Breaking Waves: Ocean News

When James Prescott Joule lent his name to a unit of energy, he could not have foreseen today’s alarming calculations The primary unit of climate collapse is the zettajoule. If you have never heard of this term, you are not alone. Even scientists who work on a planetary scale struggle to relate the immensity of the change measured by this titanic unit of energy. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pacific island’s new leader Lord Fakafānua discusses ‘exciting’ US partnership as critics fear impacts of seabed exploration The recently elected leader of Tonga has described a deal to partner with the US on deep-sea mineral exploration as an “exciting development” amid concern in the small Pacific nation over the practice of seabed mining and the potential environmental impact. Tonga is located in the South Pacific Ocean, a region attracting growing interest over whether critical minerals buried in the seabed could be extracted to help power industries and green technologies. Continue reading...

Australia’s gas belongs to all of us. The benefits should be shared fairly rather than hoarded by companies that pay some of the lowest taxes in the world Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast We now know that the Albanese government will very likely introduce an extra levy imposed on gas producers’ high profits. The prime minister’s department has requested Treasury modelling of additional levies on gas companies in response to the Iran crisis that is driving up energy costs for Australians. The department was reported as saying that energy producers “should not benefit from high international prices at the expense of domestic customers”. Precisely. There can be no going back now from such a statement. But this is also a time for longer term thinking. We cannot have a temporary extra tax. We must deal with Australia’s chronic undertaxing of those utilising the gas resources that belong to all Australians. Indeed, there will never be a better time for the federal government to adopt a fair share levy (FSL) – as set out by the Superpower Institute, which I chair – to ensure gas companies pay their fair share of tax to boost Australia’s prosperity and provide cost-of-living relief to Australians. The levy is based on the taxation model used by Norway, and similar to one used by the UK. Rod Sims is chair of the Superpower Institute and an enterprise professor at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. From 2011 to 2022 he was chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Continue reading...

The EU’s reluctance to replace petrol cars and gas boilers keep it hooked on foreign fuels, say industry groups Europe has made “staggering progress” in producing clean power but neglected efforts to phase out fuel-burning machines, the head of an industry group said as the global oil crisis deepens. Adrian Hiel, director of the Electrification Alliance, said the EU has “radically transformed” its power supply and must now focus on getting “more electricity into the stuff we use every day”. Continue reading...