Plastic bag ban is paying off for Sydney Harbour

Seabin - an environmental project that filters the water in Sydney Harbour to capture microplastics and large plastics - has observed a 70% reduction in lightweight plastic bags floating in the harbour. The company’s CEO says that this shows the staggering impact of an enforced ban on lightweight plastic bags which began just 12 months ago.

Canadian asset giant Brookfield has vowed to build 14 gigawatts of renewable energy and storage to help replace the looming closure of Origin’s Eraring coal-fired power plant in NSW and transform Origin into Australia’s largest clean energy owner by the end of the decade. This promise comes as part of the company’s bid to gain regulatory clearance for its proposed takeover of Origin Energy. 

Meanwhile, the Victorian government will be ending its $3,000 EV purchase subsidy sooner than planned, with this move set to make the state the most hostile to low-emission vehicles in the country given it is also currently the only Australian state that enforces a road-user charge for EV and PHEV owners. 

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Environmental group hails 70 per cent drop in plastic bags polluting Sydney Harbour
Seabin says plastic bags have largely been eliminated from the water in Sydney Harbour and attributes this to the ban on businesses giving out lightweight plastic bags that began in June last year.

Brookfield lifts renewables spend to $30b in Origin takeover push
Canadian asset giant Brookfield has pledged to spend another $10 billion rolling out large-scale renewable energy across Australia as part of its bid to gain regulatory clearance for its proposed takeover of Origin Energy.

Victoria shocks by ditching $3000 EV subsidy ahead of schedule
Victorian residents will no longer have access to the $3000 EV purchase subsidy from June 30 this year, as the debt-laden State Government looks at ways to cut back on spending. The decision to prematurely ditch the rebate was quietly slipped into the May State Budget papers.

10 billion global population 'unsustainable': US climate envoy Kerry
Since November, the global population has officially crossed eight billion, with the required food production accounting for over a fourth of greenhouse gas emissions. US special climate envoy John Kerry says this will make the world's population untenable by 2050, when it is projected to hit nearly 10 billion.

Arctic could be ice-free a decade earlier than thought
Scientists say The Arctic Ocean's ice cap could disappear in summer as soon as the 2030s, a decade earlier than thought, no matter how aggressively humanity draws down the carbon pollution that drives global warming.

Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct includes hydrogen sourced from natural gas
Documents prepared by the Northern Territory government show so-called blue hydrogen requiring natural gas will play a significant role at the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct on Darwin Harbour. Environmentalists say the project will primarily benefit the gas industry over greener energy.

Big W and David Jones pledge cash to tackle waste, fashion industry told to follow
Australia's biggest fashion retailers are being threatened with a mandatory levy on garment sales, after many big names failed to sign up to a new scheme to tackle the 200,000 tonnes of old clothes going into landfill every year.

Conservationists file complaint with ASIC over fertiliser producer's climate marketing
South Australia's peak environment group has called on the corporate watchdog to investigate accusations a Leigh Creek fertiliser company's marketing is misleading about the climate impacts of its processing plant – an allegation the company strenuously denies.

Bob Brown Foundation protesters fined $500 for chaining themselves to MMG machinery
Twenty-two protesters who demonstrated at a mining site in the Tarkine have had their court matters finalised after nearly two years, with most walking away with no conviction recorded and a fine of $500.