SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES TO REMAIN OPEN
Remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia will remain open despite federal funding cuts.
Last year, the federal government announced it would leave it up to the states to fund remote communities. About 150 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia are under threat of closure after the Western Australian government refused to step in and fund them.
The South Australian government announced on April 13 it will deliver municipal and essential services in remote Aboriginal communities in the state from July 1. This will include power, water, and sewage and rubbish collection for 1500 people living on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands.
RENEWABLES BEAT FOSSIL FUELS
The world is now adding more capacity for renewables each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined, bloomberg.com reported on April 15.
This is a historic shift and experts say there is no going back.
In 2013, the world built 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity compared with 141 gigawatts of fossil fuel plants. It is expected more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added by 2030.
At the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit, Michael Liebreich said: "The electricity system is shifting to clean. Despite the change in oil and gas prices there is going to be a substantial build of renewable energy that is likely to be an order of magnitude larger than the build of coal and gas."
The International Energy Agency predicts solar will be the world’s biggest source of energy by 2050.
COAL MINE LOSES BID FOR LICENCE
A group of coal mining companies have lost their appeal to the High Court to restore their licences to mine coal in NSW, the ABC reported.
In 2013, the Independent Commission Against Corruption found the process in which the licences were granted was corrupt.
In one case, the Commission found former mining minister Ian Macdonald granted a mining lease over property owned by his colleague and former Labor minister Eddie Obeid, who stood to gain between $50 million and $100 million from the deal.
NSW parliament cancelled the licences last year. The companies argued the law was unconstitutional but the High Court found there was no case to answer.