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, …
The world population will reach 9.9 billion in 2050, up 33 percent from an estimated 7.4 billion now, according to projections included in the latest World Population Data Sheet from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The world population would hit the 10 billion mark in 2053 if the assumptions underlying …
Climate Institute report says negative-emissions technology is imperative because risks of global temperature reaching 2C are ‘unmanageable’ Australia will blow its carbon budget with either the Coalition’s emissions reduction targets, or those suggested by the Labor opposition, highlighting the urgent need for negative-emissions technology, analysis commissioned by the Climate Institute …
The Climate Institute commissioned Climate Analytics to examine the impacts on Australia of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C and 2°C, and to provide estimates of the global carbon budgets associated with achieving these temperature limits. This report provides an overview of three important issues arising from the Paris agreement: …
In response to recent developments in both climate science and international climate commitments, The Climate Institute commissioned Climate Analytics to examine the impacts on Australia of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C and 2°C, and to provide estimates of the global carbon budgets associated with achieving these temperature limits. This …
A pollution monitor near some of the state's biggest coal mines has been found to generate wild data swings – even negative ones – despite receiving preliminary approval from the NSW Environment Protection Authority. James Whelan, a researcher for Environmental Justice Australia, analysed seven months of data from the Maules …
Delivery vehicles are major greenhouse gas emitters but new software reroutes trucks with real-time data and machine learning Brad Lorge began his entrepreneurial journey helping charities more effectively coordinate the collection of food from supermarkets and warehouses. Now the software engineer is the co-founder of Premonition, a logistics optimisation firm …
Researchers at the Australian National University deliver thermal efficiency of 97 per cent Scientists at the Australian National University have created the world's most efficient solar thermal installation, achieving conversion rates of 97 per cent using a new receiver deployed on a specially designed solar concentrator dish. The new system …
Researchers placed individuals of the solitary coral, Heliofungia actiniformis, into a 10-litre aquatic tank and began heating the water up. Within the first two hours of raising the water temperature, the H. actiniformis began expelling Symbiodinium, the tiny algae that lives inside its tissues, in a process called pulsed inflation. …
Researchers have found that rising sea levels could significantly lower water temperatures around coral reefs and help reduce coral bleaching. While rapid rise in sea levels pose a threat to people and coastal habitats, it could be beneficial to other valuable residents in the planet, particularly coral reefs. Researchers at …
The ecological and carbon cost of rainforest destruction goes on accumulating for years after nations halt the conversion of canopy into farmland, scientists have found. This implies that to meet ambitious targets, global strategies to combat climate change – including forest restoration – should have started years ago. Tropical forests …
Enice Marsh remembers the black clouds of "poison stuff" that billowed from the northwest after British atomic bomb tests in the 1950s spread fallout across swathes of South Australia. Now a new kind of radioactivity could head to her ancestral home in the remote Flinders Ranges - a nuclear waste …
Private investment in work to restore the Great Barrier Reef is likely dry up if the Queensland government fails to pass tighter land-clearing laws, warns Australia’s biggest environmental philanthropist. David Thomas, who has donated $30m and bequeathed another $30m to environmental causes in Australia, told Guardian Australia that state and …
The 5.8 magnitude quake hit off Bowen in state’s north triggering evacuations in Cairns and Townsville but no serious injuries or damage reported One of the more powerful earthquakes to strike Australia in recent years sent tremors along more than 1,000 km of the Queensland coastline on Thursday. The 5.8 …
In July this year, South Australia experienced a series of high wholesale electricity price spikes in one week, which some politicians and media commentators simplistically linked to the state’s high proportion of renewable energy, particularly wind (For example, Australian Financial Review 2016; The Advertiser 2016a; The Australian 2016). This was …
Twenty-four of Australia’s rarest tortoises have been released outside their natural range because climate change has dried out their remaining habitat. The natural range of the critically endangered western swamp tortoise, Pseudemydura umbrina, has shrunk to two isolated wetlands in Perth’s ever-growing outer suburbs, and a herpetological expert, Dr Gerald …
A new study finds that, contrary to popular belief, grassy biomes such as grasslands and savannas are species-rich ecosystems every bit as biodiverse as rainforests — yet little attention is being paid to the fact that they’re being destroyed at an even quicker pace. The notion that grassy biomes arise …
Plans to drill for oil in the pristine Great Australian Bight marine park will significantly increase the risk of oil spills, both from the oil rigs and the increased shipping traffic, according to a report by the South Australian planning department. In an updated plan for how the government would …
Traditional owners say the Indigenous community has not been adequately consulted about Vimy Resources’ planned Mulga Rock open-pit mine Traditional owners have vowed to fight a proposed uranium mine at Mulga Rock, about 240km west of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, which was given conditional environmental approval on Monday. The Environmental Protection …
There is a lack of knowledge of how biomass burning aerosols in the tropics age, including those in the fire-prone Northern Territory in Australia. This paper reports chemical characterization and aging of aerosols monitored during the one month long SAFIRED (Savannah Fires in the Early Dry Season) field study, with …
South Australia has one of the highest penetration intermittent renewable generation portfolios in a liberalised energy-only market. In the year to the end of June 30th, 2016 (FY16) wind generation contributed 37.6% to the total grid dispatch in South Australia, while domestic solar PV contributed an estimated 6% of total …
