Reform of support for fossil fuels is often identified as a priority for a country’s fiscal consolidation efforts and for climate action to align financial flows with low-carbon pathways. Its implementation, however, remains elusive for many countries as they face seemingly irreconcilable policy agendas of economic growth and sustainability coupled …
Rich nations are stubbornly divided ahead of talks in Paris on Thursday to seek a deal to phase out coal subsidies in a foretaste of the difficulty of agreeing on action to curb global warming at a U.N. summit later this year. France, host of the U.N. climate summit, has …
Poor report card: Australia's record on combating climate change and carbon emissions is unsatisfactory, report says. One Australian produces more than three times the amount of carbon dioxide produced by individuals in leading industrialised countries on average, a report into the readiness of the world's richest countries to combat climate …
EU bosses are pushing to resolve a clash between industry and environmental policy with a new strategy to phase out funding to export coal technology to developing nations, ahead of a meeting of leading economic powers on the issue. The European Commission, the EU executive, urges tougher rules on when …
Environment researchers have made fresh calls for a tax on polluters on the back of an OECD report highlighting rising pressures on our green backyard. Through its new book, Vanishing Nature, the Environmental Defence Society has put forward an environmental consumption tax and rebate as a key reform, which it …
The International Energy Agency (IEA), the Paris-based energy think-tank for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, has said coal and other fossil fuels will continue to dominate India’s energy mix even as it lauded the government’s efforts to expand green energy sources through 2022. “India’s large (and …
Farmers will undertake many adaptation actions to meet changing climate conditions and will often do so without any government intervention. However, when such actions provide both private and public benefits, the public sector may play a role in how these are developed. This report aims to establish a framework to …
Australia has received more than $4 billion in money from foreign governments to fund coal projects since 2007, according to a new report highlighting the extent to which wealthy countries are still financing fossil fuels. And Australian taxpayers have subsidised coal mines and power plants around the world to the …
More than $73bn of international public finance was given to coal between 2007 and 2014 via credit export agencies Japan and South Korea are the world’s biggest financiers of coal through export credit agencies, a new report has found, with coal projects in Australia among the major beneficiaries of their …
International financial institutions and governments worldwide are pouring billions of dollars into building new and existing coal-fired power plants and expanding coal mining activities that worsen dangerous carbon pollution, according to a new report that calls for an end to all international coal financing, except in very rare circumstances. The …
The world's rich donor nations must increase their overseas aid budgets and reverse the trend of declining funding for the poorest countries in order to meet a global goal of ending poverty by 2030, an advocacy group said on Tuesday. Yet governments of the least-developed countries must also contribute by …
On 20 May, the European parliament will vote on a proposed regulation to tackle the trade in conflict minerals. The trade in tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold (3TG) is fuelling conflict which has had devastating consequences for people in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Colombia. …
Up to 90% of the world’s electronic waste, worth nearly $19bn (£12bn), is illegally traded or dumped each year, according to the UN Environment Programme (Unep). Computers and smart phones are among the ditched items contributing to this 41m tonne e-waste mountain, which could top 50m tonnes by 2017, Unep …
New Zealanders are living longer on average than they were a decade ago, and life expectancy is moving up the rankings of developed nations, the government statistics agency said Friday. Life expectancy at birth had increased a year for women to 83.2 years and 1.5 years for men 79.5 years, …
This report focuses on the urban water management challenges facing cities across OECD countries, and explores both national and local policy responses with respect to water-risk exposure, the state of urban infrastructures and dynamics, and institutional and governance architectures. The analyses focus on four mutually dependent dimensions – finance, innovation, …
Rich nations provided far more in export subsidies for fossil-fuel technology as for renewable energy over a decade, according to OECD data seen by Reuters. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) figures on export credits are central to a debate on targeting funding ahead of U.N. climate talks …
The UK government has provided well over a billion pounds in loans to fossil fuel projects around the world despite a pledge to withdraw financial support from such schemes, an analysis of loans made by the UK’s export credit agency has revealed. Gazprom in Russia, Brazil’s state-owned oil company and …
A new report released in Washington DC by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday challenged leaders to do much more to end extreme poverty in another 16 years. The Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015, released by the World Bank, lamented the gap in living standards between those …
The Australian Capital Territory of Canberra has been ranked the best place in the world to live, in a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Canberra led the regional ranking while Australia topped the overall country rankings, followed by Norway. The OECD ranked 362 regions of …
Lord Stern, one of the world’s most influential voices on climate economics, does not mince his words when it comes to criticising those who take a narrow view of prosperity and highlighting the devastating consequences of global warming. “You have to be a complete idiot to think that GDP sums …
Australia’s position as one of the best places in the world to live was reaffirmed last week with the release of the 2014 United Nations Human Development Report, which saw Australia ranked second only to Norway among all nations in the world. The report, conducted by the UN Development Report …
