Zero Waste Australia

The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts Gave the opening address for the Zero Waste Summit held in Sydney on the 30th November and 1st December it provided a timely focus on the future prospects for the waste industry in a Climate Change world.

Despite agriculture not being included in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the low targets that have been set, the Federal Government must still take steps to ensure our food production is not compromised, according to the National Farmers' Federation.

The Federal Government today set a target of a 5-15pc cut in emissions by 2020, with the levels to depend on global agreements.

But NFF president David Crombie says the CPRS will still cause significant pain to businesses.

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Chevron Corp. and other liquefied natural gas producers in Australia won concessions that may reduce the cost to their businesses of Australia's planned carbon trading system.

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Australia should use more of its locally produced natural gas in power generation to help reduce carbon emissions harmful to the environment, said Colin Barnett, premier of Western Australia.

Building a pipeline across Australia to take gas from fields in the northwest to the most-populous southeastern states would help cut emissions blamed for global warming, Barnett said today at a conference in Perth. Such a move would be ``easier'' than introducing a carbon tax, or trading system, which are also part of any comprehensive plan to tackle emissions, he said.

The Australian kangaroo industry says it makes good environmental sense
to farm more kangaroos at the expense of traditional livestock
industries.

The Australian government's climate change advisor,
Professor Ross Garnaut, has suggested that removing sheep and cattle
from the Australian rangelands, and replacing them with 175 million
farmed kangaroos, would help tackle climate change.

John Kelly,
from the Kangaroo Industry Association, says it's a vote of confidence
in the sector but more work's needed to encourage Australians to eat
kangaroo.

A biotechnology company using animal tissue to repair human heart valves, hernias and tendons claims Australia is missing out on a lucrative market for tissue engineered from kangaroos because the native animals cannot be farmed here.

IN A greenhouse gas-conscious world, finding ways to cut methane emissions from dairy cattle is taxing the minds of researchers.

In Victoria, efforts are focused on dietary supplements. Experiments are showing that by feeding dairy cows with plants that contain more oil, the cattle produce fewer methane emissions.

Some European and US research is concentrating on what goes into the cow's mouth - it's all about improving nutrition, creating a higher-quality feed that not only increases milk production, but cuts the cow's carbon impact.

Companies and governments are turning to emissions trading as a weapon to fight climate change, in a carbon market worth US$64 billion last year.

Cap-and-trade schemes force participants -- often energy-intensive industries -- to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels. New Zealand's parliament on Wednesday passed the Labour government's climate change bill, which will introduce emissions trading from 2009.

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