Climate Council of Australia

Our future can't wait: 2050 is too late, September climate strike Meanjin/Brisbane

A new report from the Climate Council (CC) reaffirms the need for Australia to reduce carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 and aim for net zero by 2035, writes Alex Bainbridge.

There are growing calls on Minister Tanya Plibersek to ensure the country's main environment law takes climate change into account when assessing new fossil fuel and forestry projects. Pip Hinman reports.

Protester holds sign reading ‘Time to be Renew-Albo’

“Australia is back as a constructive, positive and willing climate collaborator,” climate change minister Chris Bowen told COP27. But how true is this, asks Pip Hinman.

The new IPCC report is upbeat about the possibilities to keep global warming at bay. Markela Panegyres argues there is no doubt that leaving fossil fuels in the ground is the bottom line.

Climate expert, Australian National University emeritus professor and Climate Council member Will Steffen speaks to Green Left about climate science and politics in the lead up to the COP26 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow.

Climate action has never been a priority for Scott Morrison. He'd rather conspire with imperialist powers against China than face the music at COP26. Markela Panegyres reports.

Federal environment minister Sussan Ley is challenging a ruling that the government has a duty of care to children when considering the approval of fossil fuel projects, writes Paul Gregoire.

A decade of inaction means that the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C will not be met, according to the Climate Council. Patrick McDonald reports.

Several detailed studies have now shown up the “gas-led economic recovery” plan as a fraud. Peter Boyle argues that the corporate sector cannot be trusted to make the urgently-needed shift to decarbonise.

 

The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Senate Committee released a report on May 19 into the implications of climate change for Australia's national security, which warned that climate change poses a "current and existential national security risk" to Australia.

The report defined an existential threat as “one that threatens the premature extinction of Earth-originating intelligent life or the permanent and drastic destruction of its potential for desirable future development”.

 When flying foxes drop dead from the heat, parts of the Hume Highway melt and Penrith in Sydney’s west is the hottest place on Earth with a temperature of 47.3°C, it is clear that extremes of heat are having a devastating impact.  

The extreme heat during early January in south-east Australia was global news and follows the “angry summer” of 2016–17.