One degree

The Australian
By: Andrew Trounson

The head of the peak university body has denounced "tabloid'' attacks on climate scientists and called on researchers to better communicate with the public.

Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, Universities Australia chairman Peter Coaldrake said scientific researchers were always vulnerable to attack when identifying "uncomfortable'' trends such as climate change.

He expressed concern that prospective students could baulk at science because of the fallout from the climate wars.

The Australian
Climate Change Special Report
By: Brendan O'Keefe

Universities and research institutes are moving on from established studies of what might be causing climate change to looking at how to adapt to it in areas such as health, energy and safety. Undergraduate bachelor programs and post-grad degrees by research or coursework are now widely offered.

The Australian
Climate Change - Special Report
By: Cameron Cooper

Explorer, environmentalist and climate change expert Tim Jarvis has been to the top and the bottom of the world. A veteran of six polar journeys -- three to the North Pole and three to the South -- he has a message for climate change sceptics who refuse to believe transformation of the planet is occurring. Go and see it for yourself.

The Weekend Australian
By: Jeffrey Ball, Keith Johnson
Source: The Wall Street Journal

A new strategy to restore credibility will focus on the basics

Over the next few days, the world's leading authority on global warming plans to roll out a strategy to tackle a tough problem: restoring its own bruised reputation.

A months-long crisis at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has upended the world's perception of global warming, after hacked emails and other disclosures revealed deep divisions among scientists working with the UN-sponsored group.

The Weekend Australian
By: Steve Howard

The Copenhagen Accord has passed at least its first test

Just over a month on from agreeing to it, world leaders have passed the first milestone set out in the Copenhagen Accord.

Fifty-five countries met the UN's end-of-January deadline for submitting their climate change mitigation commitments, and since then 40 countries have followed suit.

Crucially, submissions have been received from all main emitters, including the US, China, the European Union and India.

The Australian

The Coalition could support an emissions trading scheme after 2020 if the world goes in that direction, opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt has admitted.

Mr Hunt said the review of the Coalition's "direct action'' plan in 2015 would assess the global situation and decide the best way to continue greenhouse gas abatement after 2020.

The Australian
By: Dennis Shanahan, Matthew Franklin

The Rudd government has committed to introducing an emissions trading scheme with a floating carbon market in 2012 regardless of what the rest of the world does to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Penny Wong yesterday revealed Australia's target for greenhouse gas emissions cuts by 2020 under the Copenhagen Accord would be an unconditional, minimum of 5 per cent and a possible maximum of 25 per cent, with an emissions trading scheme using a market price for carbon in 2012.

The Australian
By: Matthew Franklin

Kevin Rudd could be forced to redraft renewable energy targets, because the Australian Greens and the Coalition are considering joining forces to boost incentives for commercial development of alternative power sources.

The Greens climate change spokeswoman, Christine Milne, will announce today plans for a private member's bill to prevent the government from counting solar hot water systems and solar cells on roofs in accounting for its target of 20 per cent renewable energy use by 2020.

The Australian
By: Dennis Shanahan, Jared Owens

The Rudd government has calculated the Coalition's greenhouse gas reduction scheme of planting trees and burying carbon in the soil would cost $10 billion and achieve only one-third of the aimed 5 per cent cut by 2020.

As Penny Wong pledged yesterday to introduce Labor's new emissions trading scheme into parliament next Tuesday, the Climate Change Minister said the Coalition's proposed initiative to cut carbon emissions by 150 megatonnes by 2020 would not work.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

New research reveals some surprises about climate change, Graham Readfearn reports.

Australian government climate experts have failed to detect an increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones after analysing 26 years of data since the early 1980s.

Climate scientists have warned that Australia should expect to see more intense cyclones in the future fuelled by rising global temperatures caused by greenhouse gases.

The Australian
By: Matthew Franklin, Christian Kerr

New data showing last year was the second-hottest on record has reignited political division over climate change policy, with the government seizing on the figures to declare Tony Abbott unfit for office.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett yesterday shattered the political truce of the holiday period, launching a blistering attack on the Opposition Leader and demanding he accept the reality of climate change.

Herald Sun
By: Ben Packham

Australia has sweltered through its hottest decade on record.

The weather bureau's annual climate statement also confirmed 2009 was the nation's second hottest year to date -- and Victoria's warmest July-December period.

It was expected to be the world's fifth hottest year since records began.

Heatwaves hit in summer; and in winter, dust storms wreaked havoc; and there were drought and floods.

The drought continued across the nation's south-east, and rainfall was below average across Australia.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

You don't have to gobble up electricity to beat the heat as the mercury rises, writes Graham Readfearn

Queenslanders are using more electricity than ever before as airconditioners and pool pumps crank up the power demand in the heat of summer.

During one hot spell last month, electricity demand hit an all-time high of 8722mW.

The Australian
By: Jared Owens, Lanai Vasek
Additional Reporting: AAP

Sydney swelters while Melbourne mops up after a deluge

IT was a weekend of extremes. Melbourne copped a month's worth of rain in just 17 hours, NSW grappled with catastrophic bushfire conditions and record November temperatures -- and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong linked the weather patterns to the effects of global warming.

The Advertiser
By: Charles Miranda, London Correspondent

The world is spinning toward a catastrophic worst-case climate-change scenario with temperatures now certain to rise by 6C by the end of the century.

That's the view of a leading team of international scientists, who yesterday predicted the change would render large parts of the world uninhabitable.

The scenario was first made public by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 butonly as a worst-case scenario.

The Australian
By: Michael Sainsbury Source: Additional Reporting: AFP

China and the US last night resuscitated hopes for a binding deal at next month's Copenhagen climate change talks after President Barack Obama said the two countries had agreed to aim for a comprehensive accord to take "immediate operational effect''.

The Australian

By: Matthew Franklin, Chief Political Correspondent
Source: Additional Reporting: Wall Street Journal

A draft 200-page plan has been abandoned and replaced with a political document

World leaders have agreed to a political compromise deal on climate change aimed at salvaging next month's international UN conference in Copenhagen, which scraps the 200-page draft agreement.

The Australian
On November 6 the PM makes his case

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

An environmental project to put staff from blue-chip companies face-to-face with the effects of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef has helped to secure more than $2 million in funding for science research.

Brisbane-based not-for-profit Great Barrier Reef Foundation is hoping its ZooX Ambassador program, which gives corporate staff an in-depth field-based crash course in climate change and coral reef science, can turn bosses and staff into advocates for sustainability.

The Daily Telegraph
By: Janet Fife-Yeomans

Country music star Melinda Schneider's inspiring single Courageous has become the anthem for a mission bringing together one million women.

The Golden Guitar winner is one of 100 ambassadors for the campaign which aims to have the milllion women cut carbon emissions by a tonne each through simple changes such as switching the house lights off.

The Weekend Australian
Source: The Times, AFP

Barcelona: A world treaty on climate change will be delayed by up to a year and is likely to be watered down because countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions are refusing to commit to legally binding reductions.

Negotiations before the UN climate talks in Copenhagen were "not going well'', British Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband warned yesterday.

The Courier-Mail

The annual Global Green Challenge for solar vehicles now includes an Eco Challenge for production vehicles.

This year's 3000km challenge from Darwin to Adelaide features 20 vehicles including a direct-injection 3-litre V6 Commodore Omega Sportwagon, a Falcon XR6, Ford ECOnetic Fiesta hatch, and cars from Hyundai, Kia, Peugeot, Mini, Skoda, Suzuki and Volvo, along with the world's first fully electric production sports car, the Tesla.

Herald Sun
By: Megan McNaught and John Ferguson

Residents of coastal communities are likely to face higher insurance premiums and increasingly tough building regulations because of rising sea levels.

Experts yesterday warned that areas less than 4m above sea level and 100m inland had been identified as at high risk from rising sea levels over the next 100 years.

The Mercury
Source: AP

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he's hopeful the US Senate will pass a significant bill to limit carbon emissions.

But deep divisions in Congress on how to deal with climate change mean a bill is not likely before the end of the year.

However, Mr Ban said he thinks the US can come up with an ambitious measure that will encourage other nations to act on carbon emissions.

"I'm very encouraged by the strong commitment by the Obama administration,'' he said.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

'We may lose some big ice sheets, which can raise sea levels by maybe 20m to 30m'

Tens of thousands of people will converge around one number in countries across the world today to call for action on climate change.

Some of Australia's leading climate change scientists held a discreet briefing for politicians this week and it is almost unthinkable that the number would not have been raised there as well.