Latest news with #emissions
News.com.au
9 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Energy Minister Chris Bowen doesn't rule out carbon tariff on high emissions producing imports
Chris Bowen has been accused of following 'Donald Trump's lead' over comments suggesting Australia could force carbon tariffs on emission-heavy imports. Mr Bowen didn't rule out enacting a carbon tariff on carbon-heavy sectors like cement and lime, stating that 'we'll have more to say during the course of this term'. He said decisions would be made to 'ensure Australian industry is best placed to complete in a decarbonising world'. 'I'd urge against sweeping generalisations about policy settings,' he told the ABC on Sunday. 'What could be the case is obviously we look at particular sectors first, around cement and lime are places that we've looked at in particular, but again, I'm not going to get in front of the process.' Mr Bowen also referred to the Carbon Leakage Review which was conducted by Professor Frank Jotzo. Initial findings backed a border carbon adjustment mechanism that would make importers pay for the carbon created during production, identifying at-risk commodities like cement, lime and clinker, and moderate risk products like steel, glass and ammonia. 'We asked Professor Jotzo to look at this, he's been doing excellent work consulting Australian industry very heavily,' he said. 'I've had lots of meetings with steel makers and cement makers about these things over the past 12 months, for example, getting their feedback, and we'll have more to say during the course of this term.' Newly installed Coalition energy and emissions reduction spokesman Dan Tehan seized on Mr Bowen's comments. 'Now before the election, Chris Bowen, this arrogant minister, said nothing about carbon tariffs, and yet, here he is immediately after the election, talking about putting them in place,' he said in a video shared on social media. 'Now let's have a look at what this minister has presided over. He's put our energy security at risk. He's put electricity prices up, he's put gas prices up, and he's put emissions up, and now he wants to follow Donald Trump's lead and put in place tariffs. What a mess.' Appearing on Insiders, Mr Bowen also maintained that Australia is 'by and large on track' to meet our 43 per cent 2030 emission reduction targets, despite figures released on Friday revealing that emissions had increased year-on-year by 0.05 per cent. While Mr Bowen conceded Australia needed to 'do more' to reach net zero by 2050, he said output from renewables were 'very encouraging,' while transport remained an issue. 'Now our new vehicle efficiency standards only came into force on 1 January, for example. I wouldn't pretend that they've yet had an impact,' he said. 'These are the sorts of things that we need to keep going on to ensure that we can achieve and will achieve a 43 per cent emissions reduction, which I'm very confident we can and will.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
German court convicts four ex-Volkswagen managers of fraud in emissions scandal
The German carmaker was accused in 2015 of rigging engine control software to let diesel-powered cars pass emissions tests. View on euronews
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Almost 40% of world's glaciers already doomed due to climate crisis
Almost 40% of glaciers in existence today are already doomed to melt due to climate-heating emissions from fossil fuels, a study has found. The loss will soar to 75% if global heating reaches the 2.7C rise for which the world is currently on track. The massive loss of glaciers would push up sea levels, endangering millions of people and driving mass migration, profoundly affecting the billions reliant on glaciers to regulate the water used to grow food, the researchers said. However, slashing carbon emissions and limiting heating to the internationally agreed 1.5C target would save half of glacier ice. That goal is looking increasingly out of reach as emissions continue to rise, but the scientists said that every tenth-of-a-degree rise that was avoided would save 2.7tn tonnes of ice. Glaciers in the western US and Canada were severely affected, the study found, with 75% already doomed to melt. Those in the high, cold mountains of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges are more resilient but will still shrink significantly as global temperatures rise. Unlike previous studies, the research uses multiple models of glaciers to examine their fate well beyond the end of the century. About 20% of glaciers were already known to be doomed to melt by 2100, but the longer term view revealed that the total glacier loss that is already inevitable is 39%. As well as sea level rise, glacier loss will increase ice lake collapses that devastate downstream communities and the loss of wild ecosystems, while regions dependent on glacier tourism will also suffer. 'Our study makes it painfully clear that every fraction of a degree matters,' said Dr Harry Zekollari at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, who co-led the research. 'The choices we make today will resonate for centuries, determining how much of our glaciers can be preserved.' Dr Lilian Schuster, at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and co-lead author, said: 'Glaciers are good indicators of climate change because their retreat allows us to see with our own eyes how climate is changing. However, since they adjust over longer timescales, the situation for glaciers is actually far worse than visible in the mountains today.' Schuster added that it was 'not too late to act now, because this study shows every tenth of a degree less of global warming matters', potentially reducing the human suffering caused by glacier loss. 'We hope the message gives people some hope that we can still do something.' The baseline year for the analysis was 2020, but glaciers had already lost huge amounts of ice before this due to global heating over the last century. Quantifying this loss is difficult, however, due to the scarcity of historical data. 'Glaciers were way bigger [in 1850] than they are today,' said Zekollari. The study, published in the journal Science, used eight different glacier models, each calibrated using real-world observations. These estimated the ice loss of the world's 200,000 glaciers outside Greenland and Antarctica under a range of global temperature scenarios, with that temperature remaining constant for thousands of years. The researchers acknowledged significant uncertainties in the models but said glaciers are certain to lose significant ice and this could be a lot higher than the average estimate. For example, the average prediction that 40% of glaciers are doomed at today's level of global heating could be as high as 55% in the worst case. The proportion of doomed glaciers varies widely around the world, with 80% of glaciers in the southern part of Arctic Canada already destined to melt, while only 5% of the glaciers in the western part of the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalaya mountain chain are currently consigned to history. The situation is grim at 2.7C of global heating: all but seven of the 19 major glacier regions of the world eventually lose at least 80% of glaciers, from central Europe to the eastern Himalaya chain. Glaciers would vanish from the Russian Arctic, the western US and Iceland. Related: Two-thirds of glacier ice in the Alps 'will melt by 2100' Glaciers currently contribute about a quarter of sea level rise and those already doomed will lead to another 11cm. If global heating reaches 2.7C, it will result in 23cm of sea level rise from glaciers alone. Limiting global heating to 1.5C limits reduces that to 14cm. Prof Andrew Shepherd, at Northumbria University in the UK, said the study brought together all of the glacier model projections into a single assessment. 'Glaciers are the most iconic example of the impacts of climate change, and they are in all corners of our planet,' he said. 'This study shows that glacier melting will continue for centuries, even if climate warming stops today, and that's a sobering thought – dramatic changes will take place in our lifetimes. Our mountain landscapes will be unrecognisable if we continue to burn fossil fuels as we are today.' Glaciers could seem remote, said Zekollari, but their loss mattered to everyone. 'Everything is connected. If you drive around in your car in the UK, you're emitting greenhouse gases and this helps melt a glacier maybe 10,000km away,' he said. 'The oceans then rise, so you'll have to have better coastal defences and that will cost a lot of taxpayers money.' The UN's High-Level International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation begins on Wednesday in Tajikistan, part of the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia's emissions up slightly in 2024 as Labor faces heat over ‘climate-wrecking' gas project
Australia's climate-heating emissions increased fractionally last year as pollution from fossil fuel power plants rose for the first time in a decade, and domestic air travel and use of diesel-powered cars and trucks hit record highs. The jump in emissions was small – just 0.05% – due to falls in pollution from other sectors. But the direction was at odds with the Albanese government's pledge to cut pollution to reach targets for 2030 and 2050. The data was released on Friday, two days after the environment minister, Murray Watt, announced he planned to approve a 40-year life extension for one of Australia's biggest fossil fuel developments – Woodside Energy's North West Shelf liquified natural gas (LNG) processing facility in the Pilbara. Based on the Burrup peninsula, in Murujuga country, the North West Shelf is Australia's third biggest industrial polluter, responsible for about 1.4% of the country's annual climate pollution. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has rejected concerns about the facility's emissions continuing for decades after 2050, saying the national goal was 'net zero, not zero', implying ongoing fossil fuel use could be justified by using a contentious carbon offset scheme. His comments echoed language used in 2021 by the Coalition's then emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, when defending climate policies under Scott Morrison. The quarterly greenhouse gas inventory said the increase in national emissions last year may be short-lived, with preliminary data suggesting they fell in the first quarter this year. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter Emissions last year were estimated to be 446.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide, 0.2m tonnes higher than in 2023. The increase is largely due to pollution from electricity generation rising by 2.2%, reversing a 10-year trend. Australians used more electricity overall, and there was less hydro power available than usual during winter. Solar use was up, but the extra demand was otherwise met by more coal and gas. Initial data for the March quarter suggest the long-term trend of pollution from electricity falling should restart this year. This has been backed by a separate report by the Australian Energy Market Operator. At the end of last year emissions from power generation was 23.7% lower than in 2005. Experts expect it to continue to fall as a government underwriting program announced in November 2023 supports an influx of new large-scale solar, wind and batteries. But emissions from transport continue to surge as Australians fly more and burn more diesel in bigger cars and trucks. Pollution from the transport sector was up 1.9% last year. It has skyrocketed 20.8% since 2005. Vehicle efficiency standards introduced last year require auto companies to reduce the average pollution from new cars each year, but they are expected to only gradually affect total transport emissions. Government officials estimated national pollution was 27% below 2005 levels, largely due to a change in the amount of carbon dioxide that is absorbed by the land and forests. The Albanese government has a legislated target of a 43% cut by 2030 and has promised a 2035 target later this year. The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said Labor was on track to reach the 2030 target but there was 'more to do' to get there. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion 'Industrial emissions are now lower than they were during Covid-19, even as the economy has recovered,' he said. 'We need to keep going, and ensuring we're delivering downward pressure on emissions across the economy.' The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said Labor had failed two climate tests: pollution was going up, and it had approved the 'climate-wrecking North West Shelf dirty gas extension'. 'During the last term of parliament Labor approved over 30 new coal and gas projects and it doesn't look like they're slowing down any time soon,' she said. Albanese this week defended the North West Shelf extension by saying gas was needed along with batteries and pumped hydro storage to 'firm' renewable energy generation in the electricity grid. The government's target is that 82% of electricity will come from renewable energy by 2030. 'You can't have renewables unless you have firming capacity. Simple as that,' Albanese said. 'You don't change a transition through warm thoughts.' Asked about the WA development, Albanese said the Tomago aluminium smelter in New South Wales' Hunter Valley relied on gas to firm renewable energy, and WA's main electricity grid would become more reliant on gas as the state closed its remaining coal-fired power plants. The prime minister did not say how much gas from the facility was destined to be used in Australia. According to analysis of recent data, the overwhelming bulk of the gas produced on the North West Shelf and elsewhere in WA – 81% – was exported. Another 7% was used by the gas industry as part of the production process. About 8% was used for gas-fired electricity generation in WA. None was used at Tomago. Critics have challenged the economic and climate basis for a decades-long extension of the processing facility's life. Alex Hillman, from the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and a former Woodside Energy climate change adviser, said analysts from the International Energy Agency had projected the world was heading for an 'LNG glut' later this decade. 'There is no commercial justification to add further LNG supply, and there is certainly no climate justification,' he said. 'Whilst there is major flooding in New South Wales and a major drought in South Australia, these are emissions that are going to cause Australians and investment portfolios further harm as the physical impacts of climate change increase.'
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Oil majors seek bids for transport of carbon from Singapore
The S-Hub consortium has issued a request for proposal to companies for the provision of services to transport and store carbon dioxide. (Shell pic) SINGAPORE : A carbon capture project in Singapore led by oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp and Shell Plc is seeking bids for transport and storage of the gas, as part of the country's efforts to limit industrial emissions. The S-Hub consortium, which is the lead developer, 'has issued a request for proposal to companies across Asia Pacific for the provision of services to transport and store carbon dioxide,' a spokesman from Singapore's Energy Market Authority said in response to a Bloomberg query. The feasibility study for the cross-border carbon capture and storage project was started last year, with the aim of storing emissions from sectors such as oil and gas under the seabed or deep underground. Indonesia and Malaysia are among the few countries in Asia where CO2, once captured, can be viably stored underground. 'Exxon Mobil has secured 'exclusive' rights to CO2 storage in Indonesia and Malaysia,' CEO Darren Woods said in 2023.
