Zero Waste Australia

Professor Ross Garnaut, author of the Australian government's climate change review, has warned that the world will face severe consequences, if policy makers ignore the economic impact of global warming.

In an article published in the Australian National University's biannual, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, Professor Ross Garnaut likened the shocking economic impacts of unexpected climate change events could rival the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Climate Change Minister faces fierce lobbying from fossil fuel companies as she draws up plans to reduce carbon emissions, write Marian Wilkinson and Ben Cubby.

Barossa winery waste water is being used to water vineyards at Nuriootpa.

Senator Penny Wong, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, was in the Barossa last week to open a water recycling plant.

"Waste water from wineries is now being recycled at the North Para Environmental Control Waste Water Treatment Plant and piped to seven Barossa vineyards for reuse in irrigation," Senator Wong said.

GLOBAL warming could have the same economic effect as the Great Depression if handled poorly, the Government's top climate change adviser says.

Professor Ross Garnaut has written an article saying that poor design or slowness in implementing climate change-easing policies could spell the end of what he calls the Platinum Age.

AGROFORESTRY and reforestation are the best option for providing carbon offsets in the initial phase of an emissions trading system, according to Australian researchers.

Soil carbon sequestration also holds potential, but more research is needed to gauge the impact of management practices on long-term changes in soil carbon, they say.

The research was presented to an agriculture, greenhouse gases and emissions trading conference on the Gold Coast. The Australian Farm Institute organised the conference.

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LABOR'S chief adviser on climate change policy believes the market will resolve most problems arising from the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, while power companies claim market forces are likely to cause the greatest disruption.

Presenting his blueprint for an emission trading scheme from 2010 to 800 business representatives yesterday, Ross Garnaut said he favoured a simple and transparent system with minimal intervention from government.

It's not easy being a power plant manager: Noboby wants to talk about the future of nuclear power at the moment. The memories of the public relations disasters that were the accidents at the Brunsbüttel and Krümmel nuclear power stations—which saw both plants temporarily shut down last June—are still too raw.

AUSTRALIA'S scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions will pour up to $20 billion a year — roughly the annual defence budget — into Federal Government coffers, new modelling shows.

Commissioned by the Climate Institute, a lobby group, it found Canberra will reap at least $400 million in 2011 and between $7.2 billion and $20.6 billion by 2020 if all businesses that emit greenhouse gases are forced to pay.

Judged by its sewers, the world is not doing well, with only three in 10 people now having a connection to a public sewerage system.

With the world's population expanding, a goal of improving sanitation by 2015 is slipping out of reach, despite progress in nations such as China and a few big contracts for firms to build waste treatment plants in cities from La Paz to Rabat.

A 2007 scorecard showed the sanitation goal was likely to be missed by 600 million people worldwide on current trends.

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