Archived News for Green Sector Professionals - July, 2012

The South Australian Minister for Water and the River Murray Paul Caica has stated that South Australia is still suffering the consequences of decades of upstream over-allocation from the River Murray, exacerbated by the recent severe drought.

The Productivity Commission  has released a consultation paper outlining the Commision’s general approach to industry reviews that it will undertake under guidelines issued by the Government on 15 June 2012.

A new report released by the Climate Commission has found that Victoria is failing to capitalise on near ideal conditions for solar and wind energy.

A new framework to provide a faster, more flexible and transparent approach to assessing the impact of industrial chemicals on human health and the environment has been launched by the Federal Government.

The Inventory Multi-tiered Assessment and Prioritisation (IMAP) framework has been designed to accelerate the assessment of industrial chemicals..

It uses a staged approach to look at the impact of unassessed industrial chemicals listed on Australia’s national inventory, the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances (AICS).

The  framework has been developed by the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS), the Australian Government regulator for industrial chemicals, in consultation with community, industry and government stakeholder groups.

The IMAP framework will be implemented in stages. Stage one which began on 1 July this year, will run over four years and see the assessment of about 3,000 chemicals on Australia’s national inventory that have been identified as priorities for early consideration.

They are chemicals for which NICNAS already holds information about their quantity or use in Australia, chemicals identified as a concern or for which regulatory action has been taken overseas, and chemicals reported in international studies analysing the blood in babies’ umbilical cords.

Stage one will also include an external review of the framework, which is expected to make recommendations on the most efficient and effective approach to assessing and prioritising the remainder of the chemicals on the national inventory.

Innovative individuals and projects across seven fields have an opportunity to secure cash prizes and national recognition as part of the Australian Innovation Challenge, an initiative of The Australian newspaper in association with Shell Australia.

The world’s largest full-service restaurant company has invested US$900,000 in research being conducted into seafood sustainability by the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

The Australian chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists has named Mount Gambier’s iconic Blue Lake has been named as one of Australia’s seven hydrogeological wonders.

Sea levels could rise significantly faster than previously thought, according to research conducted by the Australian National University, who’s researchers have used fossil corals to understand how warmer temperatures have impacted on polar ice sheets.

The New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has approved an application for a one off discharge of waste water produced by the Metgasco coal seam gas operations into the Casino Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) facility.

The Northern Territory Government has announced the creation of two new parks, the Limnen National Park and the Linmen Bight Marine Park, which collectively add a further million hectares to the state’s parks and marine reserves.

The Western Australian Government has announced the appointment of Marcus Geisler as the State’s new chair of the Waste Authority, with State Minister for the Environment, Bill Marmion, saying Mr Geisler is set to continue the authority’s strong growth.

The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has delivered its final assessment of the proposed James Price Point Liquefied Natural Gas precict, recommending the project for approval.

Changes to legislation in Victoria is set to allow property trusts to gain access to financing for environmental upgrades, likely to result in significant increases to opportunities for green retrofitting in Melbourne’s city centre.

Western Australian Environment Minister, Bill Marmion, has received legal advice from the State’s Solicitor’s Office regarding the Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) assessment of the Browse LNG Precinct at James Price Point in the state’s Kimberly region.

The Western Australian Fisheries Minister Norman Moore has announced he will be writing to the Federal Government this week to seek clarification about the white shark’s status as a protected species, following the fifth fatal attack by a white pointer in the state since September last year.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth has released a report that accuses the current Murray-Darling Basin Plan of failing to protect at least half of the Basin’s 16 internationally recognised wetlands.

The Federal Government has opened the final round of public consultation on its plans to create the world’s largest network of marine reserves.

Researchers at Curtin University have been awarded $1 million in funding from the WA Government’s Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) Fund to develop new technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

John Curtin Distinguished Professor Chun-Zhu Li, Director of the Fuels and Energy Technology Institute, will lead the project, which aims to replace some of the coal burned in coal-fired power stations with biomass.

The technology rapidly and efficiently converts biomass into vapour and finely ground char particles so it can be efficiently burned with coal in existing coal generation infrastructure.

The team will further develop and scale up the novel proprietary pyrolysis technology that has been developed at Curtin University. Professor Li said the commercialisation of the technology will solve a bottleneck problem currently experienced in the co-firing of biomass and coal, reducing emissions as a result of burning less coal.

“Using the existing coal-fired power plants to do the co-firing makes the process one of the cheapest and quickest ways to lower carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by making full use of the existing power generation capital equipment,” Professor Li said.

“This project will be a critical step in scaling up the novel pyrolysis technology we have been working on and enabling us to make this technology available for commercial use.”

The two-to-three year project will be carried out in collaboration with Verve Energy.

For more information, visit energy.curtin.edu.au.

The Federal Government has declared a huge new reserve in Central Australia, becoming country’s largest ever land based conservation zone.

The South Australian Government has released the full set of proposed zones for the state’s 19 marine parks.