Think-Tanks'Press

In the last few years, debate has raged over Australia’s energy, environment and climate change policies.

While the primary technologies of renewable energy generation and storage are well understood, the challenge of how to export this energy remains.

As a wealthy and capable middle power, Australia has a mix of interests and responsibility in regional and international leadership.

Tackling climate change is not only a matter of costs: productive energy change will grow and strengthen Australia’s economy, foreign relations, and security.  Unifying domestic and foreign policy on the energy front would be a bold step forward to a strong, vibrant Australia in the 21st century.

To prevent a water crisis in New Delhi, city dwellers are being asked to take up the socially responsible act of catching rain where it falls, known as rainwater harvesting.

A number of overlapping factors have led to the extreme groundwater extraction that is in evidence in New Delhi. Arid for much of the year, the water that is in circulation in New Delhi’s underground pipes is mostly sourced from inter-basin water transfers. The result is that the city’s water system is dependent on five rivers, and on the five states through which these rivers flow: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Haryana.

Since the long-term availability of water from these rivers is in question because of rising population, agricultural demands, and the water-stressing effects of increasing temperatures, there are frequent political fights between the national capital and upstream states for the continued supply of water.

Using a discrete choice experiment examining the potential role of domestic appliance curtailment contracts as a means of shifting load, this paper investigates potential drivers of preference heterogeneity with respect to electricity services.

Among the research findings are that almost 4-in-5 customers engage with the proposition of appliance curtailment contracts within the context of the survey environment.

From a policy perspective the results highlight the potential of appliance curtailment contracts as a tool to manage peak loads, as well as, the nature of preferences with respect to curtailment contract attributes.

For too long, political leaders could tick the box on climate change by expressing their deep, abiding concern, introducing largely cosmetic policy changes, then carrying on with business as usual.

In Canada, massive fossil fuel subsidies have continued with a nod and a wink, with self-styled climate leaders like British Columbia Premier John Horgan still finding billions in tax breaks for liquefied natural gas developments that will utterly defeat an otherwise solid effort at an ambitious provincial carbon target.

Climate intensity scarcely existed when Canadians last went to the polls, but it’s surging today.

With much of eastern Canada still recovering from epic floods, and the West heading into wildfire season, the demand for real action and consistent policies could become an irresistible force on the campaign trail.

The ‘circular economy’ (CE) concept is fast becoming a new model for resilient growth. A circular economy is one in which products and materials are recycled, repaired and reused rather than thrown away, and in which waste from one industrial process becomes a valued input into another.

The CE offers a promising alternative strategy for industrial development and job creation to the traditional manufacturing-led growth pathway. The CE continues to be understood primarily as a waste management and recycling strategy, but the economic opportunities are far broader and more diverse.

Developed-country governments have an important role to play in facilitating a meaningful dialogue on how the international dynamics of CE policies may best be managed.