While Australia debates how to reach our Paris Agrement targets, wider issues such as whether these targets are appropriate and how they might need to be adjusted in the future are receiving scant attention.

This paper explores the fossil fuel divestment movement and, on the other side of the coin, the fossil free investment movement. In addition to the benefit of aligning investments with an organisation’s purpose, it finds the returns available on local and international fossil free investment...

Australia is off-track and looks set to miss its Paris emission reduction target. National emissions are rising and the government seems unwilling or unable to agree on credible policies to reduce them.

Australia has a chequered history in global climate negotiations. This paper argues that hosting COP29 would provide numerous economic, regional and diplomatic benefits to Australia. It may also demonstrate that the Australian government has turned a leaf on its diplomatic engagement.

This briefing argues that the Australian government will face growing pressure at the COP26 conference to not just increase its 2030 target, but act in good faith on other key negotiating priorities like markets, finance and adaptation.

The Avoided Deforestation Method is responsible for more than 20 per cent of total Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) that have been issued under the Australian government’s Emissions Reduction Fund. This paper demonstrates that the avoided deforestation method fails to meet at least three of...

This paper provides a credible basis from which to judge Australia’s progress on emissions reduction, and compares Australia’s emissions trend against that of similarly developed countries. The results demonstrate that, while most other developed economies have reduced their emissions since 2005, Australia’s emissions have risen.

The development of hydrogen energy has been promoted as a lower-emissions alternative to Australian coal and gas exports. However, there is a significant risk that the promise of hydrogen as a low-carbon alternative, for domestic use and export, could backfire. The development of Australia’s hydrogen...

This paper suggests that the Coalition government’s reliance on dated carbon credits to extinguish over half of its Paris Agreement target might not be authorised, forcing it to purchase last-minute international permits or drastically reduce emissions to cover huge gap.

This paper analyses 22 recent modelling reports of the economic impacts of higher ambition targets. Extensive literature shows Australia can achieve higher ambition targets with very small economic impacts. Claims that higher ambition would be ‘economy wrecking’ or ‘apocalyptic’ are not credible.