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"The latest forecasts from a foremost climate research institute that global warming has slowed present a new challenge to policymakers on how to inject urgency into the campaign to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Climate change is a growing problem. Each year in the past decade has been hotter than the 1981-2010 average, and extreme heat waves are becoming more frequent. But the research indicates the rate of warming has slowed in the past decade and a half due to temporary natural factors."

"Losing 20 years on climate change action"

"Prepare for LED domination"

Also the chart below taken from a Climate Spectator article by Dr Jenny Riesz is one of the most illuminating. It shows the cross-over point between the cost of wind and a gas combined-cycle power plant depending on gas and carbon prices. While it is slightly out of date with the cross-over between wind and gas now about $1 per GJ lower than indicated, it still provides a good illustration of how gas and the carbon price influence the economics between wind versus gas.

"The peak oil myth"

"China's history of battling energy waste"

"Rooftop solar winners and losers, Published 9:35 AM, 6 May 2011 * Tags Australia, photovoltaics, rooftop solar, solar credits, solar PV, SRECs, Smart Energy - Giles Parkinson"

"China's great big solar boost"

"Australian solar thinks big * Published 9:06 AM, 9 Sep 2011 * Updated 9:44 AM, 9 Sep 2011

"Tristan Edis - Why focus group testing may be telling politicians something different to the statistical evidence. While the analysis of the statistical evidence presented in part one of this series indicates that there's not that much to be afraid of with pricing carbon, politicians don't seem to think so. Partly this has been the result of some rather bad timing and mismanagement around energy policy"

"Tristan Edis - With both the Coalition and Labor repeatedly making unconditional commitments to reduce Australia's emissions by at least 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, the question is not whether or not we should reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but rather how we reduce them."

"What's behind America's extreme weather run?"

"Last night's ABC Q&A program didn't spend much time discussing the issue of climate change, but it nonetheless represented an excellent microcosm of the broader political debate on the issue. On one side you had Bill McKibben, who has dedicated his life to the cause of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He is trying to put the fear of God into investors that money in fossil fuels is like investing in the horse and buggy industry at the dawn of the motor vehicle. In the other corner was Cory Bernardi, one of the ring leaders behind the toppling of Malcolm Turnbull because of his support for an emissions trading scheme, who believes global warming is a fraud."

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"Australia is belatedly waking up to the implications of the carbon budget, although the concept has been around for years. It simply says that if the increase in global temperature resulting from human carbon emissions is to be contained to a level which will prevent dangerous climate change, the world, henceforth, can only afford to emit a limited amount of greenhouse gases. According to the latest science, that limit will be exceeded if we burn more than 20 per cent of the world's proven coal, oil and gas reserves. This is confirmed in recent reports from the International Energy Agency and Australia's Climate Commission."

"Giles Parkinson First, the good news. Australia will, as expected, comfortably meet its Kyoto emission reduction target, and won't get into trouble with the international community when its report card is due at the end of 2012. Even though emissions from the electricity sector will have grown by 51 per cent from 1990 through to 2012, the last-minute deal negotiated at Kyoto by Senator Robert Hill - which allowed Australia to claim reduction of land clearing after levelling half of Queensland just before the baseline year - means it will deliver on its generous national quota of 108 per cent of its 1990 emissions. It will likely come in at just over 106 per cent, and will no doubt give itself a gold star for doing so. Now, the bad news. The task of meeting Australia's pledge to the Copenhagen Accord has just gotten a lot harder. The government's latest emissions trajectory report reveals emissions growth shows little sign of abating in the short term, and may accelerate because of the impact of the massive LNG projects off the north-west of the country and increased coal exports."

"How solar and EVs will save us"

"Origin has enough certificates to "comfortably meet" its obligations until 2015/15, even after the purchases of the two NSW retailers."

"Australia's solar landmark Australian solar is celebrating a major milestone, with one million households now equipped with solar PV systems. By the end of 2008 we had less than 20,000 systems installed, illustrating the rapid proliferation of solar across the country. Since then the number of systems installed by year has surged ahead, with 63,378 installations in 2009, 196,308 in 2010, 335,067 in 2011 and 322,447 last year."