ENVIRONMENT

Anthea Harris has arguably been more involved in pricing carbon pollution than anyone else in Australia. How does the Climate Change Authority chief and veteran carbon adviser get things done in this fraught, controversial field? A background in consulting helped.

Michael Fraser has a dual personality: he heads up a company with a massive carbon footprint that is also heavily involved in renewable energy. So why is he walking both sides of the line — and how did this quiet company man rise to the top? Climate Spectator and Crikey investigate.

Oliver Yates is the ex-Macquarie banker who turned his back on a lucrative career to head up the government’s controversial (and possibly short-lived) green bank. Why did this “maverick” do it — and what will he do with $10 billion of your money?

Martijn Wilder is the world’s top climate lawyer by some accounts. So does he think the law is letting down the environment when it comes to global warming? And if it is, who’s to blame? Read about the lawyer whose management skills and networking have taken him to the top of Australia’s low-carbon economy.

Plain-spoken and sometimes optimistic, Tim Flannery is trying to teach Australia about climate change — and its solutions. For all his accolades, though, some scientists don’t want him in their club, writes Crikey intern Michelle Slater.

Maybe money does grow on trees. Businessman Andrew Grant is making plenty from forests to reduce CO2, but he’s not a typical greenie. He thinks Australia has stuffed up decarbonisation — and business has to fix it.

Solar baron Shi Zhengrong has been sensationally sacked as chairman of the Chinese firm he set up. So what does this have to do with the University of NSW — and does Dr Shi still call Australia home?

Australian solar pioneer Martin Green is the man behind the solar entrepreneurs of the world. His early research and 40-year teaching career has driven a generation of solar development and commercialisation. But he keeps his head down when it comes to the politics of climate policy.

Who will influence Tony Abbott on climate policy if he claims the Lodge? The Coalition vows to ditch the carbon tax but its Direct Action alternative needs resourcing. The Power Index examines the field and finds ex-minister Robert Hill could be in the box seat.

“There are a lot of solutions on the cusp,” says up-and-coming engineer Dr Jane Sargison on the task of reducing carbon emissions. Now she’s stepped out of her Hobart laboratory to lobby for the cash and commitment in Australian boardrooms to make them happen. Sargison comes in at #10 on The Power Index list.

Who’s really cutting carbon in Australia? The Power Index uncovers the most influential: the business chiefs, lawyers, regulators and bureaucrats driving the green economy as concerns mount globally over climate change.

They scatter in twos and threes to all quarters of the town. No mere murder of Crows here, writes Bob Gosford. It’s a massacre.

Brightening marine clouds to reflect more sunlight? Coating the Earth with a solar shield of sulphate particles? From the new book Earthmasters, how science — and Bill Gates — could tackle climate change.

Two German politicians are keen to rein in feed-in tariff support for renewable energy in Germany. But that doesn’t mean the European powerhouse is done with clean energy altogether.

There are few issues that bring together the activist Left and the rural Right. But coal seam gas has Nimbin hippies protesting next to knitting nanas, writes Crikey intern Michelle Slater.

Leigh Dayton took a redundancy from The Australian’s science beat last year, the latest in a long list of science journalists to leave worldwide. But as she explains, the need for science journalism is more crucial than ever.

There’s no hiding from coal’s long-term decline in Europe and the United States, irrespective of cherry-picked data floating around cyberspace about a coal revival. Don’t believe what you read.

New analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance concludes that renewables are already cheaper than new-build coal and gas in Australia. And gas may not even be needed.

Miners say they can now safely extract coal seam gas from cropping land in Queensland and NSW. But farmers fear disrupting precious aquifers will ruin food production, writes Crikey intern Sandi Keane.