Subsidies to the fossil fuel sector, including funding for research and development, should be removed, while investment in the renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transport sectors should be increased.

The major refurbishment of existing coal fired power stations, except for transitions to renewable energy, undermines the effort to increase end-use energy efficiency, demand management and renewable energy.

Australia needs to plan for a future that does not rely on fossil fuels for export or electricity generation.

Just transition assistance should be provided to communities and workers affected by closure of fossil fuel based mining and electricity generation industries.

Read more: 

https://greens.org.au/policies/climate-change-energy

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The Sunshine State is a leader in Australia’s renewables boom, with more than $1.6 billion dollars invested in new large-scale projects, creating more than 1,300 construction jobs in the energy sector, our new report has found.

The ‘Renewables Powering Queensland’s Future’ report highlights the significant potential for the state’s clean energy future, as 14 clean energy projects, the highest number in Australia, get under construction this year alone.

read more:

http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/powering-qld

Election watch: Watch for the Liberals (Conservatives) who will do whatever they can to destroy this caper — but watch out for the Q government doing favours to Adani... 

AHEAD OF the COP23 climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, next week, an annual bulletin released on Monday revealed that last year, the average global concentration of carbon dioxide surged at a record breaking pace, to the highest level in approximately 3 million years, renewing scientists' concerns that more action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"This should set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power," Dave Reay, a professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved with the research, told the Guardian. "We know that, as climate change intensifies, the ability of the land and oceans to mop up our carbon emissions will weaken."

Reay added:

"There's still time to steer these emissions down and so keep some control, but if we wait too long humankind will become a passenger on a one-way street to dangerous climate change."

The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin (PDF), published by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) "Global Atmosphere Watch" program, found that globally averaged CO2concentrations increased from 400 parts per million (ppm) in 2015 to 403.3 ppm last year.

Scientists have reliable data on carbon dioxide concentration spanning approximately 800,000 years, and researchers estimate the last time the planet had a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3 to 5 million years ago, during the Pliocene epoch, when the global temperature was up to 3°C warmer and due to melting ice sheets, sea level was about 66 feet higher than it is today.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/alarm-b...

The Trumble government is sneakily walking in Trump's footsteps in regard to "climate change" which we all know truly means "anthropogenic global warming"... But with a cartwheel and a grand fudge about electricity prices, the Aussie government is doing absolutely nothing that should be done to contain the problem. To the contrary it is prepared to spend YOUR cash (on credit of course) to give a COAL miner from India the facilitation to dig... This mining project which might even be financed by the rich Chinese State should stopped forthwith as it is going to further the deterioration of the carbon equation in favour of more warming...

Meanwhile:

WASHINGTON — The Earth is experiencing the warmest period in the history of civilization and humans are the dominant cause of the temperature rise that has occurred since the start of the 20th century, according to an exhaustive scientific report unveiled Friday by 13 federal agencies. The report was approved by the White House, but it directly contradicts much of the Trump administration’s position on climate change.

Over the past 115 years global average temperatures have increased 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to record-breaking weather events and temperature extremes. The global, long-term warming trend is “unambiguous,” the report says, and there is “no convincing alternative explanation” that anything other than humans — the cars we drive, the power plants we operate, the forests we destroy — are to blame.

The findings come as the Trump administration is defending its climate change policies on several fronts. The United Nations convenes its annual climate change conference next week in Bonn, Germany, and the Trump delegation is expected to face harsh criticism over President Trump’s decision to walk away from the 195-nation Paris accord on climate and top American officials’ stated doubts about the causes and impacts of a warming planet.

“This report has some very powerful, hard-hitting statements that are totally at odds with senior administration folks and at odds with their policies,” said Philip B. Duffy, president of the Woods Hole Research Center. “It begs the question, where are members of the administration getting their information from? They’re obviously not getting it from their own scientists.”

 read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/climate/us-climate-report.html

Mind you, with the CONservatives under May in Pommyland, they also are in the same hypocritical boat as Trumble...

However you feel about climate change, this has been an extraordinary year of weather.

Warming oceans have fuelled the fury of unprecedented hurricanes and cyclones across the world. There have been raging wildfires, flooding and heatwaves.

The science of attribution is still being developed but a trend appears to be emerging of bigger, more destructive events.

And that is of particular to concern to low-lying Fiji, which holds this year's presidency of the climate conference.

As sea levels rise, Fiji officials will be pressing for the big emitters to step forward and quite simply offer more in the global effort to tackle climate change.

Ultimately this conference will try to formulate a rulebook on how to proceed and actually implement the Paris Agreement in the year 2020.

Time is of the essence say the experts.

Trump may not be listening but let us leave the last word to Erik Solheim, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, who puts it simply.

"The numbers don't lie. We are still emitting far too much and this needs to be reversed."

Read more:

http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2017/11/cop23-testing-times-paris-...

Read also:

The story of Fancy Bear

Plans by the Trump administration to promote coal as a solution to climate change at a major UN meeting have angered environmentalists.

An adviser to the president is expected to take part in a pro-coal presentation in Bonn next week.

Separately, a group of governors will say that the US is still committed to climate action despite Mr Trump's rejection of the Paris agreement.

The talks begin on Monday and aim to flesh out the rules for the Paris pact

This meeting, officially known as COP23, will be the first full gathering of climate negotiators since President Trump vowed to take the US out of the Paris treaty.

"The bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States," he said last June, announcing the US intention to withdraw.

• US quits Paris climate pact
• Five effects of US pullout from Paris climate deal

However under the rules, the US cannot leave the agreement until 2020 so they will be sending a team of negotiators to this meeting.

read more:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41859283

Read from top and also:

The story of Fancy Bear

...

Such positive dynamics in the work of the "..." energy system, as well as the removal of barriers and the optimisation of administrative procedures, have made it possible to significantly simplify and shorten the timeline for connecting to technological networks.

It is a pleasure to note that our country took 10th place in the Getting Electricity category of the World Bank’s updated Doing Business international ranking, so it is among the world leaders. For comparison, back in 2012 we were in 183rd place out of 190 countries. Therefore, the upward movement is clearly significant, which is a positive aspect of your work.

Of course, it is necessary to continue developing an infrastructural basis for economic growth and strengthening the social sphere, including increasing the stability and efficiency of thermal power stations.

I would emphasise that the created reserve in the form of new capacities gives us today the opportunity to implement a large-scale long-term programme to modernise "..."'s thermal power industry. Its priorities are the withdrawal from use and replacement of outdated, inefficient equipment; the introduction of resource-saving, environmentally friendly technologies; and the development of capacities based on modern facilities with higher reliability and efficiency.

read more:

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/56071

Still a long way to go towards renewables, but a definite plan that will take them onboard by 2019...

The climate-energy debate continues to confound with its endless detours, allegations, subterfuges, spin, deception and downright lies.

A fortnight ago we learned that global carbon emissions are again rising steeply. About that same time, environment minister Josh Frydenberg boasted in these pages that “the Government is making a real difference” in the global battle against climate change. Who is he kidding?

The fact that the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Hobart last week was celebrated as a step forward simply showed the depths to which this depressing and debilitating slanging match has brought us.

This COAG energy meeting was a very limited affair. Western Australia and the Northern Territory weren’t part of the discussion because they’re not in the “national” electricity market, and Queensland was absent because of its state election, leaving just five jurisdictions in play.

Frydenberg had a small win when Victoria’s Labor government voted with Liberal states (NSW and Tasmania) to give majority support to the government’s “National Energy Guarantee” – which might be a good name except that it’s not national and it guarantees nothing.

Frydenberg said after the meeting that South Australia and the ACT “had their say today, and they lost”. But it’s looking more and more as if no-one is a winner.

From the little we have to go on, the main benefit of the scheme as it stands is to keep the cross-party discussion going. It will have little impact on carbon emissions, offering no encouragement to invest long-term in large-scale renewables.

That would seem to be the plan. In every government statement about the NEG – including Frydenberg’s ahead of last week’s meeting – cutting emissions comes a poor third behind lower prices and reliability.

read more:

http://southwind.com.au/2017/11/28/how-the-government-is-digging-itself-...