Archived News for Green Sector Professionals

 The New South Wales Government is sponsoring a trial soil carbon trading scheme in the Lachlan Valley.

The South Australian Legislative Council has passed changes to the State Government’s solar power tariff scheme, reducing the feed-in tariff from 54 cents per kilowatt hour to 44 cents.

The Melbourne Business School (MBS) will drive change and improvements to management practices in small to medium businesses under the Federal government’s Leadership 21 program.

The Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has announced a funding injection of $4.5 million to ‘support practical approaches’ in managing climate change impacts on crucial coastal infrastructure and critical assets.

The Western Australian Government has released the state’s Kimberly Science and Conservation Strategy, with funding of $63 million over five years.

Geoscience Australia has released its Toward Future Energy Discovery, detailing the outcomes and achievements of the Australian Government’s five-year, $134 million Energy Secruity Initiatve.

The CSIRO has launched its emissions tracking website which allows public users to see how greenhouse gas emissions have steadily increased over the last 35 years.

French car manufacturer Renault and electric network supplier Better Place have confirmed their partnership to bring over the all-electric version of its Fluence sedan, the Fluence ‘Z.E’ (zero emission).

The Federal Government and Opposition are embroiled in a bitter dispute over the proposed carbon tax, with the Opposition proposing a non-binding $80 million plebiscite over the issue.

The Federal Government will provide more than $750 million to help build two of the largest solar power stations in the world.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson and Member for Newcastle, Sharon Grierson officially opened the CSIRO Solar Tower which will focus on solar tower research, development and commercialisation in the Hunter Region.

The Tasmanian Government  has announced that it is slashing funding for the three Tasmanian Natural Resource Management (NRM) bodies.

Packaging and recycling company, Visy, is planning investment of up to $500 million in clean energy plants around Australia.

The Federal Government has welcomed the passage of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Bill 2011 through the House of Representatives today, saying  farmers, Indigenous Australia and the environment stand to gain the most out of the bill's passage.

The Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, released updated Climate Change Potential Impacts and Costs fact sheets summarising research into the possible impacts of climate change in each State and Territory.

Waste management services in Australia recovered or reprocessed a total of 13.2 million tonnes of material from waste in 2009-10, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Nationally, this represents a rate of waste diversion from landfill of 42.6%. South Australia had the highest waste diversion rate of 66.3%.

State Environment and Resource Management Minister Kate Jones has said the State Budget would help the department lead environmental reconstruction work across Queensland with an increase of close to 10 per cent on last year’s allocation.

Ms Jones said the $1.1 billion DERM budget reflected its critical role in managing Queensland’s water, land, biodiversity and protected areas.

“Queensland’s environment took a big hit in this year’s natural disasters,” she said.

“We’ve already seen a lot of great emergency work from our officers on the ground looking after cassowaries in the north, reopening nearly 100 damaged national parks and monitoring the health of Moreton Bay and our river and creek systems.

“This budget commits $133 million over three years to allow us to enter the next phase of environmental recovery which is focussed on sustainability, long-term resilience and rebuilding stronger assets.

The includes $20 million over three years for the restoration of Queensland’s protected areas, including repairs to damaged essential assets in national parks, state forest and other protected areas.

“A further $10.5 million has also been allocated over four years for rangers to assist in managing our growing national park estate.

“We’re currently in the process of employing an extra 50 rangers which will take our total ranks to more than 800 for the first time.

“$3.9 million will also be delivered for new community based projects to support the Queensland Government’s soon-to-be-released Biodiversity Strategy.

“This is vital work supporting other activities being coordinated by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.”

Ms Jones said other budget highlights included:

• Additional funding of $34.5 million as part of an additional $60 million investment to extend the ClimateSmart Home Service to 31 December 2012;
• Additional funding of $12.2 million over five years for programs aimed at improving water security for areas outside South East Queensland; and
• Additional funding of $2 million to reduce rural and urban pollution through the Healthy Waterways partnership.

Ms Jones said DERM’s role as Queensland’s environmental watchdog will continue with more than $27 million for the department’s strong compliance and regulatory regime, to crackdown on any breaches of Queensland’s tough environmental laws.

“Among a range of activities, this funding will allow our officers to undertake nearly 700 targeted inspections and audits of businesses and worksites across Queensland,” Ms Jones said.

“This budget will also continue to bolster the operations of the government’s LNG Enforcement Unit, to undertake the proactive monitoring of 300 bores in 2011 and another 300 in 2012, a total of 187 proactive inspections and audits across an extensive range of CSG operations, and the establishment of the CSG Compliance Portal, which will fulfil the government’s commitment to transparency.

“In addition to these proactive activities, the LNG Enforcement Unit will also continue to ensure that any complaints received about the CSG industry are promptly investigated and appropriate enforcement action is taken.”

The South Australian budget, released last Thursday, has allocated more than $800 million in 2011-12 to existing and new water supply initiatives.

The Western Australian Government has committed almost $7million over a five year period to help local governments increase rates of recycling and reduce waste going to landfill.

$133 million three years has been announced by the Queensland Government in its 2010/2011 budget for environmental recovery from recent natural disasters.