Browsing: Interest group actions

Australia should begin emissions trading with a carbon price of about $45 a tonne and should aim to reduce emissions to at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020, says the Australian Conservation Foundation's response to the Rudd Government's emissions trading green paper.

• WWF attacks BCA report
  
• Government canvasses 7 star minimum for gas water heaters
  
• Clark wins Greens support for NZ trading bill
  
• EPA Victoria to promote energy-efficient glass
  
• Defence to establish environment panel

Many bilateral investment agreements and free trade agreements give foreign investors broad powers to seek compensation for legislative changes – and these could prove a major global stumbling block to efforts to introduce climate change legislation, according to lawyer and academic Kate Miles.

Australia risks pushing low-emissions industries to grow at unsustainably high rates if it fails to jettison its industry-neutral, least-cost approach to industry development, says a new WWF report.

The Coalition should stop 'bleating and moaning' about not having the economic modelling on emissions trading because they had 10 years to get it done while in office, WWF chief Greg Bourne tells CE Daily.



Bourne also warns the Greens that seeking to impose their idea of a perfect scheme could jeopardise efforts to put something in place quickly.

The investment community has a key role to play in "creating wealth worth having" by dramatically redirecting investment away from carbon and towards activities that don't undermine the natural wealth of the earth's atmosphere and biological systems, Climate Change Capital founder James Cameron has told a Sydney forum.

Averting runaway climate change requires "nothing short of an energy revolution", according to a Greenpeace report to be launched in Sydney today by Australia Institute founder Clive Hamilton and Greens Senator Christine Milne.

The Australian Conservation Foundation tells the Wilkins review the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target scheme is an essential policy measure, while the Business Council of Australia suggests more precise targeting.

There is still a tendency to indulge in 'trophy cabinet' reporting on sustainability and climate change, despite dramatic improvements in the quality of reporting, says Colonial First State's Amanda McCluskey.



Meanwhile, the Carbon Disclosure Project sets out best practice measures to encourage supply chain reporting of emissions and carbon strategies.

• WA issues compliance reporting guidelines
  
  
  
• Australia's black coal-fired plants emit more CO2 than EU and US plants
  
  
  
• CCS too slow, risky and pricey: Greenpeace
  
  
  
• 'Contraction and convergence criticisms flawed'
  
  
  
• Six steps to avoiding greenwash
  
  
  
• Greens parties to establish international base in Australia