Malcolm Turnbull - Climate Change, Economics and Tax Reform - Speech to Sydney Institute

The world’s governments have now accepted that our growing emissions of CO2 and similar greenhouse gases has caused the earth’s climate to warm and that in order to avoid catastrophic climate change we must dramatically reduce our emissions of those gases.

This global objective which is both consistent with the science and growing in acceptance is a reduction of emissions by 2050 to a level equal to 50 per cent of global emissions in 1990. Note that this is much, much larger than cutting 2050 emissions to half their business as usual level. The Stern Review estimated this would amount to a reduction to 23 per cent of the business as usual level.

This will be a costly exercise. We will all be faced with consequences of climate change whatever reduced levels of emissions are achieved. That can be described as the cost of adaptation, some of it certainly unavoidable. In addition we will be faced with the costs of reducing emissions. That can be described as the costs of mitigation.

For Australia, an example of the cost of adaptation is the many desalination plants being built around our coast line, or the National Plan for Water Security – $10 billion to secure the future of irrigated agriculture in a hotter, drier future. An example of the cost of mitigation will be the extra we will all pay for low emission energy. Gas is dearer than coal. Wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear are presently dearer than gas.

SMH - LNG production up 8% in 2007

Australia's liquefied natural gas (LNG) production rose eight per cent to 699.6 billion cubic feet in 2007, according to the nation's petroleum industry association. "The strong growth in LNG production is primarily as a result of increased production at the ConocoPhillips operated Darwin LNG project," Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association Ltd (APPEA) chief executive Belinda Robinson said in a statement Thursday. "This plant commenced operations in the first quarter of 2006."

APPEA's statistics also revealed a marginal decrease in crude oil production and a continued rise in gas sales. Crude oil production in 2007 was 120 million barrels, down three per cent on 2006. Combined crude, condensate and liquefied petroleum gas production was 196.7 million barrels, down one per cent. "The slight decline in liquids production can largely be attributed to a combination of shut-downs on significant producing assets and natural field decline," Ms Robinson said.

SMH - Hurdles to clear before carbon trading starts

Australia has three key hurdles to overcome if it wants an emissions trading system to operate by its scheduled 2010 starting date, the global head of carbon emissions for Merrill Lynch says. London-based Abyd Kamali said there needed to be reliable carbon price data and information technology infrastructure. He also said the carbon services sector must have capacity to deal with the new work load in order meet the federal government's July 1 2010 deadline to have the trading system running. Mr Kamali said the emissions data had to be reliable enough to provide the technical integrity for the trading scheme. He said the price for carbon could be as cheap as $10 to $15 a tonne or could surge to as much $60 a tonne.

The Australian - Roc tumbles 17pc on well woes

The Australian - Imports to close more refineries

AT least two of Australia's remaining seven oil refineries are likely to shut down within the next decade because they will not be able to compete with surplus Asian refined petroleum products, Caltex managing director Des King predicts. Mr King said yesterday that by 2030 Australia was likely to be importing between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of its petrol, jet fuel and diesel which meant that at any one time there would be a huge volume of liquid transport fuels that would be on the water and subject to disruption. "That is a huge energy security risk," he said, because Australia would grind to a halt without liquid transport fuels. Mr King, who has headed Australia's only listed oil refiner for the past two years, told an Institute of Chartered Accountants breakfast that without a viable refinery industry Australia would be left exposed to the increasing international clamour for oil.

SMH - Easter prompts a dip in car sales

Australian vehicles sales dipped three per cent in March, the fall flowing from the Easter break rather than a slowing economy or rising interest rates, officials say. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) said 91,285 vehicles were retailed last month compared to the 94,392 sold in March last year, a fall of 3.3 per cent. But the FCAI said with three fewer selling days because of Easter, daily sales were actually nine per cent higher last month, suggesting consumers had not been deterred by economic concerns.

The Australian - Leighton wins $1bn India coal contract

Frogblog - Damming the Mohikinui River eels

This hydro dam will require Meridian to flood the Mokihinui Gorge, which is home to endangered bats, kiwi, snails, kaka and whio. It will also prevent many fish from swimming out to sea to breed. 12 of those fish species are natives, and four of them are endangered. And, of particular interest to Metiria and Russel are the long fin eels.

Long fin eels live for about 100 years if they are allowed. They swim all the way from their river in New Zealand to deep sea trenches off the coast in Tonga where they breed. The children then make their way slowly back to the same river from where their parents came.

Frogblog - Electric cars are not the whole solution

Surely the Hive doesn’t seriously think the solution to New Zealand’s transport problems is to replace all the Fords and Holdens in Auckland’s traffic jams with Telsas. While electric cars are better than petrol cars in terms of climate change, they still place the same or similar demands on our roading infrastructure, our public health and road toll, our congestion and our isolated communities.

Roads need to return to being shared public spaces. Too many have become dangerous barriers that sever buildings and people from each other. Roads take up over 500 million square metres of land in New Zealand. Promoting public transport as well as active transport, like walking, skateboarding and cycling, is a more economically sensible, as well as healthier, safer and fairer way to resolve our transport problems than simply improving our car fleet.

NZ Herald - Trust expects seven-figure windfall from power station

Construction of the station starts next month and will take two years. It will plug into existing transmission lines and eventually produce enough power to supply 100,000 homes. Mighty River Power chief executive Doug Heffernan said the fact that Maori owned significant geothermal land is good for future power generation as well as the nation's economic development. "It means we've got a long-term relationship, because they've got some skin on the ground. They don't want to sell their land and they've got the geothermal resources beneath their feet."

The Australian - Worley buys Intec in deepwater plunge

WORLEYPARSONS has bought hydrocarbons engineering company Intec Engineering for US$108.5 million ($119 million), to add to its deepwater pipeline capacity and gain access to new and emerging markets. Houston-based Intec provides services to offshore exploration and production as well as the transportation sectors of the oil and gas industry, with a focus on deep water up 2400m.

The Age - Green push gets down to business

BUSINESS will be expected to massively boost investment in Victoria's stressed environment under a State Government plan to save species threatened by climate change. Launching a draft blueprint for rebuilding devastated ecosystems over the next 20 to 50 years, Environment Minister Gavin Jennings yesterday called on the community to start viewing the restoration of the environment as an economic opportunity rather than a cost.