Employment Minister Mathias Cormann has let the cat out of the bag. The government has been trying to supress wages.
- Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland
A dozen leading researchers have issued an urgent call to action for the Murray-Darling Basin, arguing that the billions spent on water-efficient irrigation have done little for the rivers’ health.
Bitcoin has been viewed as a liberating path out of the corporate monetary system. But the process of ‘mining’ the cryptocurrency is a massive energy drain - and potential environmental disaster.
In the upcoming Queensland election all major parties are talking up public investment in energy generation. But are these policies paying heed to climate science?
By rebranding coal as ‘dispatchable’, the government’s National Energy Guarantee looks set to preserve demand for coal-fired power by giving it a new role – one it’s not well equipped to fulfil.
A Senate committee has made the right decision by rejecting the Fair Work Commissions recommendations to slash penalty rates - here’s why.
The Carmichael coal mine requires a crucial native title agreement to build key infrastructure. But an Indigenous group is bringing legal action against Adani, which may create a fatal roadblock.
Privatisation has failed to keep Australia’s electricity cheap and reliable. Time to renationalise the grid.
Federal politicians and the public like the idea of abolishing the states. But consider the likely result: a more powerful Canberra, with regional governments amounting to glorified shire councils.
Australia’s plan to bring fuel efficiency standards up to par with the US and Europe could see us say goodbye to regular unleaded, and hello to a useful way of cutting our rising greenhouse emissions.
With the last major court case cleared, Adani is free to proceed with its Carmichael coal mine. But the business case is not looking good.
The presumption in government is that privatisation is always desirable, but many failures have led consumers to think differently.
We hear a lot about how essential coal and other mineral exports are for Australia. Is it true? Only for a relatively small section of the population.
Peabody, the world’s largest private coal company, has filed for bankruptcy, symbolising the world’s swing away from coal.
US President Barack Obama’s new climate plan aims to cut greenhouse emissions from the nation’s coal-dominated power sector by 32% by 2030. Will it get through, and how will it affect this year’s climate talks?
Experts respond to the recently-approved Shenhua Watermark coal mine.
While the economics of happiness has boomed, the economics of unhappiness has been neglected. Yet there are many objective sources of unhappiness that good economic research might tackle productively.
Advocates of climate action have been saying it for years - we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels completely. And now, the leaders of the world’s richest countries have started saying the same.
China’s falling coal production suggests the world is waking up to the real cost of coal, calculated as $5.3 trillion in a report released this week.
The Guardian’s divestment campaign is targeting charitable research trusts. John Quiggin says they have a moral duty to divest fossil fuels, regardless of the temptation to research technological climate fixes.
The question of whether the future will be powered by coal and oil or by renewable energy is crucially important, both to the medium-term future of the Australian economy and to the long-term future of…
The controversy ignited by the Australian National University in October, when it decided to sell its shares in seven resources companies, has raised two important questions about divestment from assets…
The federal government’s Direct Action climate policy, a A$2.5 billion scheme aimed at paying polluters to cut their greenhouse emissions, is set to be approved in the Senate after a deal between environment…
The agricultural green paper released last week proposes 27 new water and irrigation projects, which the government claims will be necessary for Australia’s agricultural expansion. The emphasis is firmly…
The Abbott government’s proposals for reform of the higher education sector have not found much favour with students, academics or the general public. They have, however, had a good deal of support from…
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