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Category Archives: Climate Change

Antarctica’s ‘moss forests’ are drying and dying

The lush moss beds that grow near East Antarctica’s coast are among the only plants that can withstand life on the frozen continent. But our new research shows that these slow-growing plants are changing at a far faster rate than anticipated. We began monitoring plant ecosystems 18 years ago, near Australia’s Casey Station in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. As we report in Nature Climate Change today, within just 13 years we observed significant changes in the composition and health of these moss beds, due to the drying effects of weather changes prompted by damage to the ozone layer. Living on the …

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Australia set to run on 100% renewable energy within 15 years

Australia is set to reach its target of 100% renewable energy by the early 2030’s, provided current uptake of renewable energy options in the residential and commercial sectors remains strong. The Australian renewables energy industry will install more than 10 gigawatts of new solar and wind power before the end of 2019 and if that rate is maintained, Australia would reach 50% of its renewables target in 2025. The reduction target, set under the famed Paris Agreement into global climate change, forms part of a commitment made by Australia in 2015 to cut carbon emissions nationwide by up to 28% of 2005 …

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Act now on health impacts of climate change: experts

Public health professionals welcome a state plan addressing the health impacts of climate change, but say national action is ‘urgently needed.’ The Queensland Government’s new Human Health and Wellbeing Climate Change Adaption Plan provides guidance to health, aged care and childcare services on ways to manage the threats that climate changes poses to human health through extreme weather, drought and increased disease outbreaks. Consultation with various stakeholders to inform the plan revealed concern among health professionals about the “policy gap” in the area. The Public Health Association of Australia says that Queensland’s plan is an example of the type of …

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The renewable energy train is unstoppable. The NEG needs to get on board

On the face of it, the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), adopted as Coalition policy at a party room meeting yesterday, appears to promise the certainty that industry, consumers and experts have desperately sought for the past decade. But beware: there is a renewable energy train coming down the track that is unstoppable. The NEG cannot stop the train, but it could act as a guide rail to steer it – or even safely accelerate it – by reducing investment risk and lowering the cost of finance for renewable energy projects. The latest figures indicate that the renewable energy train will smash Australia’s 2020 Renewable Energy …

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Why temperatures at night are going up around the world and what we can do about it

History was made in the Middle East on June 28 when the world’s hottest night on record was set in Quriyat, Oman with the overnight “low” dropping to 42.6 degrees Celsius. Oman’s hot night is just one of many temperature records to be smashed in the past few weeks. Individual location records have been broken in the US, Russia, Canada, Scotland, Armenia and Georgia. Africa could have reached its highest ever reliably recorded temperature of 51.3C in Ourargla, Algeria on July 5. The World Meteorological Organisation recognises 55C as the highest temperature for Africa, recorded at Kebili, Tunisia on July 7, …

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Marine heatwaves are getting hotter, lasting longer and doing more damage.

On land, heatwaves can be deadly for humans and wildlife and can devastate crops and forests. Unusually warm periods can also occur in the ocean. These can last for weeks or months, killing off kelp forests and corals, and producing other significant impacts on marine ecosystems, fishing and aquaculture industries. Yet until recently, the formation, distribution and frequency of marine heatwaves had received little research attention. Long-term change Climate change is warming ocean waters and causing shifts in the distribution and abundance of seaweeds, corals, fish and other marine species. For example, tropical fish species are now commonly found in Sydney Harbour. But these changes in ocean …

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Materials that make heat worse for our kids demand a rethink by designers

It is with some relief that Australians are leaving behind the excruciatingly hot days of summer. But did you ever stop to think about the role of design in making matters better – or worse? Spending all day in air-conditioned rooms before walking out to a car that has baked in the sun all day is an exercise in extremes that many of us have faced. It’s easy to forget these conditions are shaped and mediated by design. Campaigns warn us about the dangers of leaving children in hot parked cars. However, there are many more designed microclimates in the …

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The Investor Perspective on Climate Change

The 2018 National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Brisbane over Thursday 8 and Friday 9 March. Emma Herd is the Chief Executive Officer at the Investor Group on Climate Change and joins us next month at the Conference as a Keynote Speaker to discuss ‘The Investor Perspective on Climate Change’. Investors have a critical role to play in managing the financial risks of climate change and driving investment into low carbon solutions. In the two years since the Paris Agreement was finalised, global investors have stepped up their efforts to address climate change, through corporate …

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Understanding Climate-Related Risk at an ASX-Listed Company

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Mr Jordan Groeneveld, Principal Advisor Sustainability, Strategy Team at Aurizon joins us this month to discuss ‘Understanding Climate-Related Risk at an ASX-Listed Company’ and will run through: What is climate-related risk? What is driving companies to disclose information publicly relating to climate-related risk? Why would an Australian rail company need to understand climate change policy in India? This session will focus on sustainability reporting of ASX200 companies, and describe the approach taken at Aurizon, a top 50 ASX listed company that provides rail-based transport and infrastructure …

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Mental health and psychosocial impacts of climate change for rural Australians

Climate change is arguably the biggest global health threat of the 21st century (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2016). The safe limit for temperature increase is 1.5oC, but if we continue with business-as-usual, global temperature will rise between 3.7o and 4.8oC, with catastrophic consequences (IPCC, 2014). Already we see climate disruption around the globe which will certainly increase: unprecedented heatwaves, severe drought, bushfires, flooding of cities and land, major storms. Climate change increases the severity or frequency of health problems already affected by weather factors, as well as creating unprecedented health problems in new places. Groups especially at risk include …

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