Most recent 40 articles: climatecouncil.au
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Have we already gone past 1.5 degrees of warming? | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Jun 24) |
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Jun 24 · 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded. In the months of July and August, temperatures reached 1.6°C above pre-industrial levels of warming. This news creates a lot of confusion about whether or not this means we’ve collectively failed to honour the international treaty on climate signed by almost 200 countries in 2015 known as the Paris Agreement. Let’s break down what it all means and set the record straight. There is no safe level of global warming. By digging up and burning coal, oil and gas we have profoundly altered the Earth’s carbon cycle by drawing huge quantities of carbon out of long-term underground storage and pumping it into our atmosphere. This has ... Read more ... |
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Unwanted anniversary: 365th consecutive day of record-breaking ocean temperatures transforms Reef into ‘shadow state’ | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Mar 13, 2024) |
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Mar 13, 2024 · The Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of a fifth mass bleaching event in nine years. Today marks 365 straight days of record breaking global sea surface temperatures, igniting fears that climate change is pushing tropical coral reefs past a tipping point. New analysis by the Climate Council – Underwater Bushfire: Vibrant Great Barrier Reef fading to a shadow of its former glory – highlights how climate pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas projects is heating our oceans and cooking the Reef. The Climate Council’s analysis also affirms that Australia’s national environment law is part of the problem and fails to protect precious places like the ... Read more ... |
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How Polluting is Australia vs UAE | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Nov 28, 2023) |
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Nov 28, 2023 · The United Nations’ (UN) annual climate summit will this year be hosted by a major oil exporter – the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the lead up to this year’s climate talks, there has been a lot of focus on the fact that the president of the summit negotiations – UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber – is also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The UAE is not the only nation adding fuel to the fire. Australia produces nearly twice the amount of fossil fuels that the UAE does. We export nearly three times’ as much fossil fuels (UNEP 2023a). At a time when the climate crisis is dramatically escalating – and coal, oil and gas need to be rapidly phased ... Read more ... |
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Code Blue: Our Oceans in Crisis | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Nov 07, 2023) |
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Nov 07, 2023 · Australia’s oceans are in crisis, as extreme heat punishes marine life and raises the spectre of irreversible changes with profound consequences for all life on our planet, a new report has found. The Climate Council’s Code Blue: Oceans in Crisis report reveals the immense amount of climate-change induced heat currently being absorbed by the world’s oceans is equivalent to boiling the Sydney Harbour every eight minutes. In addition, the Climate Council ran a highly targeted survey of 30 leading ocean scientists across five continents. All (100%) were 'extremely’ or 'very’ concerned about climate-driven changes to the world’s oceans. Half (53%) said these changes ... Read more ... |
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What is Carbon Capture and Storage? | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Feb 08, 2023) |
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Feb 08, 2023 · Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has been touted as a technology that could help lower Australia’s emissions. But does it stack up? Let’s cut through the spin and look at the facts. Key points: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing, transporting and storing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power stations, energy intensive industries, and gas fields by injecting the captured greenhouse gases back into the ground. CCS is proposed in a range of different areas, but this fact sheet focuses on the forms of CCS attached to fossil fuel energy infrastructure. Not everything here applies equally to other uses of CCS. CCS backers claim that it can ... Read more ... |
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The great deluge: Australia’s new era of unnatural disasters | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Nov 27, 2022) |
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Nov 27, 2022 · 2022 will be remembered as the year of the Great Deluge, when record-breaking rain and floods lashed large parts of Eastern Australia, causing untold devastation for Australians and our economy. Climate change, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas, was a major factor in the Great Deluge. It is consigning Australia to an era of climate disasters that we are not prepared for. This report is a stark warning that this is not over yet, and a call for all levels of government to speed up their emission reductions and disaster preparation efforts. This year has seen large parts of Eastern Australia experience record-breaking rainfall and floods. From Queensland down to ... Read more ... |
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New global climate ranking sees Australia go from “dead last to far from a pass” | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Nov 14, 2022) |
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Nov 14, 2022 · Australia has climbed just four places to rank 55th out of 63 in this year’s global Climate Change Performance Index 2023, launched at COP27 in Egypt, a slight improvement on last year’s where it came in dead last for climate policy. “Australia has gone from dead last to far from a pass, and despite the nation’s recent progress, there is no escaping just how far behind we are and how much catching up we’ve got to do,” Climate Councillor and economist Nicki Hutley, who’s in Egypt at COP27 said. Australia has gone from 59th to 55th place in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which has been published annually for almost two decades by Germanwatch, NewClimate ... Read more ... |
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AGL joins Australia’s big coal exodus, experts and locals respond | Climate Council - climatecouncil.au  (Sep 28, 2022) |
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Sep 28, 2022 · AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST POLLUTER, AGL, has today announced the early closure of the nation’s most emissions intensive power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, with the company planning to exit out of coal completely by 2035. Loy Yang A coal power station is set to close 10 years earlier than planned, by 2035, and AGL also confirmed its Bayswater coal facility in the Hunter Valley is on track for closure between 2030 and 2033. Loy Yang A: The announcement comes a day after the Queensland Government unveiled its multi-billion dollar energy and jobs plan to shift the state away from coal power by 2035 and cash-in on its renewable energy and clean industry potential. Read more ... |
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Half baked: net zero announcement missing rapid emission cuts - climatecouncil.au  (Oct 26, 2021) |
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Oct 26, 2021 · A NATIONAL net zero target is long overdue, and must be accompanied by accelerated action to deeply cut emissions this decade so Australians can reap the economic benefits of a global transformation, says the Climate Council. The net zero by 2050 announcement, and an indication that Australia may exceed its weak 2030 emissions target by reaching 'up to 35% below 2005 levels’, means Australia remains dead last among comparable nations on climate action. Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie: “The Federal government has now cemented the commitments from all state governments, putting Australia on a path to phase out coal, oil and gas pollution. “Net zero by 2050 is a ... Read more ... |
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