WWF chief Greg Bourne has hit out at big emitters ‘crying poor’, releasing new research showing ten firms – including BP, the company he used to run in Australia – will receive free permits worth $1.86 billion in 2012-13, despite making $868.5 billion in profits over the past five years.
Generating 1,500MW of electricity from wave power by 2020 would create about 3,200 jobs and create enough power for 1.2 million households, but developing the industry might require changes to the renewable energy target scheme, says a WWF report released today.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has asked Australia's corporate watchdog to investigate 'potential breaches of the Trade Practices Act' relating to public statements on the effects of the CPRS made by six major companies.
Chair of the Senate trading bills inquiry, Labor Senator Annette Hurley, has poured cold water on an ACF suggestion that a further round of legislation could be passed before mid-2010 if the current bill fails. Plus Colonial First State on the different messages firms can give to politicians and to investors, and more Senate testimony.
If the CPRS legislation fails under the weight of relentless, 'cynical' lobbying by industry associations, then no politician will have the courage to try again in the near future, warns WWF chief Greg Bourne.
Australia's response to climate change offers an opportunity to create more than half a million new 'green jobs' in six emerging industries over the next 20 years, according to a report jointly commissioned by the ACTU and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Coal-fired generators need free permits equivalent to 'as few as 10 to 15% of the total emissions permit pool', according to the National Generators Forum. Meanwhile, Greenpeace has issued a musical anti-coal video to pressure the Rudd Government not to give money or free permits to fossil fuel-fired power stations.
Rio Tinto will receive free permits worth more than $400 million in 2010, says a league table prepared by Innovest identifying companies that would receive the most free permits under green paper rules.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act should be amended to include a climate change trigger that encompasses fossil fuel exports, says an Australian Conservation Foundation submission to a Senate inquiry into the Act.