Macquarie enters agreement to build Australia’s biggest wind farm

January 7, 2008 (SMH.com) – In a coup for the renewable energy industry, Macquarie Bank has entered a joint venture to build Australia’s biggest wind farm, near Broken Hill. The proposed farm at Silverton would generate enough energy to meet 4.5 per cent of the state’s needs, or power more than 400,000 households, said Epuron, the company behind the plan.

Epuron, a subsidiary of German-listed renewables giant Conergy, will announce plans today to finance and build the $2 billion plant in concert with Macquarie Capital Group.

If a development proposal is approved by the NSW Government in March, construction of up to 500 turbines would begin early next year, and the farm could start producing power by late 2009, said Epuron’s executive director, Andrew Durran.

“As far as I know, it’s the biggest investment that Macquarie Bank has made in a wind farm in Australia,” Mr Durran said.

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Kyoto deal to clear air for investors, say experts

December 5, 2007 (TheAge.au) – BUSINESS will reap benefits from the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, with easier access to global carbon projects and multimillion-dollar investments expected to flow into Australia.

Investors, as well as industry experts, have hailed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision to ratify the 10-year-old global climate change agreement, saying Australian businesses will be among the main winners.

Australia ‘back on the map’ with Kyoto decision

December 4, 2007 (ABC) – Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says Australia’s decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol puts the nation back on the map in the fight against climate change.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday signed the instrument of ratification of the Protocol in the first official act of his new Government.

Australia will now become a full member of the Kyoto Protocol early next year.

Australia a hot spot for solar energy

November 29, 2007 (News.com.au) – A MAP of the earth’s sunniest locations reveal that Australia is a sunburnt country, with plenty of solar energy to spare.  The map, produced by researchers, the Ecole des Mines de Paris, using satellite data collected over the past 22 years, shows on average how much solar radiation reaches the earth’s surface.

The sunniest locations on earth include the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Sahara Desert in Niger, Tibet, and almost all of Australia.

Australian company to help save Malaysia forest

November 29, 2007 (AAP) – An Australian forestry investment company is working with the Sabah Government in East Malaysia to create financial instruments [biodiversity credits] to allow palm oil producers to participate in forest conservation. The agreement between Sydney-based New Forests and the Borneo state will help protect about 34,000 hectares in the Malua Forest Reserve, which is home to orangutans, Sumatran rhinos and clouded leopards.

In return for an estimated $US10 million ($A11.4 million) investment to create a “conservation bank”, New Forests will sell so-called biodiversity credits in the protected site on the island of Borneo, with the Malaysian Government retaining ownership of the forest.

Carbon trading centres: ready to flood the Asia Pacific

Carbon exchanges across the Asia Pacific are getting ready to compete. Governments and business groups in the Asia Pacific are jockeying to establish the best- placed carbon trading hub in the region, in anticipation of substantial growth in both the voluntary and compliance carbon markets.

 

Australia’s challenge: to go from climate laggard to climate leader

LABOR’S exceptional victory is built on its core promises, and tackling climate change is one of them. Kevin Rudd has promised that one of his first acts in government will be to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This will come as a welcome relief to most Australians. We have been suffering from deferred ratification for a long time, and the move is 10 years overdue.

However, while in the conservative context of Australian climate politics ratification may seem like one giant leap for Australians, it is now only a modest step for mankind (and other species).

Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ready to sign Kyoto pact

November 26, 2007 (Guardian UK) – Australia’s prime minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, moved swiftly yesterday on an election promise to make climate change a priority, marking a significant shift in his country’s attitude towards fighting global warming.

The Labor leader, who ended 11 years of conservative rule in a decisive election win on Saturday, held meetings with government officials about signing the Kyoto pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the treaty that his predecessor, John Howard, refused to endorse.

Rudd also confirmed he would attend the forthcoming UN climate summit in Bali and said he had already discussed Kyoto ratification and other climate change issues with Gordon Brown and Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Business (in Australia) sees clean energy expansion under Rudd

November 26, 2007 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Energy and environment business heads are looking forward to the expansion of clean energy markets under the new federal Labor government. After Labor swept to victory in Saturday’s election, prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd began holding meetings with officials about the mechanics of signing the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

He has promised to sign Kyoto so Australia can be full negotiating partner at the next round of emissions talks at the Climate Change Conference in Bali in two weeks.

Rudd Wins by Landslide in Australia: Environment is Key Focus

November 24, 2007 (NY Times) – Australia’s prime minister, John Howard, one of President Bush’s staunchest allies in Asia, suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the electorate on Saturday, as his Liberal Party-led coalition lost its majority in Parliament.

He will be replaced by Kevin Rudd, the Labor Party leader and a former diplomat. “Today Australia looks to the future,” Mr. Rudd told a cheering crowd in his home state, Queensland. “Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward.”