If David Littleproud thinks OECD averages are good policy benchmarks, someone should tell him about the average tax rate.

"why would the peak mining body set net zero targets if it meant destroying their own industry? ... net zero is not about shutting up shop. It’s about ... reaching net zero through offsets" Repacholi saying the ALP's quiet part out loud. Absolutely critical coverage by @ketanjoshi.co

"Exports of Australian gas carry “substantial risks” of slowing the move to cleaner energy in Asian countries, according to a confidential report for the Western Australian government that undermines the government’s own narrative that the industry helps cut global emissions."

Imagine kicking the former national rugby captain out of your sports club instead of the gambling lobby. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, who'd want to belong to a club that would accept Responsible Wagering Australia as one of its sponsors?

This is incredible news, and shows the incredible power of collective action. The fight against the neoliberal university (my own included) goes on, but its nice to hear some good news for a change.

The Production Gap report is one of the most important publications I know of. With each iteration we see fossil capital continuing to bet against our future. Either we curb fossil fuel production on the supply side, or we all burn - market prices will not wind this industry down.

The Labour government, in its relentless quest to prove Marxists were right about the state, is about to hand more of our every day life to private equity share.google/kbaGuwRP7XsS...

Based on current policies, oil & gas demand could grow for 25 years rather than peaking this decade as expected, according to a IEA draft report Coal consumption will peak in the 2030s, but demand in 2050 would be over 50% higher than expected, according to calculations by @javierblas.bsky.social

This is huge!

As the world rapidly heads into #climate #overshoot I've noticed a disturbing pattern in journal articles recently. I'll summarize it quickly in this thread 🧵

A gut-wrenching read from a brilliant scholar, on the crisis at ANU. It speaks to the broader sickness in our universities (including my own). FYI @frankbongiorno.bsky.social @hannahforsyth.bsky.social @capandgown.bsky.social @joshuablackjb.bsky.social overland.org.au/2025/08/anu-...

For decades the world's biggest above-ground tank - located 7km from Darwin- has been leaking huge quantities of LNG- possibly the equivalent of millions of tonnes of C02.

"any goal north of 60 per cent will require a major expansion of emissions reductions in the transport, industrial and agricultural sectors" yep that is the entire point????????????????????????????????????????????? www.afr.com/policy/energ...

Australia might finally be on track to have enough renewables to dodge blackouts as our coal fleet retires over the next decade, according to a new AEMO forecast. Last year we added a record 4.4 GW of solar, wind & batteries, with more on the way. Story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

tfw your joint intellectual project makes it out of the group chat. Thanks @kurtiveson.bsky.social for your astonishing write up of our work! We're merely picking up on the threads of spatial and environmental political economy laid down by yourself and many others!

50 Years of Political Economy. Some fantastic articles, but only one has brought me to tears. @kurtiveson.bsky.social's generous contribution takes time to dwell on the PhD theses of @natashaheenan.bsky.social, Anna Sturman, and myself. @ppesydney.bsky.social 1/ www.ppesydney.net/jape-issues/...

Announcing a PhD scholarship for a history project on imperialism and great power projection in the Pacific. Supervised by Prudence Flowers and I here at Flinders, Adelaide. It includes an international fee waiver and stipend. Start Jan 2026. www.flinders.edu.au/scholarships...

There is a lot written on the crisis in our universities. You wont find anything more concise, from anyone more qualified, than this excellent, short piece from @hannahforsyth.bsky.social

🚨 PhD Scholarship 🚨 Thinking about a PhD on the political economy of climate change? Want to work with some of the kindest and best scholars in the field? Do this. Tbh, I'm jealous of whoever gets this!!!

A thousand times, yes! "while it’s true that special interests cannot stop the world’s shift toward renewable energy, they can significantly slow it" "if it takes us anything like 40 years to get there, forget it. The world that we run on sun and wind is going to be broken." Fight fossil capital.

Australia's emissions are flat, not falling. I've often tried to explain *clearly* how Aus "cooks the books" with their land-sector emissions accounting - but I never pull it off. It's a good thing we've got @pollyjhemming.bsky.social to help us. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi...

Proud to stand with my Sociology colleagues, joined by @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social @damiencahill.bsky.social and the mighty @nteunion.bsky.social against the devastating cuts proposed at Macquarie University

What happens when climate change collides with labor law & workplace safety? Eugene Schofield-Georgeson and I discuss our recent articles from @jirjournal.bsky.social on how frameworks are adapting—or failing to adapt—to the realities of climate disruption youtu.be/-Vh17Whrygs?...

A few months ago, I was wondering what "drill baby drill" would look like, seeing as Biden already had fossil fuel production at all time highs, and the global LNG market was heading toward a glut. Looks like I underestimated the power of fossil capital...

The new US-EU trade deal requires that Europe must buy $250 billion in fossil fuels from America every year. Last year, the EU spent just $70bn on the same. And renewables build-out means Europe will require less, not more, of the planet-killing garbage.

While WA gas prices rise for consumers, Waitsia buys domestic gas cheap and sells it for a profit off shore while no-one notices 😡 #Auspol #FFdeathwatch www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

Reporting today confirms large quantities of Western Australia’s domestic gas reserves are being exported via Woodside’s North West Shelf project, and the federal and Western Australian governments are letting it happen. The Australia Institute warned of precisely this situation last August.

@hannahforsyth.bsky.social's *Virtue Capitalists*, “the sort of book that changes how you see the world”. (Me, quoting @adamtooze.bsky.social, quoting Claire EF Wright). Class, settler-colonialism, global history - it's good! My review out now in @jas-jozstudies.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/1444...

Melinda Cooper starter pack but it's only her. FYI she's one of the most creative, incisive critics of American political economy; well worth a follow for fellow travelers. @melindacooper.bsky.social

As per @mkblyth.bsky.social, the goal here is to use the power of the state to strand renewable assets in the same way climate people once talked about fossil fuel assets becoming stranded as an inevitability. This is "drown the baby in the bathtub before it becomes a threat" territory.

Here’s something absolutely cooked about books in Australia https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/heres-something-absolutely-cooked-about-books-in-australia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heres-something-absolutely-cooked-about-books-in-australia #auspol

“Private capital will never deliver a just transition away from fossil fuels. The public sector MUST be involved. “Capital is incapable of a managed transition + there is no profit motive in justice.” @jmijin.bsky.social on the need for public ownership as a key component of fossil fuel phaseout.

Nice review of The Truth About Empire from @drrscully.bsky.social: ‘Use it to inform or to reinforce your knowledge … of the British Empire in all its complexity … a volume of such diversity & lucidity should certainly be hailed as the landmark it is’. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"The North West Shelf, according to analysis by The Australia Institute, will be responsible for more emissions than all of Australia’s coal-fired power stations each year."

By far the scariest part of this is that the *rate* at which our planet is warming has increased so quickly. I mean, the last time I checked a few years ago the consensus was that the planet was heating 0.2C / decade.

Oh look, Env Minister Murray Watt just tripled the area of native habitat that tax-shy gas company Arrow Energy can destroy! When LNP's Greg Hunt approved this, he imposed "some of the strictest env conditions in Aus history" Not so strict anymore...1/4 @australiainstitute.org.au

Next time someone tells you their climate policy is "science-aligned", consider this. Carbon budget for 1.5C is only 130GtCO2. Woodside's NWS extension to 2070 will result in 3.9Gt. That ONE project is 3% of the GLOBAL carbon budget, and more than Australia's entire "fair share". Pure madness.

"Cheap labour: gendered jurisdictions and feminizing capitalism" - loving this article by Claire EF Wright and @hannahforsyth.bsky.social. Now to dig into the whole special issue... www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Asian LNG trade body pays for report saying Aus gas displaces coal in Asia and analysts say case closed; on the other side is the CSIRO saying no evidence and US Department of Energy work finding gas displaces renewables at twice the rate of coal.

The agrarian question today, with the state centred. This is such a powerful article, by one of the best scholars I know. If you haven't heard of Anna Sturman, you have now - you're welcome. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pakistan borrowed heavily & over-invested in coal & gas generation capacity, and is now facing a "utility death spiral" as distributed solar & batteries are going gangbusters. Now, it's trying to sell spare thermal capacity to AI & crypto data centres. www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/paki...

This falls into the same trap as the same issue w/ large-scale wind and solar farms. Being pro or anti [insert technology here] misses the obvious factors around corporate behaviour and benefit sharing. Be pro-justice and anti-unfairness instead! platformlondon.org/app/uploads/...

I agree more violence is coming. But I hate the racist undertones of how it’s talked about— implying that poor people will be driven to violent outbursts by tropical heat disregulating their emotions. Global heating is a result of violent capitalist inequalities; that then causes more violence.

Some more context to understand the relationship between the ALP and fossil fuel exports - we're leading the world in expanding coal exports! This just in from the @iea.org: www.iea.org/reports/worl...

Check out how crazy profitable Australian gas exports are! 47.8%!!! Amazing what happens when you pay no royaltes, and let other people pay for the climate change you cause...

I've come to realize the book itself is ok actually - it's just that a generation of left-wing thinkers have used it as an excuse for lazy, vibe-driven theorizing (mistaking Polanyi's casual metaphorical expressions for concepts).

- Oil and gas producers point to Russia/Ukraine as the driver behind their massive expansion, but it is also anticompetitive. The thinking seems to go that if the price of gas falls far enough, gas can compete with solar and will lock in gas infrastructure over the long term. This a very risky bet.

Couple of thoughts: - Treasury *appears* to be pricing in a gas glut (we'd have to ask them to be sure); - If true, that suggests many of the megaprojects being proposed will struggle; - As general context, the emerging glut is follows an industry drive to massively overproduce;