1 September 2010 - The Victorian Government has announced it will establish a new Office of Solar Energy and commit $30 million to support renewable energy. Victorian Premier John Brumby said that the $30 million funding boost will support the development of alternative energy technologies, including $5 million for projects in ...Read More > >

17 August 2010 – The Greens have called for Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard to improve their five per cent emission reduction targets after the release of an Australian Academy of Sciences report detailing comprehensive evidence of climate change. The release of the “Science of Climate Change” report comes as Prime ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 17 August 2010 - An enhanced renewable energy target, $5 billion worth of loan guarantees for renewable energy developments, plans to revitalise local communities and improvements to public transport systems are among The Greens’ major policies heading into this weeks election. Plans to transform Australia into a 100 per ...Read More > >

Brief - 17 August 2010 - The Australian Conservation Foundation has welcomed Labor’s $10 million commitment to create large green corridors connecting national parks and reserves but says more could be spent to support Australia’s natural life support systems. According to a recent Auspoll survey commissioned by the ACF and WWF, ...Read More > >

by Andrew Starc 4 August 2010 - The Planning Institute of Australia has called on Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to address the issue of long term planning by issuing five key planning priorities it says are vital to Australia’s long term success. PIA national president Neil Savery said in a media ...Read More > >

28 July 2010 - The Sydney Theatre Company has claimed the highest honour at this year’s Green Globe Wards, with Investa Property Group winning the Commercial Property Sustainability Award. Sydney Theatre Company directors, actress Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton received the Premier’s Award for Sustainability Excellence for the Sydney Theatre ...Read More > >

14 July, 2010 - According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the number of people with a disability more than doubled to nearly 4 million in the two decades to 2003. But embedding design features into a house, such as reinforced bathroom walls, smart positioning of power points and wider corridors ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell 14 July 2010 - This week the federal government is expected to announce a national energy efficiency scheme following months of consultation with industry and numerous submissions from stakeholders. But will the scheme bring the drive that is needed to change the way we think about and use ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 7 July, 2010 - Leading catalyst for the sustainable property movement Ché Wall has stepped down as managing director of WSP Lincolne Scott after 17 years with the company. Replacing him will be Andrew Mather who has been managing director of the group for the Africa, Asia and Australia ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 12 July 2010 - In Seoul, Korea, local authorities inspired by the whimsical reminiscences of a univerisity professor,  ripped down a freeway and restored a river. See this inspiring documentary narrated by Brad Pitt before it expires in the next nine days. The result? Traffic disappeared and people flocked ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 7 July, 2010 - Frasers Property Australia has received approval for its Central Park development on Broadway in Sydney’s southern CBD, with construction of the project’s two residential towers to begin before the end of 2010. Managing director of Fraser Property Australia Dr Stanley Quek said that the company ...Read More > >

Attending day one of the 2010 Climate Adaptation Futures Conference, the Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Senator Penny Wong delivered the following welcoming speech to conference attendees. INTRODUCTION It is a pleasure to be here at the opening of this Climate Change Adaptation Futures Conference. A conference that comes ...Read More > >

Brief – 25 July, 2010 – Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have agreed to embark on a project to create up to 20 low-carbon model cities using energy-efficient technologies including smart grids and renewable power generation. Announced at APEC’s forum meeting in Japan 19 June, the 21-member body will ...Read More > >

Brief - 16 July, 2010 - The Australian Local Government Association has launched its Local Roads and Transport Agenda, outlining a vision for the next decade. President of the ALGA Geoff Lake said that local councils play a significant role in the planning and maintenance of roads and transport infrastructure, with ...Read More > >

Despite causing the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, BP seems to be planning to pay a dividend this year of more than $10billion. As two US senators have noted, by moving money “off the company’s books and into investors’ pockets”, BP “will make it much more difficult to repay the US ...Read More > >

By Adrian McGregor, McGregor Coxall FAVOURITES - 7 October 2009 - "The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a time, the Indian Summer of the fossil fuel era". – James Kunstler, The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century ...Read More > >

The climate giants speak 4 June 2010 - There was enough passion and atmosphere at Sydney Town Hall on Friday, 21 May to ignite a new political movement. Maybe it was the woman from the bush who waited patiently for her turn at the microphone to spell out calmly, and with cast-iron ...Read More > >

The Papua New Guinea Government has passed legislation that removes the rights of PNG nationals to challenge the government's own approvals for environmentally destructive activities. According to Charles Roche, executive director of the Mineral Policy Institute, the legislation will give the PNG government carte blanche powers to approve future projects without ...Read More > >

By Rick Outzen A document obtained by The Daily Beast shows that BP, in a previous fatal disaster, increased worker risk to save money. Are there parallels with the Gulf explosion? This is a story about the Three Little Pigs. A lot of dead oil workers. And British Petroleum. From the minute the ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc  25 May 2010 - Australia’s first public on-street electric car charging station has opened in Sydeny’s inner-west, as part of a planned national rollout. Installed by Visionstream and managed by ChargePoint, the station is located in Derby Place, Glebe. The station can recharge a converted plug-in Toyota Prius in ...Read More > >

Wilderness and biodiversity protection organisation Conservation International  reports on the discovery of several new species in Papua New Guinea. A scientific expedition to a pristine wilderness once dubbed “The Lost World” by Western media has revealed a stunning diversity of spectacular species, many of which are believed to be new to ...Read More > >

Brief – 5 May, 2010 – A carbon tax proposed by five Labor MP’s to Prime Minister Rudd has received welcome support from the Greens, according to a statement released today. The Greens said their proposal for a levy on the biggest polluters would be the “fastest and most effective ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES - 23 July 2009 - Biochar, a system of carbon capture by turning organic matter into charcoal, has been storming the news circuit as a breakthrough technology. But it’s controversial. Australian author and leading scientist in the climate change debate, Tim Flannery explained the system to the ABC’s Lateline program ...Read More > >

16 July 2009 - If you are wondering about the power of the coal miners and the other giant polluters in running the emissions trading scheme debate, this article from Crikey’s Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane, earlier this month is worth putting on the record... Amid the email-related shenanigans of the weekend before ...Read More > >

One of the world’s iconic office towers, New York’s Empire State Building, is going seriously green, cutting energy consumption by up to 38 per cent and saving around $US4million in energy bills in a major refurbishment. Owner of the building, The Empire State Building Company, is spending around $US20million on environmental ...Read More > >