Australia: Paris Targets and Marine Heatwaves

australia: Australia's marine heatwaves provide a glimpse of the new ecological order Read more The authority's chairman Tom Hatton told reporters in WA the move was necessary because Australia was not on track to meet its Paris targets and the current policies of the federal government are not going to deliver the outcomes as currently applied that are necessary for Australia to meet its international obligations under the Paris agreement . Under the guidelines developers proposing projects with direct emissions of more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annum would be required to demonstrate they have taken all reasonable and practicable design measures including use of renewable energy, to reduce or avoid emissions, according to The Guardian. They will also have to offset all net direct emissions associated with the project. The EPA, which works independently and makes recommendations to the WA government about whether new developments should be granted environmental approval, said on Thursday it was setting a higher bar for how it would assess the impact of major projects on the climate. The EPA's guidelines note that the Australian government's key climate policy, the emissions reduction fund and its safeguard mechanism, lacks an effective carbon restraint or rate . The EPA also expressed concerned about the trajectory of WA's emissions, which had increased by 27% from 2000 to 2016. Environment groups have welcomed the policy as a balanced approach that would bring environmental benefits and require polluters to make greater effort to reduce their carbon pollution. Western Australia has the second highest per capita emissions of all Australian states and territories, with emissions per capita well above those of other developed economies, including resource-based economies such as Canada, the guidelines state. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.