Scoop.co.nz - Key keeps to schedule despite Obama plan

Prime Minister John Key says he is not reconsidering whether to attend a climate change summit in Copenhagen, despite reports that United States President Barack Obama will now go.

NZ Herald - UN wants leaders at climate talks

Prime Minister John Key is scheduled to land in Trinidad late tonight for the Commonwealth summit, where United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will make a personal plea for leaders to also attend climate talks in Copenhagen in 10 days.

Stuff.co.nz - Climate scientists attack criticism

New Zealand climate scientists wonder where the next attack on their work will come from in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate talks.

Scientists yesterday rubbished claims from New Zealand climate-change sceptics that temperature data from around the country had been deliberately tampered with to show a higher degree of warming.

The suggestion from the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition and the Climate Conversation Group comes just days after "Climategate", in which thousands of emails and documents sent between scientists were hacked from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit and leaked on the internet.

Sceptics have been selecting out comments from the emails and saying they are evidence of selective science and even collusion in preparing reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

ABN Newswire - Beach Petroleum Limited (ASX:BPT) Managing Director Reg Nelson Address At Annual General Meeting
Adelaide, Nov 26, 2009

Our number one objective in this period is to find more oil. During the next two to five years we expect that the world will face some very real issues through falling supply. It's not so much a question of "peak oil", but more because projects that could have been brought on to address future global supply have been deferred as the global financial turmoil savaged their source of funding. There has been an even greater impact on exploration efforts that are vital to identify oil reserves for the future. World oil supply is facing a real squeeze as a result.

Courier Mail - Recovery over a barrel

Then there is the looming problem of Peak Oil - the stage when demand outstrips the world's capacity to produce it.

In September, a Macquarie Bank report found we had already hit that wall. Report author Iain Reid says production capacity will peak at 89.6 million barrels a day this year. By 2012, demand will exceed this.

"Capacity has pretty much peaked in the sense that declines equal new resources," he told news agency Reuters.

"Adding sufficient productive capacity on time is nearly impossible."

The Australian - China, US put climate targets on table

CHINA announced its first targets for limiting carbon emissions last night, joining the US in revealing the stance it will take at next month's high-stakes climate summit in Copenhagen.
China will cut the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product in 2020 by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels, said a statement from the State Council, or cabinet.

News.com.au - Abbott to challenge Turnbull

- Frontbenchers resign over climate deal
- Turnbull says he's standing firm
- Even supporters looking at other options

[.....]

TONY Abbott will challenge Malcolm Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party on Monday if Mr Turnbull does not quit sooner.

Mr Abbott was one of seven MPs who quit Mr Turnbull's frontbench late yesterday in protest at the deal the Opposition has reached on the Government's climate plan.

The Australian - Fears prompt an RBA rates rethink

THE seemingly inevitable RBA rate hike next week comes in the face of continued concerns over the US economy, worries about China and anecdotal evidence that growth in discretionary spending in Australia is weak.

SMH - At a glance: guide to climate change and ETS

But what is the CPRS about? What is the science that underpins the necessity for such an action? Why does Australia need a carbon trading deal in place before going to the global climate summit in Denmark? Should we care about what happens in some wintry Scandinavian capital far away from sunny Sydney?

NZ Herald - Conservation land could be mined - Govt

Some conservation land in the Coromandel could be used for mining, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

In August, Mr Brownlee said the Government would undertake a stocktake of mineral resources in conservation land, protected under schedule four of the Crown Minerals Act.

The estimated value of untapped minerals has been put at about $140 billion and around 70 per cent of that involved conservation land.

The Australian - Soul Pattinson pushes asset for sale

EVER since the land-rush for Queensland coal-seam assets erupted in the middle of last year, the folk at Arrow Energy have wondered when its turn would come.

But its partner, Shell, has acquired a stake in the coal tenements rather than Arrow.