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In cases where assisted colonisation is the appropriate conservation tool, the selection of recipient sites is a major challenge. Here, we propose a framework for site selection that can be applied to the Australian biota, where planning for assisted colonisation is in its infancy. Characteristics that will be important drivers in the decision-making process include the size of a recipient site, the potential to augment corridors and respond to niche gaps, the maximisation of climatic buffering, bioregional similarity, tenure security, and the minimisation of opportunities for hybridisation and invasiveness. Sites we suggest be precluded from assisted colonisation include sites of high species endemism, IUCN category 1 reference reserves and fully-functioning threatened ecological communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks three questions. First, how do carbon taxes drive economic and environmental outcomes? Second, what is the appropriate economic base on which carbon taxes should be levied? Finally, how well does a carbon tax deliver economic and environmental outcomes compared to a comparable emissions trading scheme? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northern Australia's globally significant savannas and rivers face major threats, from cattle to weeds to land clearing to climate change. In the face of imperatives and pressures such as reducing carbon emissions, nature conservation, alleviating Indigenous disadvantage, the resources boom and global food security, how should development be managed to protect its globally significant ecosystems? Nine planks in a ‘Sustainable Northern Australia’ agenda are proposed: (i) enhance investment in mitigating pervasive landscape threats; (ii) strengthen support for Indigenous Caring for Country activities and incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into land management; (iii) align and strengthen invasive species control and management; (iv) facilitate new economic development pathways focused on sustainability; (v) build climate resilience by maintaining and enhancing landscape-scale connectivity; (vi) protect free-flowing rivers from dams and major water resource development; (vii) establish and effectively manage a large interconnected network of protected areas; (viii) develop cooperative governance arrangements; and (ix) enhance knowledge generation and research and monitoring capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to a series of articles on some economic policy issues of climate change as part of the "Policy Forum" section of "The Australian Economic Review." Warwick McKibbin discusses a mixed policy approach for Australia and beyond that combines both short and long-term goals to reduce carbon emissions, Paul Jensen and Elizabeth Webster present a critique of Nicholas Stern's "Stern Review," and Philip Adams Philip Adams uses a general equilibrium model to determine the economic viability of changing environmental policy in Australia.

The article reports on the move of Australia's first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard to sign an alliance with the Green Party which ended the longstanding leadership of the Coalition of the conservative Liberal and National Parties in the country. It mentions that most voters turned to the party when the Labor Government abandon the vaunted emissions trading scheme (ETS). It affirms that Gillard offers a formation of a climate change committee to win the approval of the Green Party.

The article reports that new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has approved the Kyoto Protocol in Australia. This move was coincided by the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Indonesia. The new Prime Minister has also committed to reduce the nation's emissions by 60% of 2000 by 2050. The administration has also pressured Japan to drop plans for a summer hunt of humpback whales in the Southern Ocean. Despite these progress, the new administration is still resisting calls to overturn federal approval of a controversial pulp mill that poses serious air and water pollution risks.

The article reports that three top Australian climate scientists fear that their expert opinion would reflect badly on the Australian Government's fossil-fuel friendly greenhouse policies. Graeme Pearman, a former CSIRO atmospheric division director, said he fell out with his superiors after joining the Australian Climate Group, which supports carbon trading. Pearman's superiors told him not to say anything that would indicate his disagreement with government policy, and inspired him to resign after speaking out on the dangers of climate change. Barney Foran, CSIRO biofuels expert said that he was asked not to discuss ethanol by the department of the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. Barrie Pittock, also of CSIRO, said that he received request to remove sensitive information about the impact of climate change from a government publication. The claims were denied by CSIRO executives and the Government.

The article presents information about a new international climate agreement. The agreement, widely condemned as an attempt to undermine the Kyoto Protocol, has been signed by six major nations including the U.S. and China. The major objective of the pact is to limit greenhouse emissions using mandatory targets and market mechanisms such as carbon taxes and trading. In addition to the U.S. and China, the climate pact has been signed by Japan, India, Korea, and Australia. Together, the six nations account for 40% of global emissions. Although Australia is responsible for emitting only 1.4%, it was included since it is a staunch U.S. ally in Iraq and against the Kyoto Protocol. Australia's Environment minister, Ian Campbell, said that global emission must be cut by at least 50% over the next century. He also said that the climate pact reflects the reality that coal will remain the world's main energy source. The new pact is being promoted as an alternative to Kyoto Protocol, but Greenpeace energy campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick believes Australia is trying to cover its failure to rein in emissions, which have soared by 20% since 1990.