2 April 2009
Sydney Morning Herald
by Julian Lee

Advertisers will no longer be able to use images of nature and call themselves "environmentally friendly" unless they can back up any green claims under new proposals put forward by the advertising industry.

The new self-regulatory green marketing code - thought to be the first of its kind in the world - will also prevent companies from passing off a mandated environmental initiative as something it has voluntarily adopted.

Advertisers will have to prove that the benefits to the environment are "significant" too.

1 April 2009
Australian Association of National Advertisers

Following a period of public consultation, the board of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has agreed to proceed with the development and implementation of an Environmental Claims Advertising and Marketing Code.

With consumers becoming increasingly aware of, and interested in, the environmental impact of products and services, the new Code will help ensure that advertisers and marketers develop and maintain rigorous standards when making environmental claims in advertising and marketing communications.

9 March 2009
The Sydney Morning Herald

Those who pay extra for green electricity will simply be making it cheaper for big polluters to meet emissions reduction targets under the Government's climate change legislation, consumer group Choice says.

Spokesman Christopher Zinn said more than 878,000 households had chosen to pay more for renewable energy in the belief that they were helping reduce carbon emissions.

5 March 2009
The Economist

“Factories of death” is how James Hansen, a crusading American scientist, describes power stations that burn coal. Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels, producing twice the carbon dioxide that natural gas does when it is burned. That makes it a big cause of global warming.

21 February 2009
The Age
by Adam Morton

It is perhaps the least understood part of carbon trading - that action by households or
communities to tackle climate change will not lower Australia's total greenhouse footprint.

5 December 2008
Washington Post
by Steven Mufson

The phrase "clean coal" was repeated by virtually every major presidential candidate this year. Now the battle over what it means is heating up.

A group of environmental organizations concerned about global warming, including one backed by former vice president Al Gore, is launching an advertising campaign this week to counter the coal industry's efforts to promote what it calls "clean coal."

25 November 2008
The Australia Institute

The introduction of an Australian emissions trading scheme in 2010 makes it pointless for households to reduce their energy use, according to a report entitled Fixing the Floor
in the ETS, released today by The Australia Institute, a Canberra-based think tank.

`While most people understand that emissions trading will impose a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, the fact is that it will also create a floor below which emissions cannot
fall,´ said Dr Richard Denniss, report author and Executive Director of The Australia Institute.

4 November 2008
Total Environment Centre

A longwall mine in the Southern Coalfield with one of the worst water pollution records of all NSW coalmines has been named as a winner in Sydney Water's Every Drop Counts water conservation awards.

A recycled water pipeline installed at BHP Billiton's Dendrobium Mine near Wollongong is the reason for its win, but records of water pollution licence breaches on the Environment Protection Authority's (EPA) public register show that the mine ranks third worst out of eighty-one coal industry facilities across the state.

16 October 2008
Ecological Internet

Bowing to a global pressure campaign spearheaded by Ecological Internet (EI), the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has publicly announced they are reviewing their support for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), over concerns regarding FSC's greenwashing of ancient forest logging. In a statement to Ecological Internet, and on their web site, RAN announced they find "certification of logging in such forests extremely problematic" and have "raised the matter with the FSC".

13 October 2008
Ecological Internet

Last week forest defenders rallied at New York's Bluestocking Bookstore to denounce the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) for their support of industrial logging of primary forests. RAN is the focus of a global campaign to end ancient forest logging, starting with getting the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), of which they are a founding and leading member, to stop falsely certifying first time industrial primary forest logging as being environmentally beneficial.