Known as the "lucky country" partly due to its wealth of coal and gas, Australia sits on the frontier of a climate crisis. This CNN piece features our analysis of political party climate targets as it outlines the urgency of Saturday's election for climate action.
Our areas of expertise include:
- Emission reduction targets
- Carbon and emission budgets
- Mitigation costs
- Role of air pollutants
- Co-benefits
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We explore the greenhouse-gas emission reductions necessary to achieve long-term global climate goals, such as holding warming below 1.5 and 2°C warming relative to pre-industrial levels. Analysing emissions scenarios from energy-economic models and other sources with coupled carbon-cycle/climate models leads to globally “allowed” ranges of emissions for different greenhouse gases, air pollutants and sectors, as well as associated time- and pathway-dependent mitigation costs and technology portfolios.
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This piece from ABC uses our analysis to summarise the adequacy of climate goals of the Coalition, Labor, and Green parties.
Woodside's $12 billion liquified natural gas development could lead to 1.37 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere in its lifetime. Among other consequences, the acidic pollution from the facility will damage irreplaceable rock art.
Our South Asia and Middle East regional lead, Fahad Saeed, discusses the danger of wet-bulb temperature threshold, and how this heatwave in India and Pakistan compared to the 2015 heatwave.
From our analysis of major political parties' climate goals, the Coalition and Labor parties' policies would lead to warming that would destroy the Great Barrier Reef and all other tropical reefs.
Our CEO Bill Hare features in The Guardian on the upcoming Australian elections and on how, despite being a top issue for Australians, climate action has been completely sidelined in favour of the total sham to expand gas and coal.
Farmlands in Nepal have shrunk 2.1 per cent in the period from 2000 through 2019, due largely to migration and shortage of labour. About 10 per cent of this agricultural land has been converted into forest cover, leading to a 1.9 per cent increase in the same time period.
Publications
Ahead of the upcoming Australian elections, Climate Analytics has analysed the global warming implications of the 2030 climate targets of the political parties and independents: the LNP, the Labor Party (ALP), the Teal Independents (the Zali Stegall Bill), and the Greens.
We combine the benefit of CO2 sequestration of Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) with the additional incentive or penalty of local BGP induced cooling or warming by translating the local BGP induced temperature change to a CO2 equivalent. We then include this new aspect in the land-use model MAgPIE via modifying the application of the price on greenhouse gases (GHG).
The contributions of single greenhouse gas emitters to country-level climate change are
generally not disentangled, despite their relevance for climate policy and litigation. Here, we quantify the contributions of the five largest emitters (China, US, EU-27, India, and Russia) to projected 2030 country-level warming and extreme hot years with respect to pre-industrial climate using an innovative suite of Earth System Model emulators.
This is the first study that puts together the total greenhouse gas implications of the entire Scarborough-Pluto project, including its associated and interlinked projects. The results show the emissions are significantly larger than either the company or the state government estimates indicate.
Recent analysis about announcements made at COP26 showed the world could be on track for a 50% chance to limit end-of-century warming to 1.8°C. So why do we need to be cautious?
53 countries have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, committing to cut methane emissions by 30% in 2030 from 2020 levels. In 2019, these countries made up 30% of global methane emissions and around 34% of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This analysis quantifies the potential impacts of the pledge if all countries were to adopt it.
This report identifies 40 indicators across key sectors that must transform to address the climate crisis, and assesses how current trends will impact how much work remains to be done by 2030 and 2050 to deliver a zero-carbon world in time. It also outlines the required shifts in supportive policies, innovations, strong institutions, leadership and social norms to unlock change.
Projects
The Paris Agreement commits all countries to take ambitious steps to guarantee a low carbon future. This requires individual national governments to submit more ambitious emission reduction targets. In support of this urgent need to translate global trajectories to be in line with the Paris Agreement, this project, founded by the IKEA Foundation, shows how a group of countries, across all regions and development spectrum can update their NDCs to be in line with the Paris climate goals.
The "Climate Action Tracker" is an independent science-based assessment, which tracks the emission commitments and actions of countries.
The project aims to investigate how changes in land cover and land management can help to meet the mitigation and adaptation objectives of the Paris Agreement, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. The project partners findings will be disseminated through a number of tools, events and products and by closely involving stakeholders and policy-makers, with the aim to support sustainable land use decision-making.
The project looks into the consequences of the Paris Agreement for planned and existing coal capacity, comparing existing and planned coal capacity for a set of key countries/regions.
COP21 Results and Implications for Pathways and Policies for Low Emissions European Societies
The Paris Agreement represents an important new strategic context for EU climate policy. Analysing the implications of this new context requires an interdisciplinary approach, combining analysis of the evolution of the international climate regime as well as of NDCs and their socio-economic implications.
Science and policy to assist and support SIDSs and LDCs to negotiate a strong international climate regime, enabling low carbon development and supporting adaptation needs.