1 February 2011 – South Africa’s task at the 17th UN conference of the parties on climate change in November, 2011 is both “appealing and unenviable” judging by the results at the Cancun, Mexico, COP, according to a Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu report. The... 
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28 January 2011 – The federal government should fund the flood recovery program by ending fossil fuel tax breaks and subsidies that cost the Australia taxpayer $5 billion a year and go mostly to the pockets of the mining industry, the Australian... 
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28 January 2011 – An Australian solar hot water supplier has reassured consumers that the cuts to green programs announced on Thursday to help pay for the Queensland  floods will not affect the federal government’s solar hot water rebates. National... 
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27 January 2011 –The Government will spend $5.6 billion to rebuild flood-affected regions across Australia, PM Julia Gillard announced today. The funds will be delivered through a one year levy on people earning more than $50 000, abolishing certain... 
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From Climate Spectator – 23 January 2011 – It seems that governments everywhere are continuing to grossly underestimate the enthusiasm for rooftop solar. The NSW government has been so overwhelmed by applications to install rooftop solar... 
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By Leon Gettler Special report:  21 January 2011 – With more extreme weather events expected, the Queensland flood crisis could represent the “new normal” that will challenge the property market. Experts have told The Fifth Estate that planning... 
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By Tina Perinotto 21 January 2011 – The federal government has released a consultation paper on the tax breaks for green buildings program which will be worth up to $1 billion. It has even provided a handy set of questions as a starting point for... 
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By Tina Perinotto 23 January 2011 – Adelaide might have ranked best city in Australia to live and Sydney worst in a wide-ranging survey from the Property Council of Australia but among some controversial findings was encouraging strong support... 
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21 January 2011 – The Gold Coast City Council said on Friday that its Hinze Dam was “good planning” and would help protect the city from floods, as it released what it said were among Australia’s most sophisticated flood maps. The... 
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By Lyn Drummond 19 January 2011 – With some economists putting a figure of $20 billion on the Queensland flood damage, the terms of reference for the state government’s Commission of Inquiry has already come under fire for not being broad enough.... 
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By Lyn Drummond 19 January 2011 – Architects will propose to the Queensland government that building design be considered in its terms of reference for its Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland floods, as industry bodies respond to the crisis. According... 
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By Michael Mobbs 11 January 2010 – Coal is Australia’s biggest boomerang. With every shipload of coal we send overseas we import more frequent and extreme droughts and floods. Our coal comes back to Australia in the form of heartbreaking storms,... 
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By Michael Mobbs 23 December 2010 - “The underlying problem is confoundingly simple: agricultural methods that lose soil faster than it is replaced destroy societies” – David Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations I saw white... 
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By Tina Perinotto 2 December 2010 – The federal government yesterday released the most important document in national urban planning since the Whitlam years – a discussion paper on options for how to manage growth and sustainability for Australia’s... 
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15 December 2010 - Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet today released new maps produced in partnership with the Co-operative Research Centre for Spatial Information that identify the impacts of rising sea levels on low-lying areas in Melbourne,... 
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22 December 2010 – The Federal Government on Tuesday scrapped the Green Start program and instead extended until the end of February the Green Loans Scheme it was intended to replace. The program was to provide energy assessments to assist households... 
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21 December 2010 - The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has released its sustainable population issues paper for comment. The paper, A Sustainable Population Strategy for Australia, includes reports from the... 
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By Joel Quintal 20 December 2010 – Australia is consistently referred to as one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment. However, green buildings come at a price and when is the Australian acceptance of “green” going to pay... 
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15 December 2010 - The Grattan Institute has firmly backed a market based mechanism with a floor price as the most efficient way to reduce pollution, in a new report released today. “Government consistently underestimated commercial innovation when... 
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14 December 2010 – The Greens  said the better than expected result from the Cancun climate talks “significantly raises the stakes for climate politics in Australia” and places pressure on more transparent accounting for carbon forest... 
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Brief: 14 December 2010 – Climate Change Minister Greg Combet will be in Newcastle, NSW,  tomorrow to  launch a series of maps to help local governments in coastal communities to prepare for the future impacts of sea level rise due to climate... 
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13 December 2010 - [Updated] Cancun is over. Was Cop 16 a success? Here are the views of a few leading players and observers: Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet Mr Combet said the main points of the outcome at the United Nations Climate Change... 
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By Tina Perinotto 12 December 2010 - A raft of built environment organisations, professionals, academics and corporations has signed an open letter to call for bi-partisan support for urban policy, in the hope that political rivalries will not kill... 
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By Marcus Spiller 10 December 2010 – One of our assignments as town planning students at Melbourne University in the 70s challenged us to devise a strategy to put “urban policy on the front pages of the newspapers.” It was the time... 
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By Tina Perinotto 9 December 2010 – Former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer is still hopeful that a reasonable agreement can be reached at the Cancun climate change talks, just days... 
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10 December 2010- Sydney City Council will fund a project to investigate the feasibility of creating a demonstration sustainable suburb in inner city Chippendale that builds on the work of  local sustainability coach and columnist for The Fifth... 
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By Peter Lewis From the ABC – 7 December 2010 - It was a year ago today that the hottest gig in global warming opened in Copenhagen, amidst expectations that the world’s leaders would rise above their geographical interests and make a stand... 
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8 December 2010 – A  development control plan for the huge Sydney Business Park near Blacktown in Sydney’s north west has come with minimum four star Green Star obligations for all proposed buildings. Development director for the project... 
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By Tina Perinotto 30 November 2010 - The federal government has bowed to industry pressure and agreed to a temporary reprieve over the more complex requirements of the new mandatory disclosure regime for some categories of buildings. From 29 November... 
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By Tina Perinotto 26 November 2010 – The federal government’s Australian Carbon Trust on Friday announced funding and strategic partnerships that could leverage up to $300 million of energy and other efficiency measures for the property sector... 
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