Latest news with #DepartmentofClimateChange
Sky News AU
08-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Taxpayers hefty bill to send bureaucrats and minsters to climate summit revealed, as Chris Bowen defends use of funds
The federal government spent almost $2 million sending 75 bureaucrats and two ministers to the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan in 2024. A collection of answers to questions on notice asked by former shadow finance minister Jane Hume has uncovered that the Albanese government spent a whopping $1.5 million sending a delegation of bureaucrats to last year's COP29 climate summit. An average of $20,000 was spent to send each of the 75 civil servants to the conference, with a further $102,343.69 spent to send transport Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and his staff to Baku. More than $20,000 was also used to fly the Assistant Climate Change Minister Josh Wilson to the same conference. The total bill came in at an exorbitant $1,672,000. The mammoth contingent included 42 representatives from the Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water, 25 officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and two civil servants respectively from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Department of Finance. A representative from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Department of Health and Aged Care also jetted to the South Caucasus country. Documents from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority also showed that Mr Bowen's travel expenses for the COP29 summit stood at $33,049.03, with his staff raking up a $68,601.66 tab. Mr Bowen only attended the conference's second week. Shadow finance minister James Paterson blasted the government and relevant department heads for their excessive use of taxpayer funds and labelled the conference, which resulted in few binding climate initiatives a 'talkfest with nothing to show for it.' 'On Labor's watch, power prices and emissions are both up – and so is spending extravagant sums of taxpayers' money on climate junkets,' Mr Paterson told The Australian. 'The Albanese government must justify why they sent almost 100 people and spent millions of dollars on a delegation to a talkfest.' 'While Australians were struggling to pay their electricity bills, Chris Bowen, Josh Wilson, and at least seven government departments and agencies were travelling on the taxpayer dime with nothing to show for it.' However, Mr Bowen refused to accept accusations of waste and slammed the Coalition's attitude on climate change. 'The LNP doesn't believe in net zero anymore and now apparently they don't believe in sending ministers to COP either,' a spokesperson for Mr Bowen told The Australian. 'Given [former prime minister] Scott Morrison took 39 people to the Glasgow COP they are also nothing more than hypocrites.' It was separately discovered that the government spent substantially less in previous years on international climate conferences than that of 2024. This includes spending $1,075,000 for its pavilion at the COP26 at Glasgow in Scotland in 2021, $971,682 on the COP27 climate conference in harm el-Sheikh, Egypt in 2022 and $831,549 for COP28 in Dubai. Australia is currently competing with Turkey to secure hosting rights for the COP31 conference in 2026. The government has stated it is unable to provide the total expected cost related to holding the summit.
The Age
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Environment minister accused of breaking transparency promise on North West Shelf conditions
Australia's leading conservation advocacy group has accused Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt of ignoring his own transparency promise by refusing to reveal the conditions applied to Woodside under his provisional approval of the company's North West Shelf extension. Watt's decision to keep private the conditions on the 50-year extension of its North West Shelf assets on the Pilbara coast followed advice from Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water bureaucrats, internal department documents have revealed. This masthead understands the conditions will likely not be made public until after Watt's attendance at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris later this month, where he will argue for rock art on the Burrup Peninsula to be World Heritage-listed. However, the Australian Conservation Foundation used Freedom of Information laws to obtain an internal department note from May 19, which recommended Watt approve Woodside's proposal and agree not to publish the decision on the internet for public comment. The note was dated three days before an interview with Watt published in The Daily Telegraph saw the new environment minister talk up the public consultation he would undertake in his role. 'I think the more transparent we can be, the more open to ideas and suggestions we can be, it maximises the chances of building the community's confidence in the decisions that you make,' Watt said at the time. Watt gave conditional approval to the extension subject to conditions around management of the risk of emissions on the nearby Murujuga rock art gallery on May 28. The conditions were meant to be made public 10 days from that date, but Watt extended that timeline.
Sydney Morning Herald
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Environment minister accused of breaking transparency promise on North West Shelf conditions
Australia's leading conservation advocacy group has accused Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt of ignoring his own transparency promise by refusing to reveal the conditions applied to Woodside under his provisional approval of the company's North West Shelf extension. Watt's decision to keep private the conditions on the 50-year extension of its North West Shelf assets on the Pilbara coast followed advice from Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water bureaucrats, internal department documents have revealed. This masthead understands the conditions will likely not be made public until after Watt's attendance at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris later this month, where he will argue for rock art on the Burrup Peninsula to be World Heritage-listed. However, the Australian Conservation Foundation used Freedom of Information laws to obtain an internal department note from May 19, which recommended Watt approve Woodside's proposal and agree not to publish the decision on the internet for public comment. The note was dated three days before an interview with Watt published in The Daily Telegraph saw the new environment minister talk up the public consultation he would undertake in his role. 'I think the more transparent we can be, the more open to ideas and suggestions we can be, it maximises the chances of building the community's confidence in the decisions that you make,' Watt said at the time. Watt gave conditional approval to the extension subject to conditions around management of the risk of emissions on the nearby Murujuga rock art gallery on May 28. The conditions were meant to be made public 10 days from that date, but Watt extended that timeline.
Sydney Morning Herald
05-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Housing crisis fix should involve wood – the ‘ultimate renewable'
Two key issues seem to be dominating the headlines; not only is Australia in the midst of a severe housing shortfall, but the crisis is also taking place against a backdrop of climate-change catastrophe. So, when we're building these desperately needed new homes, renovating existing ones or even furnishing our current ones, we want to do so in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way so that we can all play our part in meeting the global goal of net zero by 2050. United Nations-backed climate science data shows that to avert the worst impacts of climate change we must ensure the global temperature does not increase by more than 1.5 degrees. The UN admits that 'transitioning to a net-zero world is one of the greatest challenges humankind has faced'. Achieving this target means slashing the current rate of carbon emissions, while finding new ways to absorb and store remaining greenhouse gases. The maths is daunting: we need to reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 to give ourselves any chance of meeting net zero by 2050. 'It calls for nothing less than a complete transformation of how we produce, consume and move about,' the UN states plainly on its website. Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has identified several steps for decarbonising, including embracing circular economy principles, finding ways to expand zero-emission technology options and scaling up nature-based carbon sequestration. Turns out, trees have been doing this since the beginning of time. Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) head of marketing Sarah Downey notes — with a nod to the group's campaign The Ultimate Renewable — that when done sustainably, forestry is circular. 'Responsibly sourced, certified timber comes from well-managed forests,' she says. 'This means trees are regrown, biodiversity is protected and carbon stays locked away.'
The Age
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Housing crisis fix should involve wood – the ‘ultimate renewable'
Two key issues seem to be dominating the headlines; not only is Australia in the midst of a severe housing shortfall, but the crisis is also taking place against a backdrop of climate-change catastrophe. So, when we're building these desperately needed new homes, renovating existing ones or even furnishing our current ones, we want to do so in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way so that we can all play our part in meeting the global goal of net zero by 2050. United Nations-backed climate science data shows that to avert the worst impacts of climate change we must ensure the global temperature does not increase by more than 1.5 degrees. The UN admits that 'transitioning to a net-zero world is one of the greatest challenges humankind has faced'. Achieving this target means slashing the current rate of carbon emissions, while finding new ways to absorb and store remaining greenhouse gases. The maths is daunting: we need to reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 to give ourselves any chance of meeting net zero by 2050. 'It calls for nothing less than a complete transformation of how we produce, consume and move about,' the UN states plainly on its website. Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has identified several steps for decarbonising, including embracing circular economy principles, finding ways to expand zero-emission technology options and scaling up nature-based carbon sequestration. Turns out, trees have been doing this since the beginning of time. Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) head of marketing Sarah Downey notes — with a nod to the group's campaign The Ultimate Renewable — that when done sustainably, forestry is circular. 'Responsibly sourced, certified timber comes from well-managed forests,' she says. 'This means trees are regrown, biodiversity is protected and carbon stays locked away.'
