Reading Time: 34 mins5th July 2023
Author: Robert Watson

DECARBONISING AUSTRALIA
With the widespread use of carbon credits, expensive and unproven technologies, as well as new coal mine approvals, Australia is making the difficult job of reaching net zero by 2050 almost impossible.

Since May 2022 there have been three significant matters that will largely determine Australia’s direction on climate policy in the next few years. The first was the defeat of the Coalition government by the Anthony Albanese led Labor Party. The second matter was the reform to the Safeguard Mechanism by the new Labor government early in 2023, and the third and related matter was the Chubb Review into the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCUs) scheme.

Reading Time: 9 mins23rd September 2022
Author: Robert Watson

CLIMATE - A NEW GOVERNMENT, THE MINERS & RENEWABLES
A big factor helping the Labor Party win government in May last year was their advocacy for improved policies to help relieve global warming and climate change in general. There were of course other reasons people voted for a change, including the establishment of an effective federal integrity commission, gender wage equality, fairer wages for low-paid workers, and, because they weren’t the Morrison government!

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already served more than 10% of the electoral term, and from a rapid start, things might already be starting to ‘slow down’. There is more ‘political speak’ lately and less direct answers to difficult questions.

Reading Time: 12 mins22nd April 2022
Author: Robert Watson

1.5°C ... GOING, GOING, GONE!
The Paris Agreement is a landmark international accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts. The agreement aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2°C above preindustrial levels while pursuing the means to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Source: IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

On current evidence, one could reasonably believe that Earth has possibly reached, or is very close to reaching the critical +1.5°C temperature increase over pre-industrial temperature levels.

Reading Time: 10 mins6th December 2021
Author: Robert Watson

HYDROLOGY, THE SOIL SPONGE & GLOBAL COOLING
Walter Jehne is one of a number of respected and influential scientists advocating the study of the earth’s hydrology so with a greater understanding we can assist the earth, or nature if you like, to cool the place down.

The hydrology of earth is complicated and extremely varied from region to region, unlike CO₂, hydrology cannot be easily modelled nor easily explained ...