International

General Views Of Hazelwood Power Station

On 24 November 2014 the Australian Parliament passed the Carbon Farming Initiative Amendment Bill 2014 (Bill) which puts in place the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). The ERF is the cornerstone of the Australian Government’s Direct Action Plan climate change policy for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It will provide AUD2.55 billion in financial incentives over four years for companies to voluntarily reduce emissions. The Government says its Direct Action Plan climate change policy will mean that Australia will meet the five percent emissions reduction target by 2020.

Iraqi Kurdistan Starts Oil Exports

Major news out of Iraq is getting drowned out by falling oil price coverage. The Kurdish Regional Government and Iraq’s central government today reached an agreement on exporting oil and sharing revenue. The KRG will release 500,000 or 550,000 barrels of oil per day (reports conflict on this here and here) to Iraq’s State Oil… Keep reading →

OPAL Pipeline To Connect To Baltic Sea

 News broke Monday that Gazprom would no longer move forward with the South Stream pipeline project due to European opposition. Russian President Putin made the announcement after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin said the two countries would cooperate on the possibility of creating a gas trading hub on the Turkish-Greek border.… Keep reading →

Oil Exploratin Threatens Virunga National Park

 Today, the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20) begins in Lima (Peru) and is widely seen – as Elias Ntungwe Ngalame in an article for Deutsche Welle (DW) rightly notes – by environmental experts “as a crucial springboard to COP 21 in Paris” next year. Naturally, the large… Keep reading →

Australia and China Free Trade Agreement

Military Museum Of Chinese People's Revolution Opens To Public Free

This week, following the successful hosting of the G20 summit, the Australian Federal Government signed a declaration of intention with China to bring into force a China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA). The agreement comes after a decade of negotiations between the two countries and is expected to be worth up to AUD18 billion to the Australian economy over the next few years. The agreement will ensure 85% of all Australian exports will enter the Chinese market tariff-free, rising to 93% within four years and 95% once it is fully operational.

World Leaders Speak At UN Climate Summit

While governments around the globe prepare to attend the next UN climate change conference in Lima (Peru), which is another important milestone on their ultimate journey to Paris in December 2015 – where the post-2020 international framework is to be agreed – the UN Environment Program (UNEP) released the updated Emissions Gap Report 2014. This… Keep reading →

Iran v Bahrain

While the purpose of multilateral negotiations with Iran is to reduce proliferation concerns, successful talks may in fact accelerate nuclear plans in the Gulf states and Jordan.  In April 2009, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia famously told U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross that “if [the Iranians] get nuclear weapons, we will get nuclear weapons.” Such… Keep reading →

Le Tour de France 2014 - Stage Twenty One

Russian officials already in the unenviable position of dealing with the impact of Western sanctions on their national economy as reflected in a tumbling ruble – in spite of continuous Central Bank interventions – and capital outflows, now face the possibility of a recession looming in 2015, according to recent World Bank projections. Russia: Policy Uncertainty… Keep reading →

Beijing Enveloped In Heavy Smog

The world is constantly and almost instantaneously transforming right before our eyes. Given the complexity and interconnectedness of resulting emerging challenges it is advisable for policymakers to attempt to get ahead of the curve. This is exactly what the World Economic Forum’s “Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015” is envisioned to offer to a broad… Keep reading →

Daily Life In Istanbul

US Vice President Joe Biden recently addressed the Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit in Istanbul, Turkey where he discussed numerous topics related to European energy security. Biden began his talk with the situation in Ukraine and Russia’s use of energy as a political tool. He recognized the fact that Russia will remain a major… Keep reading →

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