Fossil fuel subsidies are one of the big winners from tonight’s budget. Fuel tax credits are not only predicted to continue to rise but the govt now thinks they will be even higher than last year's budget.
Why? “this largely reflects an expected increase in the use of [fossil] fuels” – #Budget25
We need to tax gas companies properly so the Australian people get a fair share of our resources.
Beer, spirits, and tobacco tax all raise more revenue than the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax.
#auspol #Budget25
A 2025 publication on the principles, case studies and lessons learned on the integration of gender equity, disability and social inclusion in nature-based solutions in the Pacific Island region. library.sprep.org/content/inte...
"Trump has now made it...official US policy to support ethnic cleansing.
"To support what international law regards as a crime against humanity."
@mattduss.bsky.social on Trump's approach to Gaza & his "shock & awe" foreign policy. @cipolicy.bsky.social
🎧 australiainstitute.org.au/post/a-crime...
New Substack 🚨:
Kicking off the holiday season with this gem from the archives. Huge thanks to @themrise.bsky.social for her generosity and thoughtful conversation. Glad this book is in the world.
inoceania.substack.com/p/white-savi...
1/8. 📢 This important paper from @douwe.bsky.social , @guyjackson.bsky.social, Olivia Serdeczny, and Kees van der Geest questions the dichotomy between economic💰 and non-economic ❤️🩹 #LossAndDamage and the implications for policy and research.
🔗Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
"The last thing Australia's energy market needs is nuclear power. The data is clear – more renewables will lead to cheaper electricity." - Matt Saunders, Senior Economist
Read Matt's analysis:
australiainstitute.org.au/post/we-dont... #auspol
PALM workers could be paying an estimated $184m in tax each year to the Australian government #auspol
That's one-fifth of the $920m Australia paid in development assistance to participating Pacific nations this year 🤯
australiainstitute.org.au/report/palm-...
"The bottom line is that every dollar extra Western Australians pay, because we allow the export of domestic gas reserves, is a dollar of windfall profit.
It’s a direct transfer of wealth from Australian households, business & industry to gas producers." - @markogge.bsky.social #auspol
If you’re thinking that climate change is a future ‘threat’ - you haven’t been paying attention.
(Photo not taken with a Time Machine).
30/ 🇫🇯 Fiji demands that Court stresses need for:
🚫 cessation of harmful actions (dismantling systemic structures)
💰 enforceable reparations (for both eco & non eco losses & proportionate to the harm caused)
🗣️ And asks: Where else can Fiji turn to seek justice, if not this court?
29/ 🇫🇯Fiji's Graham Leung then speaks to linkages between human rights obligations & climate harms, using the opportunity to clarify the actual content of 🇪🇺 ⚖️ European Court of #HumanRights decision in Duarte Agostinho (which has been misquoted several times by European States)
28/ 🇫🇯 Fiji's Graham Leung stresses direct relevance & applicability in climate context of 2 core principles of international law:
⛑️ duty to prevent trans boundary harm
🆓 right to self determination
noting the explicit references to these principles across legal frameworks
27/ 🇫🇯Fiji's Graham Leung cites the recent Advisory Opinion issued by the ⚖️ 🌊 International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea
concerning the fact that the #ParisAgreement does not displace existing international legal obligations.
🔖 🔗 www.itlos.org/en/main/case...
26/ 🇫🇯Fiji's AG Graham Leung concludes the day laying out key legal principles (such as sovereign equality, good faith, the duty to cooperate and the right to self determination) informing the scope of States' existing legal obligations to prevent environmental harm.
25/ 🇫🇯Fiji's Luke Daunivalu stresses that, while multilateral negotiations settle on the lowest common denominator, the ⚖️ 🇺🇳 Court is uniquely positioned to address the gaps in the multilateral system regarding climate, thereby providing accountability & hope to those most impacted.
24/🇫🇯 Fiji's Luke Daunivalu describes constant state of recovery that Small Islands find themselves in as a result of cascading climate shocks undermining development & forcing displacement - stressing failure by developed countries to deliver on their climate finance commitments.
23/ 🤯 perhaps most striking: the US legal arguments positing the centrality of the UNFCCC & the #ParisAgreement & its nature as a self-contained regime basically prepare ground for next US administration to reject any accountability once/if it has withdrawn from these frameworks
18/🇺🇸USA tackles one principle after another, working to either dismiss their legal nature or undermine their scope: CBDR, historic responsibility, right to a healthy environment, extraterritorial obligation, obligation of result...
The US acts as a bull in a China shop.
The last "pockets" of the formerly Great Barrier Reef will succumb to global warming in a few more decades - seriously, that's good news???
1/7. 🗣️KEY MESSAGES: The Fourth Meeting (B4) of the Board of the Fund for Responding to #LossAndDamage (FRLD) starts tomorrow in Manila in the Philippines 🇵🇭. 📜These key messages speak to each of the 14 agenda items.
🔗Read them here: www.lossanddamagecollaboration.org/link-page/ke...
I have bad news: The offshore southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef that escaped severe coral bleaching in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 & 2022 finally ran out of luck in 2024.
"Politicians are really the only people out there who can get away with lying in their advertising. I think that's a real miss from this Government."
@helenhainesindi.bsky.social on the need for truth in political advertising laws.
#auspol #insiders @ebonybennett.bsky.social
Charts showing Australian annual CO2 emissions from 2021 out to 2030. The have been flat since 2021 and will stay so till 2028 when apparently they will fall at a perfect rate to achieve a 43% cut of 2005 levels in 2030
The latest greenhouse gas emissions figures show Australia emits more gas now than when the government was elected.
But the govt wants us to believe we are "on target" to achieve 43% cuts below 2005 levels by 2030.
Enough with the spin: we need to stop approving new coal & gas mines *now*.
Devastating coral bleaching in the eastern Caribbean due to climate change - link below.
Chart showing the path of annual emissions from 1990 to 2024. Actual emissions are 1.4% lower than in 2005, while emissions including land use are 28.2% lower
The government boasts that emissions are now 28.2% below 2005 levels.
Sounds great, except that is only when you include the very dodgy "emissions" from land clearing and land use (there was massive land clearing in 2005).
When you look at "actual emissions" the fall is a mere 1.8%.
So far, the total number of reefs and corals cooled by “cloud brightening” on the Great Barrier Reef is zero, despite spending millions of taxpayer dollars.
Even if it worked, you’d need to borrow the Chinese navy every summer to cover 344,000 sq km.
gbrrestoration.org/program/cool...
"Australians think gas & oil companies pay huge amounts of tax and employ huge numbers of people.
This could not be further from the truth." - Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director.
#auspol #climate @ebonybennett.bsky.social
⏳ 4⃣ Days to Go before opening of historic #ClimateJustice oral hearings at 🇺🇳 ⚖️ International Court of Justice
📰 here is great curtain raiser by @cielorg.bsky.social's Nikki Reisch re: importance of #ClimateJusticeAtTheICJ & role of Courts
#AOletsGo
🔗 news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
