SMH - Loyalty to coal takes wind out of clean energy advocates' sails

In April last year the future of wind energy in Australia was in doubt after the Coalition Government blocked a Victorian wind farm project to protect the endangered orange-bellied parrot, a bird so rare it appeared never to have flown near the site. The decision to overturn state approval for the project ostensibly on environmental grounds sparked outrage from green groups and prompted a string of Pythonesque jokes about dead parrots.

The Labor Party made much mileage from the drama but it refused to say how much renewable energy it would aim for if it won government. Meanwhile, both parties continued to support the country's dirtiest industry, assigning millions of dollars to an elusive technology they said would clean the carbon out of coal. The renewable energy industry watched in despair. Wind turbine manufacturers threatened to quit the country and solar power researchers headed overseas.

Things look very different 18 months later. The two main parties are locked in a battle to prove their green credentials. Opinion polls show voters respond enthusiastically to renewable energy, and to wind and solar power in particular.

Energy Business Review - Meridian Energy's Hayes wind farm development gets approval

Stuff.co.nz - Forest may be bought to offset emissions

Brisbane Courier Mail - Australians are world's worst carbon polluters

The Age - Melbourne rainfall hits record low

SMH - Kyoto: the Japanese feast where you eat your own words

GetUp - Walk Against Warming

Jakarta Post - Australia pledges US$27.7 million to reduce gas emissions in Indonesia

TreeHugger - Boreal Forests Found to be Net GHG Emitters

Using a one million sq. km stretch of forest in Manitoba, Gower and his colleagues coupled their measurements of how carbon moved between the atmosphere and the trees with past records and computer models to examine how the forest's ability to store carbon dioxide has changed since mid-century. Their results showed that the forest's ability to store more carbon dioxide than it emitted had weakened over the last few years - to the point where it has now become a net emitter of carbon.

The culprit for this abrupt reversal, Gower explained, is forest fires. "The warmer climate has increased fire frequency and extent. Those wildfires have caused this transition in the boreal forest from a carbon sink to a carbon source." They have, in effect, caused a positive feedback loop: the more soil is exposed to sunlight as a result of trees burning, the speedier the decomposition process and the more carbon dioxide is released. The real concern is that climate change may soon causing the large-scale thawing of permafrost around the world; second only in size to tropical rainforests, boreal forests cover a vast swathe of land in the upper latitudes of Alaska, Siberia, China, Scandinavia and the Yukon.

Gower's assessment is fairly grim, to say the least: "Based on our current understanding, fire was a more important driver than climate was. But if carbon dioxide concentration really doubles in the next 50 years and the temperature increases four to eight degrees Celsius, all bets may be off."

The Australian - China bid for agricultural chemicals maker Nufarm marks new global era

AGWeb - Fertilizer costs and production risk

The National (PNG) - PNG Agro exports nose-dive

MOST of PNG’s commodity export volumes have dropped dramatically since 1999. Only oil palm has shown a consistent rise in export volumes over the same period, while cocoa has seen some modest increases in the past four years.

Islands Business (Fiji) - Energy: ‘MAD’ GERMAN + FALLING COCONUTS = ‘WONDER’ FUEL

The National (PNG) - PNG-Japan ties getting stronger

PAPUA New Guinea and Japan will continue to enjoy the existing good relationship, PNG’s ambassador to Japan Michael Mauve said. “PNG’s relationship with Japan is special due to the numerous historical developments and especially in memory of the Head of Japanese Forces, Yamamoto, who had his headquarters established in Rabaul during World War Two between 1942 and 1945,” he said.

The Japanese companies comprised Japan Bank of International Corporation, Nippon Oil Exploration Corporation, Itochu Corporation, JCG Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, LNG Japan Corporation and Cosmo Oil Corporation, which is the third biggest petroleum company and is working closely with OISCA by putting a lot of money back into environment conservation awareness. “People should realise that just as they (Japanese companies) need our raw materials, we need their skills and knowledge and capital to build downstream industries."

ABC - Coalition pledges $10b for roads, rail. "There's nothing new in rail, especially public transport rail, in this announcement."

SMH - Unpopular nuclear option on back burner

IHT - Exxon-Shell venture draws German and Australian interest

The network connects the Netherlands and Denmark with German cities like Hamburg and Berlin. BEB also has a gas storage site near the Dutch border. Oil companies like Shell and Exxon Mobil are selling off peripheral energy businesses to focus on exploration, production and refining as crude oil trades at record levels.