Media coverage

South Korea should phase out coal power by 2029 and stop funding coal projects in other Asian nations to limit greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Paris climate agreement, a research group said on Thursday.

Amid the worldwide sympathy for Australia during the horrendous bushfire season there has been surprise at the government’s response. The bushfires chapter adds to growing international disillusionment with Australia’s role in climate policy negotiations. Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare and Dean Bialek from Mission 2020 discuss Australia's record on climate action on ABC Radio National

Australia's catastrophic brush fire season comes as the country continues to insist on a climate loophole that critics say would undermine the Paris Agreement's objective of keeping global warming to relatively safe levels. Coverage of our report on Australia's intent to use 40 year old Kyoto Protocol credits to meet its already insufficient 2030 emission reduction targets.

Australia’s plan to use an accounting loophole to meet its commitment under the Paris climate agreement has no legal basis and suggests it has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cuts once a global deal was reached, a new report says. An analysis by Climate Analytics, a Berlin-based science and policy institute, found there were no grounds for Australia to claim credit towards its Paris emissions target for having beaten targets under its predecessor, the Kyoto protocol.

Bill Hare, director of Climate Analytics and a coordinator of the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), speaks to the Democracy Now! television programme live from inside the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain. He discusses the Australian wildfires, government inaction on climate change, disappointment at COP25, and the findings from the latest CAT annual update on global climate action, which shows the world is on track to warm by 2.8°C by the end of the century.

Australia's Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister, Angus Taylor, arrives in Madrid later today (9 December) for the annual United Nations climate talks. The Government confirmed over the weekend that it would meet its 2030 Paris climate targets – but only by using a controversial accounting loophole and carry-over credits from the old Kyoto Protocol, which expires next year. Bill Hare discusses this accounting trick and the state of negotiations at the UN climate summit with ABC News.

Australia needs to stop burning coal by 2030 if it wants to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, a new report warns. Non-profit climate science and policy institute Climate Analytics says the government needs a national plan to phase out remaining coal-fired plants - and must take them offline faster than already planned.

Seven environmental groups with a membership of more than one million Australians are calling for a radical overhaul of the country’s electricity network saying coal-fired power needs to be replaced within 11 years.It comes as Climate Analytics, a non-profit climate science and policy institute, releases a report today that suggests Australia needs to phase out coal-fired power by 2030 in order to “do its bit”.

“We can clearly see that there’s a massive sea level rise contribution coming from emissions over such a short time frame, just over the Paris period,” says Alexander Nauels, the lead author of the report and a sea level rise expert at Climate Analytics. “But this is risk we can reduce, by all means, if we can, and it seems like we can.”

Just as an oil tanker steaming ahead at full speed cannot stop immediately, so the dramatic rise in sea levels will continue even if the world manages to slash greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030, experts warned in a study published Monday. Emissions between 2015, when the Paris climate change accord was thrashed out, and 2030 would be enough to raise levels by eight centimeters (3.1 inches) by 2100, according to research by experts based in Germany.