SMH - Independence in emissions trading urged by Ross Garnaut. I prefer carbon taxes to cap and trade but at least it sounds like they may auction permits.

AN INDEPENDENT body similar to the Reserve Bank should manage emissions trading to ensure "political interference" does not stymie its effectiveness, the incoming government's climate change adviser says.

Ross Garnaut warned yesterday that climate change was a "diabolical policy problem" and that Australia stood to be damaged more than any other developed country because of its already hot, changeable climate and proximity to developing countries expected to be hit hard by global warming.

"Business as usual is carrying the world towards high risks of dangerous climate change faster than seemed to be the case a short while ago. The need for an effective policy response is more urgent than we thought," he said.

The Age - Rural Australians to pay price for climate change

SMH - Aussie corporates join climate call

The Age - Australian carbon tax 'unavoidable'

The Australian - Lib leader Nelson to back Kyoto

The Age - Globally warming to global warming

OVER the past 12 to 18 months, global warming has dominated political, economic and legal debate. Climate change-related trends that will alter workplaces, careers, business and management over the next few years are emerging. When I started writing about it years ago, I was told it was a marginal, and most definitely a non-business, issue. Now it has become one of the most prominent matters in business leaders' minds.

The first big trend is climate change politics. Two years ago, no one would have predicted that climate change would have helped change a government here. In a lecture delivered this week at the University of Melbourne, David Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize winner and professor of history at Stanford University, said the political consequences of global warming — particularly with its impact on the western and south-western states of the US — could determine the next presidential election.

SMH - Beware Kyoto penalties, UN warns Australia

THE United Nations' chief climate negotiator says the Rudd government's decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is more than symbolic - and warns it faces penalties if it fails to meet its targets.

Yvo de Boer applauded the decision to ratify the protocol, and said it would make "a big difference" to Australia's standing at global climate talks in Bali which begin on Monday.

But he warned that if it fails to meet its greenhouse gas emissions target, "Australia is stepping into a legally binding international instrument that would oblige [it] to meet its target and it has penalties in place if [it] were to fail to do so."

Mr de Boer, the head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told the Herald: "I think the international community will very much appreciate Australia's decision to ratify Kyoto." The decision will break Australia's longstanding backing of the Bush Administration, which has opposed the Kyoto Protocol because it sets binding targets for developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Australian - BHP snubs SA carbon reductions

BHP Billiton has distanced itself from South Australia's ambitious greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy targets, vowing to use the "most economic" power source for its massive Olympic Dam expansion. On a hot, dry day in Adelaide, new chief executive Marius Kloppers said the company's "local" operations - dominated by the proposed Olympic Dam expansion 600km north of Adelaide - would not be singled out to generate greenhouse gas reductions.

Mr Kloppers rejected "any specific item" in BHP's portfolio of 33 current and proposed projects, including an expanded Olympic Dam, as producing emissions cuts. "What we need to do is deploy every dollar in the most effective way - not target it towards any specific item which might, or might not, be the most effective one in the portfolio," he said. Mr Kloppers' stance was backed by chairman Don Argus, who was asked if he would like to see significant renewable energy supply an expanded Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine. "We will work on the most economic way to power what we have to power in this development," he said.

With Olympic Dam already the state's biggest consumer of electricity, the proposed expansion would more than triple its power demand to about 400 megawatts.

The Australian - BHP scare campaign over Olympic Dam

Crikey - Desalination plant set to swallow money for water saving plans in Victoria

If Victorian water authorities and the state Treasury get their way, financial support for household water saving and water conservation initiatives may be diverted into supporting Victoria's proposed desalination scheme.

Following a series of secretive discussions, a decision is expected soon, before the new Federal Labor Government's water resources minister will be in a position to respond.

What's more, it's believed that other state governments will follow suit, reducing or removing support for water conservation measures to increase water demands and associated revenue to repay debt incurred installing desal plants. It may also be the case in at least one northern state water conservation would be discouraged to increase water demand and therefore wastewater discharges that can be used to top up dams.

Such a move would enable water authorities to maintain their monopoly over water storage and distribution, while allowing state Treasuries to continue drawing billions of dollars of annual revenue from the sale of mains water.

The argument from water authorities is that nothing short of their strict monopoly control of water storage and distribution will work – and desal plants plugged into their centralised systems will ensure this monopoly control continues. ...

If desal is supported to the exclusion of all other water-saving measures, we can expect everything from water rebates for rainwater tanks and water saving devices to State financial support for water sensitive urban design to virtually disappear overnight.

The Australian - Bass Strait Henry gas project expenses blow out

THE Henry gas project, promoted as a cheap tie-back to the Bass Strait's Casino development since 2005, will cost almost double its original estimates. Priced yesterday at $275 million, Henry will also be nearly 40per cent more expensive than the original sub-sea completion to which it is attached and which began production only early last year. Henry is 40km west-south-west of Port Campbell, in about 65m of water.

Santos, the 50 per cent owner and operator of permit Vic/P44, which contains Casino and Henry, said yesterday the huge increase in Henry's costs since front-end engineering and design was announced last December was the result of higher labour and material costs and the huge increase globally in prices for pipelaying vessels.

The Australian - Beach Petroleum pins hopes on Tipton West coal seam methane project

The Australian - Cooper oilfield promising for Beach Petroleum

The Australian - Argus fears sovereign fund buys will seize control of resources

The Australian - CBD Energy turns up the heat on Rudd for a solar grant

HIGH flying renewable power company CBD Energy is wondering whether the incoming Rudd Labor government will honour the former administration's promise of a $20 million grant to build a Hunter Valley solar energy facility. Shares in CBD Energy eased yesterday, partly due to doubts about the new government's funding priorities, despite its election claims of being clean, green and climate-friendly.

Mr McGowan's firm is partnering with Hydro Tasmania to build a $15 million renewable energy system on King Island, based on a container-sized block of graphite or carbon that will store energy as heat. Surplus electricity is used to heat the blocks of graphite, with the heat recovered later to power a steam turbine and generator when solar or wind power isn't flowing. Potential diesel fuel savings could amount to $2 million a year.

SMH - Pollution by coalmines on rise, say Greens

SMH - Punt on pasta reaps rewards on a fortunate patch of dirt

AAP - NSW govt told to give up on motorways

SMH - Lights are flickering for the Lane Cove Tunnel

ABC - Cyclists set to disrupt Sydney CBD traffic

Peak Energy - What do you value more - your people, or your cars ?

THE centre of Sydney would be returned to the people under a radical plan to push out cars, create public squares at Town Hall and Circular Quay, and ultimately tear down the Cahill Expressway and the Western Distributor.

The Australian - Cooper oilfield promising for Beach Petroleum

The Australian - Cooking oil gives the best biodiesel

THE troubled Australian biodiesel industry, reeling from sharply escalating raw material costs, can take comfort from a new CSIRO report that claims biodiesel is most effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions when it is made from used cooking oil, rather than tallow, palm oil or canola. The report, commissioned by oil giant Caltex, says replacing conventional diesel with 100 per cent biodiesel made from used cooking oil cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 87 per cent.

The research concludes that using pure biodiesel blended with standard fuel could reduce greenhouse emissions from the transport sector. Using biodiesel made from palm oil sourced from cleared rain or peat swamp forests boosts emissions as much as 21-fold, it says.

Caltex said the report showed a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions occurred even with a 2 per cent biodiesel blend. Caltex Australia managing director Des King said biodiesel blends also reduced emissions of very fine particles in diesel vehicle exhausts. This is a point that critics of the increasing use of diesel in Australia have used to halt any move to speed up changes in the vehicle fleet to more efficient diesel vehicles, such as those now being produced in Europe.

The CSIRO report says biodiesel made from canola cuts emissions by 49 per cent, tallow lowers emissions by 76 per cent while palm oil from existing plantations cuts emissions by 80 per cent. The CSIRO says further research is required to establish the large-scale viability of biofuels in Australia.

Earlier this month, Natural Fuels, which operates Australia's largest biodiesel plant, said it could no longer afford to produce the alternative fuel. The company, which has a $90 million facility in Darwin, maintained that the price of palm oil had doubled in the past 18 months. The Darwin problems emerged only a week after Australian Renewable Fuels closed its plants in Western and South Australia, blaming rising feedstock prices.

Caltex said it had commissioned the CSIRO report to support the development of renewable fuels.

Peak Energy - What Next For Google.org ?

Peak Energy - Strategies for approval of the iraq hydrocarbon law