Category Archives: Greenhouse gas emissions

Car pollution kills more Australians than crashes, new research finds

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The University of Melbourne study estimated that 11,105 people die prematurely from transport emissions, many more than past figures

Pollution from motor vehicles could be killing thousands more people than road accidents, with new research finding more than 11,000 Australians die prematurely every year from transport emissions.

The study from the University of Melbourne also found vehicle pollution could be putting more than 19,000 people in hospital for heart and lung issues, and causing asthma cases to spike by 66,000 each year.

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Bodies of missing men found – as it happened

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Where the parties stand

So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.

We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.

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Australia politics live: Philip Lowe says RBA ‘still unsure’ how high interest rates will go during Senate estimates grilling

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RBA boss tells Senate estimates about rationale for rate rises as Adam Bandt demands end to new coal and gas projects. Follow live

Around and around we go …

So CBA shareholders are to get a (fully franked) dividend of $2.10 for each of their share – 20% more than the last time dividends were sent out.

We reported strong financial and operational performance in our financial results for the six months ended 31 December 2022. Our cash net profit after tax of $5,153 million reflects the Bank’s customer focus and disciplined strategic execution. Our continued balance sheet strength and capital position creates flexibility to support our customers and manage potential economic headwinds, while delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. A fully franked interim dividend of $2.10 per share was determined, an increase of 20% on 1H22, driven by organic capital generation and a reduction in share count from share buy-backs. Despite the current uncertainty, your Board and management feel optimistic for the future and are committed to delivering for our customers and for you, our shareholders

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Food for thought: carbon footprint of salmon and chicken farming mostly stems from feed, study suggests

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Scientists hope emerging research into new types of animal feeds will make aquaculture more sustainable

Most of the environmental effects of farmed chicken and salmon arise from the food the animals are reared on, new research suggests.

Animal feed given to farmed chickens and salmon account respectively for at least 78% and 69% of the industries’ environmental pressures, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology.

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Peter Dutton warns Liberal moderates to vote against Labor’s safeguard mechanism overhaul

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After internal concerns were raised over Coalition position on crediting, opposition leader says he expects no one to break ranks

Peter Dutton has delivered a public warning to Liberal moderates, declaring he expects all MPs to toe the line and vote against the Albanese government’s planned overhaul of the safeguard mechanism.

After Guardian Australia revealed the opposition’s decision to reject the government proposal had triggered pushback both in the shadow cabinet and disquiet in the Coalition party room, Dutton told journalists on Wednesday he expected no one to break ranks.

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World’s biggest investment fund warns directors to tackle climate crisis or face sack

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Norway’s sovereign wealth titan threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targets

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they don’t up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity.

Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief governance and compliance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages more than 13tn Norwegian kroner (£1tn) on behalf of the Norwegian people, said the fund was preparing to vote against the re-election of at least 80 company boards for failing to set or hit environmental or social targets.

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Food, feed and fuel: global seaweed industry could reduce land needed for farming by 110m hectares, study finds

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Scientists identify parts of ocean suitable for seaweed cultivation and suggest it could constitute 10% of human diet to reduce impact of agriculture

An area of ocean almost the size of Australia could support commercial seaweed farming around the world, providing food for humans, feed supplements for cattle, and alternative fuels, according to new research.

Seaweed farming is a nascent industry globally but the research says if it could grow to constitute 10% of human diets by 2050 it could reduce the amount of land needed for food by 110m hectares (272m acres) – an area twice the size of France.

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‘No chance’ of global heating below 1.5C but nuclear tech ‘promising’ in climate crisis, Bill Gates says

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Billionaire and founder of Microsoft tells Sydney audience it is ‘great to have Australia on board on climate’

The world will be lucky to avoid 2.5C of heating, but emerging technology may help avert even worse, Bill Gates has told a Sydney audience.

The US billionaire and philanthropist told the Lowy Institute on Monday that while malaria still killed more children – 400,000 a year – the climate crisis was “worth investing in massively because it will get worse and worse over time”.

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Rishi Sunak criticised after third domestic RAF jet flight in 10 days

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Labour hits out at PM’s ‘recklessly expensive habits’ after latest flight to event in Lancashire

Rishi Sunak has been criticised for taking a domestic flight in an RAF jet for the third time in 10 days.

The prime minister flew on a 14-seat aircraft to an event in Lancashire to hold the first of what is due to be a series of events where he will take questions from the public.

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NSW environment watchdog to require big polluters to show how they will hit net zero and then nudge them to improve

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The state’s EPA is unveiling what it calls Australia’s ‘most comprehensive plan’ to cut carbon emissions

New South Wales’s environmental watchdog has released what it calls Australia’s “most comprehensive plan” to regulate carbon emissions, requiring firms to show how they will hit net zero by 2050 and nudging them to improve resilience in a warming world.

The Climate Change Policy and Action Plan 2023-26, released on Friday by the Environment Protection Authority, will identify what progress is already under way by companies now covered by pollution licences and encourage them to improve.

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Thailand’s tuk-tuks go green amid rising demand for electric models

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Travel without the combustion-engine fumes and noise is increasingly popular in the country with some of the world’s worst air pollution

Thailand’s iconic, gas-guzzling tuk-tuks are being replaced by a greener, more energy efficient model, offering travellers a more environmentally friendly way of getting around what is one of the world’s worst countries when it comes to air pollution.

“The benefits are quite clear in terms of the environment”, says Krisada Kritayakirana, co-founder and CEO of start-up Urban Mobility Tech. “When you use traditional tuk-tuks, you can smell the gas and it sometimes could be unpleasant. With the electric tuk-tuks, basically you don’t have any noise and you don’t have any emission from tailpipes.”

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MPs to hear plan to get rural households to run heating on vegetable oil

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George Eustice says adapted kerosene boilers can run on ‘hydro-treated vegetable oil’ and cut emissions by 88%

A proposal to incentivise households in rural areas to run their heating systems on vegetable oil is to be put to parliament.

The former environment secretary George Eustice will introduce a bill proposing the removal of duties on renewable liquid heating fuels and incentives to replace kerosene in existing boilers.

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Australia news live: huge solar venture backed by Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes collapses

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Sun Cable placed in voluntary administration. Follow the day’s news live

Australian involvement in construction of Aukus submarines important, acting defence minister says

More on submarines. In an interview with ABC Radio, the veterans affairs and acting defence minister, Matt Keogh, has reaffirmed the government’s confidence it can reach its deadline of acquiring nuclear submarines by the end of the next decade.

We’re certainly alive to the concerns that were raised in that letter that those congressmen wrote, but we’ve been engaging with the Biden administration, very positively … The American government and the UK Government are as committed as the Australian government to this project and see that there is a pathway forward on how we will go about procuring these submarines.

The industrial base for all of the three countries – Australia included - is critical to achieving those outcomes and making sure that we’re able to grow the pie by bringing the Australian industrial base into those existing industrial bases is very important.

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Australia’s big polluters must cut emissions by nearly 5% a year, but can use offsets to get there

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Plan that is key to Albanese government’s 2030 target will focus on emissions intensity to encourage cleaner practices rather than cutting production

Australia’s big polluting sites will have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 5% a year but will face no limits on the use of carbon offsets under the Albanese government’s plan to deal with industrial emitters.

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, on Tuesday released the government’s plan to revamp the safeguard mechanism, a Coalition policy that was promised to limit emissions from more than 200 industrial facilities, but in practice has failed.

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Concerns over use of ‘cheap and easy’ offsets – as it happened

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More than 80% of council areas declared disasters in the past four years, Watt says

Murray Watt was hesitant to attribute the individual disaster in the Kimberley to climate change, unlike his colleague Chris Bowen. But he said the overall pattern of increasing disasters was “undoubtedly climate change”:

I don’t think that you can point to one particular event and say it’s due to climate change, but there is no doubt that we are seeing before our eyes is climate change happening. We know from all the scientists that we’re going to be facing more of these intense events more frequently.

I was actually advised yesterday by our agency that just in the last 12 months we’ve seen 316 of Australia’s 537 council areas disaster-declared: that’s about 60% of the council areas in the country. And if you go back four years to the black summer, 438 council areas in Australia have been disaster-declared, which is over 80%.

A lot of people aren’t aware but the wet season in northern Western Australia … generally doesn’t begin until later this month. So their wettest months actually tend to be February and March rather than starting as early as January. So to have this amount of water come through the system this early in the wet season is a concern.

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NSW forests could become net carbon emitters in coming decades, report finds

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Declining soil organic carbon could undermine state’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050

Forests in New South Wales could become net carbon emitters in coming decades, undermining state government efforts to reach net zero emissions, according to a report by one of its own agencies.

The Natural Resources Commission has warned the Perrottet government the carbon benefits the state’s forests provide are degrading and will continue to degrade without “major intervention”.

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Albanese government looking at laws to force big business to disclose climate efforts

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Jim Chalmers will say global investors increasingly see ‘a new harmony between profit and planet’

Banks and other big businesses will be forced to come clean with the public about what they are doing to cut emissions under plans put forward by the Albanese government.

The government is also looking for ways to crack down on “greenwashing” – or when businesses try to win over consumers by overhyping their environmental practices.

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UK new car sales rise as industry leaders say recovery ‘within grasp’

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Increase for fourth consecutive month, with almost 143,000 new vehicles registered in November

Sales of new cars in the UK have risen for the fourth month running, with purely electric vehicles accounting for a fifth of the total.

In the best November for the industry since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, almost 143,000 new vehicles were registered.

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Australia is on track … sort of: official expert advice urges a ‘big upward shift’ on emissions cuts

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Climate change minister tells parliament official projection of 40% cut does not factor in all Labor’s policy commitments

Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has declared the country on track to reach a 40% cut in climate pollution by 2030 – just short of the national target of 43% – but the government has been told a “big upward shift in momentum” is needed to tackle the problem.

Giving the country’s first climate statement to parliament, which is now required annually under legislation passed earlier this year, Bowen said the official projection of a 40% cut did not factor in all Labor’s policy commitments, and that those measures would “lift our result to at least 43%”.

The statement did not shed light on what the government would do to make deeper cuts in line with its goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, an expectation raised by a UN-backed report if the Great Barrier Reef is to avoid being nominated as a world heritage site “in danger”. It also did not mention the country’s vast coal and gas export industries.

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Up to 3,000 ‘peak polluters’ given last chance to close by Dutch government

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State attempts to push through plans to shut hundreds of farms to cut nitrogen oxide emissions

The Dutch government is offering to buy out up to 3,000 “peak polluter” farms and major industrial polluters in an attempt to reduce ammonia and nitrogen oxide emissions that are illegal under EU law.

The nitrogen minister, Christianne van der Wal, said farmers would be offered more than 100% of the value of their farms to quit. For the first time, the government has said that forced buyouts will follow next year if the voluntary measures fail.

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