate change serious enough yet Mr Rudd?

The Adelaide morgue was already full from the heatwave before the weekend firestorm claimed upward of 200 lives in Victoria. Melbourne rail lines buckled in the heat as the bushfires raged out of control. Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone in the worst floods for more than 30 years.

Australia has experienced bushfires and cyclones since the dawn of time. But in recorded history, we have never seen anything like the heatwave that saw temperatures across southern Australia soar above 40C for days on end. On the Saturday of the firestorm that claimed so many lives, the mercury hit 48C.