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Presents an overview of efforts to curb climate change in Australia. Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; Withdrawal of the United States from the initiative; Stabilization of carbon dioxide.

The article focuses on blue marine economy of Australia. Topics discussed include the book "Rethinking the Oceans: Towards the Blue Economy" of James Alix Michel on climate change, contribution of business turnover of marine industries in the Australian economy and the paper "Marine Nation 2025: Marine Science to Support Australia' s Blue Economy" on development and sustainability related challenges in marine estate such as food security and sovereignty.

An essay on the role of the broadsheet "Australian" in the molding of the Australian nation is presented. It focuses on the broadsheet, created by Rupert Murdoch, which has made an influence on various issues such as climate change and the demise of the Labor-Greens alliance. It is said that the broadsheet led by Chris Mitchell stands as an ideological paper that advocates economic neoliberalism and neoconservatism in foreign policy. It adds that the broadsheet also serves as a campaign paper.

Global climate change and local development make water supply one of the most vulnerable sectors in Australia. The Australian government has therefore commissioned a series of projects to evaluate water availability and the sustainable use of water resources in Australia. This paper discusses a river system modelling platform that has been used in some of these nationally significant projects. The platform consists of three components: provenance, modelling engine and reporting database. The core component is the modelling engine, an agent-based hydrological simulation system called the Integrated River System Modelling Framework (IRSMF). All configuration information and inputs to IRSMF are recorded in the provenance component so that modelling processes can be reproduced and results audited. The reporting database is used to store key statistics and raw output time series data for selected key parameters. This river system modelling platform has for the first time modelled a river system at the basin level in Australia. It provides practitioners with a unique understanding of the characteristics and emergent behaviours of river systems at the basin level. Although the platform is purpose-built for the Murray-Darling Basin, it would be easy to apply it to other basins by using different river models to model agent behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper of the federal government in Australia. It compares the economic impact of the proposed emissions trading scheme with the breaking down of tariffs and liberalization on the financial sector in the 1980s. According to Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water, the introduction of emission trading scheme acknowledges a tough whole of economy measures.

The article offers information on Paul Fraser, research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia. Topics include role of tracking the ozone layer depletion and greenhouse gases driving climatic changes, advent of chief research tool Cape Grim Air Archive, ongoing collection of pristine air samples in the world; and publishing of research papers and reviews providing basis to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in prestigious of journals.

The article discusses the position paper released by the Federal Government outlining the adaptation challenge for Australian farmers in Australia. The paper outlines the impacts of climate change to the country's economy, society and environment. In this regard, the government highlight the needs to adapt regardless of the consequential events to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

The article focuses on the white paper entitled "Climate Change: Current Accounting and Tax Issues for Australian Business leaders," by KPMG. It suggests that the country must develop a 'climate-change friendly' tax system to start emissions abatement initiatives ahead of the 2010 national Emissions Trading Scheme. The paper recommends a lot of measures to begin development of low-emissions technologies, such as accelerated tax depreciation and an expanded research and development tax concession. It also suggests companies to examine existing accounting tools for managing their greenhouse emissions including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Carbon Disclosure Project.

The article provides information on some of the corporations and business sectors who have committed to become climate neutral and efficient in their operations in Australia. It states that Westpac Banking Corp. has achieved 45 per cent reductions in greenhouse gas emission since 1996, while PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) has committed to become carbon neutral. It notes that the climate neutral Tumut Paper and Pulp Mill in New South Wales (NSW) of Visy Industries Inc. has its process heat provided by renewable sources. The information technology (IT) sector is also focusing on reducing its carbon footprint.

The article discusses the scientists' challenge of clearly communicating to the Australian public the realities of climate change. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, has published a paper to educate the public about how the climate has changed and the effect of these changes. It explains that in order to tackle the problem of climate change people should know the options they have to mitigate further change.