Health News at Your Fingertips

Lisa Cox

Fears global biodiversity talks will not settle on key targets and goals

Despite positive reviews for Australia’s role in global biodiversity talks held in Nairobi last week, there is concern that the international negotiations are drifting.

The final agreement is supposed to be reached at a meeting of countries in Montreal in December, but there are key targets and goals that have not been settled and it is likely another round of talks will be required before then.

WWF-International issued a statement saying little progress had been made in Nairobi, with key decisions “kicked down the road” and a small number of countries, such as Brazil, “actively working to undermine the talks”.

WWF-Australia’s Quinton Clements said the talks overall were lacking in political leadership and there was real concern that agreement would not be reached in Montreal.

A spokesperson for the environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the new government was committed to “stepping up Australia’s global environmental leadership”. She said this was made clear at the Nairobi meeting and reflected in a strengthened negotiation position on environmental protection, including actions to address extinction risk and protect more land and sea area.

“Australia’s negotiation team for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity … will be advocating for an ambitious Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in line with the government’s commitments for stronger action on the environment.”

Lisa Cox

Albanese government changing Australia’s tone to be ‘more ambitious’ on environment

You may have read that Australia’s new environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, has told the United Nations ocean conference in Lisbon that “the environment is back – front and centre” under the Albanese government.

These aren’t the only international talks where a change in tone from Australia has been observed.

The oceans conference follows a round of negotiations last week in Nairobi for a new global agreement on nature under the convention on biological diversity.

The convention on biological diversity receives less attention than global climate conferences, but the current negotiations are aimed at achieving an ambitious new international agreement for protecting and restoring nature.

The significance of these talks has previously been compared to the Paris climate agreement.

Plibersek was not in Nairobi last week but Australia sent a delegation.

Quinton Clements, WWF-Australia’s head of policy, was among observers who noted more ambitious language from the new government.

He said:

There’s definitely a bit of a change from the previous regime. The new minister and government have given clearer direction to the Australian delegation. They’ve been more ambitious in terms of where Australia sits.”

Clements said that ambition extended to things like halting and reversing biodiversity loss and working with other countries to ensure a “nature positive” approach to wildlife and sustainable development by 2030, which in simple terms means agreeing there will be more nature by 2030 than there is currently.

Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 strains likely to become dominant, says Victorian health

Melissa Davey

The Victorian department of health says the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants are likely to become dominant variants in Victoria. These may be offshoots of an earlier Omicron strain, BA.2.

In a statement, the department of health said the prevalence of BA.4/BA.5 in Victorian metropolitan and regional wastewater catchments has “risen significantly in recent weeks, indicating increasing transmission of this sub-lineage in the community”.

The BA.4/BA.5 sub-lineage was first identified in catchments in April and has since risen from under 5% in late May to 17% as of 23 June, the department statement said.

“BA.4/BA.5 is expected to overtake the BA.2 strain in coming weeks to become the dominant strain in Victoria,” the department said. “This is in line with similar patterns in NSW and Queensland.”

Both states have seen a significant rise in the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 during June.

Victoria’s department of health said the prevalence of BA.4/BA.5 in Victoria is likely to result in an increase in cases – including reinfections – and hospital admissions and deaths. This is because the strain has a greater ability than BA.2 to evade immunity provided by vaccination and earlier Covid-19 infection.

There is no evidence at this stage that the BA.4/BA.5 sub-lineage causes more severe disease, but the department is closely monitoring the situation.

The department statement urged people to stay up to date with vaccinations, stay home if unwell, and strongly recommended masks be worn in shared indoor settings.

Nino Bucci

Tjapwurong woman withdraws legal challenge to Victorian highway after state says it will develop new plan

A senior Tjapwurong (Djab Wurrung) woman who has withdrawn a legal challenge to the construction of a highway that endangered culturally significant trees in western Victoria says the court case represents a win for her community.

Marjorie Thorpe said in a statement that she had withdrawn the challenge after the state government’s Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) agreed it would no longer rely on a 2013 cultural heritage management plan as part of its Western Highway duplication project.

In October 2020, MPRV felled a tree considered a sacred directions tree, Thorpe said, and were preparing to destroy another tree and build the road close to five other significant trees, including two birthing trees.

Thorpe filed an emergency supreme court application soon afterwards, and an injunction preventing further roadworks until the case was heard was granted later that year.

Thorpe said that as the court case continued the state “abruptly announced that it would no longer rely on the 2013 plan to construct the road, and promised to work with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation to develop a new Cultural Heritage Management Plan”.

She said this meant there was no need for the case to continue. Thorpe added:

This week, in a win for my Tjapwurong community and ancestors, I discontinued the proceeding.

This maintains my rights to sue if the state tries to use the old Cultural Heritage Management Plan as a basis for further construction on our lands.

It also reserves my rights to review the new Cultural Heritage Management Plan once is it complete to ensure it is legal and complies with cultural heritage legislation.

Thorpe thanked community members who gave evidence in her case, and her lawyers, and urged the state to better protect Aboriginal heritage. She said:

Tjapwurong people have lost many of our stories about the trees as a result of colonisation and dispossession, but that makes the surviving stories of special importance.

They provide a connection to our past – an important connection to the existence and history of the Tjapwurong people. It is important that we preserve that connection, including so we can pass on the stories of our ancestors and our people and the land to our children and grandchildren.

I hope that this time around, the rights of our people and the remains of this precious heritage can be protected.

Adam Morton

Australia’s emissions climbed in 2021 as transport and fossil fuels wiped out gains during Covid

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2021 as the country wound back Covid-19 lockdowns without taking significant steps to maintain a fall in carbon pollution recorded during the pandemic.

National emissions rose 0.8% – 4.1m tonnes of carbon dioxide – in the final full year of the federal Coalition government, according to government data released on Monday.

While pollution from electricity generation continued to drop due to an increase in renewable energy and reduction in coal power, this decrease was effectively cancelled out as emissions from transport, manufacturing and fossil fuel developments – notably the gas industry – bounced back.

Emissions were also up from agriculture as the recovery from drought continued.

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The Teacher’s Pet podcaster tells court he wanted justice for Lynette Dawson

The journalist behind The Teacher’s Pet podcast has told a court he wanted justice for Lynette Dawson, believing she had been killed by her husband in January 1982.

Giving evidence in the murder trial of Christopher Michael Dawson on Monday, The Australian’s Hedley Thomas said he had produced the 2018 podcast to help Lynette Dawson’s family seek justice for their daughter and sister who had vanished with no explanation.

“And so justice for Lyn meant to you, didn’t it, the prosecution of Christopher Dawson,” asked defence barrister Pauline David.

“I think that is a fair call, yes,” Thomas replied.

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Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 23 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 927
• In hospital: 119 (with 1 person in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 11
• Cases: 6,862
• In hospital: 1,507 (with 55 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 209
• In hospital: 17 (with 1 person in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 3,260
• In hospital: 542 (with 8 people in ICU)

South Australia

• Deaths: 6
• Cases: 2,137
• In hospital: 210 (with 9 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 798
• In hospital: 45 (with 3 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 1
• Cases: 6,305
• In hospital: 459 (with 26 people in ICU)

Western Australia

• Deaths: 5
• Cases: 3,434
• In hospital: 234 (with 8 people in ICU)

Energy sector vulnerable from lack of coherent climate policy, economist says

For all the chatter about the rising cost of energy, it’s interesting to be reminded that electricity accounts for around 2.4% of Australia’s CPI basket, while gas and other household fuels account for 1%.

Catherine Birch, a senior ANZ economist, has crunched the numbers, and estimates the recent increases and those to come will contribute a “hefty” 0.6 percentage points of the 7% annual consumer inflation rate we can expect by year’s end.

There’s a long list of blame for the soaring energy costs, including coal-fired power plants being subject to “unscheduled” outages.

“But an underlying issue is the lack of coherent energy and climate policy in Australia for the past several years which has undermined investment in the energy sector,” Birch said. “This has left the sector more vulnerable to shocks.”

But the impacts on household bills varies in part because of different packages offered by the states to help people pay bills.

The cost of generation also varies a lot across different parts of Australia, depending on their energy mix. The ASX tracks future wholesale prices, and Victoria is projected to have a cheaper prices for the next few years at least (partly because their brown coal is not internationally traded).

As for the future, we will get a better sense of what the Australian Energy Market Operator expects will be the necessary new investment “to keep the lights on” when it releases the 2022 Integrated System Plan this Thursday. We know from the draft plan – and last week’s release of the design of a capacity market – that a massive amount of spending is going to be needed over the next few decades.

Expect some big numbers but it is also worth remembering that we would have had to spend most of it even without a decarbonising goal since all of the coal plants and some gas ones are at or approaching the end of their design lives anyway.

As one energy insider said the other day: “How often do you see somebody driving a 50-year-old car?”

Police vow to crack down on Sydney protesters as 11 arrested

Police have accused environmental activists who staged disruptive protests in Sydney on Monday of “incredibly dangerous” behaviour and have vowed to continue tracking down all of those involved ahead of further actions planned this week.

A woman who locked herself to the steering wheel of her car and blocked the harbour tunnel was one of 11 climate protesters arrested in Sydney, as Blockade Australia activists kicked off a week of disruption with a march through the city centre.

On Monday afternoon, the acting assistant commissioner, Paul Dunstan, said those involved will be charged with recently introduced state government legislation to crack down on illegal protesters following several arrests of climate change activists blocking traffic and access to ports. Protesters face a maximum penalty of two years’ jail and $22,000 fines for disrupting traffic or preventing access on roads.

Dunstan said police will continue going through CCTV footage to identify protesters so they can be arrested. He also said police will have an increased presence across the city in coming days in anticipation of further actions.

Police will continue to be out in force in the coming days as this group continues their unlawful disruption of Sydney. They appear hell-bent on continuing this activity to disrupt the people of our city … We need the public’s help to help us identify those involved and to help us prevent further unlawful protest activity.

Dunstan said police had a “very strong deployment on the footprint of the CBD” on Monday, “however, the group this morning was highly unorganised and erratic, and they were moving throughout the CBD in an unstructured format, and it was difficult to get ahead of them”.

We will be out in force and we will have additional police as a result of this morning’s activity. What I will say – the behaviour of this group was nothing short of criminal activity. The throwing of bicycles, the throwing of garbage bins, the throwing of other items in the path of police, in the path of media, in the path of innocent members of the public just walking by, will not be tolerated and cannot be by the people of NSW.

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