Environment minister Tony Burke says the Australian Institute of Marine Science report on the Barrier Reef, which predicts that as little as 6 per cent of the coral could remain by 2020, would send shockwaves through the community and sound a loud and clear warning bell about the future of the reef. The full interview.

Lateline interview

EMMA ALBERICI: Are Australians now, do you think, sufficiently aware of what's coming in terms of this reversal of economic fortunes? ROSS GARNAUT: I don't think the community as a whole is. Certainly the rhetoric from the Government about restraint in government expenditure is consistent with what's required, and in fact in the last couple.

Lester Brown's book, Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity examines the underlying causes of what is likely the first link in our modern civilization to show that we have pushed beyond the boundaries of the natural systems that support us. As a result, food supplies are tightening and this is moving.

More than half the countries participating in this week’s Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) in New York have, or are introducing, emissions trading to reduce carbon pollution, and all major economies are taking action to reduce pollution. Australia joins 16 other participants at the MEF, including Canada, China, the European Union, France,.

Extract: Conserving Australia's environment as it is today will become increasingly impossible as the world warms, so governments should instead focus on managing environments as they change, the CSIRO says. A new report, says the impact of climate change on plants, animals and ecosystems will be "significant" by 2030 and "extreme" by 2070. "This is.

Alan Pears writes in Reneweconomy.com.au that all existing communication, energy, water, and goods and services retailers are desperately trying to develop new business models and undermine, out-compete or absorb competition from agile, mass-produced, consumer-focused alternatives... Solutions to rising costs and social inequities created include time-of-use tariffs, limits on PV capacity, energy efficiency, storage, social welfare.

Held in June 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – known as Rio+20 – sought to put the world on a more sustainable course...The event served as a launching ground for hundreds of new activities, resources and commitments, including: The release of a special communiqué by 45 chief executive officers to governments on.

Following increasing incidents of extreme weather events which disrupted business operations and supply chains around the world, climate change has climbed the boardroom agenda, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 5001 Climate Change report released today. With the hottest US summer on record, fires in Russia and flooding in the UK, Japan and.