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More than two million extra Australian homes were powered by new renewable energy generation last year as wind and solar projects hit record levels, official government data has found, despite the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.
The Clean Energy Regulator estimates a record 7 gigawatts of new renewable capacity was installed throughout Australia in 2020 off the back of record rooftop solar investment, which is 11 per cent above the previous record of 6.3 gigawatts installed in the previous year.
A record 7 gigawatts of new renewable capacity was installed throughout Australia in 2020 off the back of record roof-top solar investment.
Credit:Bradley Kanaris
The renewables boom has helped Australia deploy new renewable energy 10 times faster per capita than the global average and four times faster per capita than Europe, China, Japan or the United States, the analysis found.
Australia is out of the top ten in global anti-corruption rankings why?
By Adam Graycar
Monday February 1, 2021
Adobe
The latest global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rankings places Australia at 11 out of 180 countries.
This is behind countries like New Zealand, Denmark and Germany and on par with Canada, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.
For almost 20 years, Australia ranked in the top 10 (least corrupt) countries. In 2012, Australia ranked 7th with a score of 85. By 2018, it had fallen to 13th with a score of 77. In the latest 2020 rankings, it has also scored 77.
Being ranked 11th out of 180 is relatively good. But falling by eight points is not good. It is a wake-up call and raises serious questions about the ethical underpinnings of politics in this country.
Clean house WORKING ORDER
According to CNN,
Joe Biden will today sign a presidential memorandum to “reverse restrictions on abortion access domestically and abroad imposed and expanded by the Trump administration” specifically he will be rescinding a ban on government funding for foreign nonprofits that perform or promote abortions, aka the “Mexico City Policy”.
Biden will also sign orders to reopen federal marketplaces selling
Affordable Care Act health plans, and lower recent barriers to joining Medicaid,
Democrats also reintroduced legislation to bring America’s hourly minimum wage from a miserly US$7.25 to $15 incrementally, mind you, with a final date of 2025, after which the wage would be tied with indexation (or, y’know, Republicans take the White House and nix it entirely) while Biden will tomorrow sign orders expanding refugee intakes from Trump’s historically-low figures and establish a taskforce to reunite migrant families separated under the
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says the government is increasingly concerned that the private sector will call its bluff on the construction of a new gas plant.
Last September Prime Minister Scott Morrison said if the private sector does not build a gas plant in the Hunter Valley to replace the Liddell Power Station, his government would intervene and build one.
Mr Morrison gave the energy companies until the end of March.
Mr Clennell said the government is now pressuring the New South Wales state government to help underwrite such a plant.
“And encouraging both AGL and Energy Australia to seek a state government underwriting of new plants,” Mr Clennell said.
“In a conversation between the federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor and the New South Wales Energy Minister Matt Kean, Taylor is said to have said words to the effect of ‘well you underwrite renewables, why not underwrite gas?’
“The federal government keen to push this gas and manufacturing strategy,
ANALYSIS: Though Donald Trump will be replaced as US president later this week, there is evidence his Trumpist methodology has already been adopted by Australia's political right.