This white paper examines the current challenges for clean energy infrastructure and identifies solutions that industrial clusters, transport and logistics industries, and the wider clean energy value chain can jointly explore in order to accelerate its deployment. Thirteen new industrial clusters from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, …
Australia the only country to receive a rating of ‘very poor’ in a majority of categories in Climate Transparency scorecard Australia is the worst country among the G20 when it comes to action on climate change, according to a comprehensive assessment before the G20 summit in China. Under China’s leadership, …
The effects of climate change, which we are already witnessing, are the consequence of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). At the moment, absolute emissions are still rising, caused by our overwhelmingly fossil fuel-based energy system (our “brown infrastructure”). From 1990 to 2013, G20 energy-related CO2 emissions – the most …
Lower limb amputees often experience complications with the use of conventional socket-type prostheses, which further reduce their already compromised ability to perform the activities of daily living, or to participate in sporting activities. During the last two decades, a new technology of direct skeletal attachment (osseointegration) of prosthesis to the …
Limited recommendations of wheelchair configurations for court sports have been identified in the published literature. To accommodate the wide range of impairments in wheelchair rugby, players are given a point score that reflects their impairment. Players have regularly been grouped as high-, mid-, or low-point players in research, with high-point …
The unique values of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are under threat from environmental change and the unforeseen, cumulative consequences of coastal development. Development decisions are underpinned by Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) but these are plagued by inconsistent methods and a lack of independent evaluation, leading to perceptions of inadequate …
Australia is suing the local arm of Volkswagen for allegedly misleading customers by selling modified vehicles that covered up emissions fraud. Its consumer watchdog claims Volkswagen intentionally sold more than 57,000 such vehicles over a five-year period. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is seeking a public declaration of …
Lakes Oil, a junior oil and gas explorer in Australia, is considering the grounds it may have for suing Victoria state, after the government there permanently banned fracking and extended a halt on onshore conventional gas drilling to 2020. Lakes Oil shares sank 50 percent on Wednesday in their first …
Renewable energy projects in Australia are already being suspended as a result of the two major parties’ plans to effectively abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena). In an announcement this week to the Australian Stock Exchange, Geodynamics announced it was suspending two large biogas projects in Goulburn, New South …
The Climate Change Authority has advised the Australian government to institute two emissions trading schemes and strengthen regulations in order to meet Australia’s 2030 emission reduction targets and to allow it to lift those targets in line with international climate change obligations. The move is expected to put pressure on …
Harvest strategies, also known as management procedures (MPs), are pre-agreed frameworks for making fisheries management decisions, such as setting quotas. Although different management bodies name and define them slightly differently, all harvest strategies include the same basic elements: a monitoring program; indicators of the fishery’s status and health, with associated …
Although cancer rarely acts as an infectious disease, a recently emerged transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) is virtually 100% fatal. Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) has swept across nearly the entire species’ range, resulting in localized declines exceeding 90% and an overall species decline of more than 80% …
SYDNEY, Australia - The Federal Court of Australia has dismissed environmental concerns surrounding Adani Enterprises' $16-billion Carmichael coal mine project and termed it legal. "Consistent with earlier decisions of Queensland's Land Court and the Federal Court affirming the company's approvals, the Federal Court has determined that due process has been …
The controversial Ranger uranium mine in the Top End has had its independent government oversight depleted just years before its closure in a move the local Aboriginal organisation describes as "absurd". Since December, the Supervising Scientist Branch – the agency under the federal environment department enforcing standards at the giant …
Adani's Carmichael coal mine has cleared another legal hurdle after the Federal Court threw out a challenge against the project by the Australian Conservation Foundation. The ACF had sought to establish a landmark climate change case in Australia, arguing approval of the proposed mega coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin …
Australian researchers have investigated signs of geological structures hidden behind the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, and have found a much deeper reef spanning more than 6,000 square kilometres (2,316 square miles). New seafloor maps of the area have revealed a vast, underwater field of doughnut-shaped mounds, each one measuring …
Climate change is already putting production and cost pressures on the supply of coffee in significant parts of the world’s ‘bean belt’ of coffee producing countries. Increasing temperatures and extreme weather events will cut the area suitable for production by up to 50 per cent, erode coffee quality and increase …
Order of the Federal Court of Australia in the matter of Australian Conservation Foundation Incorporated Vs Minister for the Environment regarding approval of Adani Carmichael coal mine project dated 29/08/2016. The applicant (Australian Conservation Foundation Incorporated) had opposed the proposed construction of a new open-cut and underground coal mine at …
More than 150 Australian experts have signed on open letter to the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, demanding urgent action on climate change that matches the dire warnings coming from climate scientists. The letter, organised by the Australian National University climatologist Andrew Glikson, calls on the federal government to make “meaningful …
Human activities have taken a heavy toll on our environment. But there may be some hope, researchers say. Although human pressures continue to expand across our planet, their overall rate of increase is slower than the rates of population and economic growth, a new study published in Nature Communications has …
Fossil remains have been discovered in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area of Queensland, Australia, and appear to belong to a new kind of tiny marsupial lion. The long-extinct species was far more nimble than its bigger counterparts, with researchers suggesting that it would have travelled through the treetops of Australian …
