Climate
Understanding Climate Change Hazards for your Business
Imagine that you’ve been asked to assess the vulnerability of your business to climate change. Catastrophic floods, heatwaves, and wildfires are in the news every week and you have sites all around Australia. Seven Group Holdings was in this position and turned to Katestone when it needed answers. Where to start? Seven Group Holdings operates…
Read MoreQLD’s EIS Generic Terms of Reference (ToR) amended to give more importance to Climate and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Written by Plistina Almeida and Simon Welchman The American Meteorological Association defines Climate Change as any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate elements sustained over several decades or longer. The most obvious evidence of Climate Change in the world is undoubtedly the global warming, which is led by an increase in the…
Read MoreAre the zero emissions from electric vehicles really zero?
Written by Plistina Almeida and Simon Welchman In Australia, more than 55% of NOx and 12.9% of PM2.5 emissions to air that are caused by human activities are due to motor vehicle traffic. Higher concentrations of these pollutants tend to occur in the morning and evening because peak traffic volumes can coincide with times…
Read MoreRainfall analysis
The process of planning a water storage facility requires that several issues be addressed. Typically, this will require the design to account for the specific conditions at the chosen site. Issues to consider include the rainfall statistics for the catchment; the geography, geology and topography of the area where the dam is planned; any impacts…
Read MoreHigh heat stress risk for Queensland
The Outlook Temperatures in many parts of SEQ are predicted to exceed 35°C by midday on Thursday and remain above average until Saturday. But temperature is not the whole story when assessing the risk of heat stress. Although the temperatures are probably going to be hotter on Thursday, the risk of heat stress is higher…
Read MoreGetting a handle on carbon for NGER
NGER Reporting Can you believe that we are already more than six months into the 2015-16 NGER reporting period? To help you prepare for reporting this year, Lisa Smith has prepared this update of recent developments in reporting requirements and some suggestions to make your NGERs reporting more valuable to your organisation. Recent amendments Prior…
Read MoreOne for the statisticians
Temperatures may be predicted to peak over the long weekend in some parts of Australia, but if you believe in numbers, statistically the most lethal day is 27 January. This was the finding of a recent study (Coates et al 2014) that analysed 167 years of extreme heat events. Whether it’s because we are dehydrated from Australia Day parties…
Read MoreThe Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) – an overview
The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) has been put in place to provide incentives for emissions reduction activities across the Australian economy. It is a large part of the government’s Direct Action policy, aimed at assisting Australia to meet its emissions reduction target of five percent below 2000 levels by 2020. Below is a basic overview…
Read More‘Managing summer heat’ road trip
I think I have finally recovered from my mega road trip which covered over 7,500 km of travel, starting in Adelaide on August 24 and ending in Brisbane last week. Why you may well ask? Well, for over 10 years we have been working with the Australian Lot Feeders’ Association (ALFA) and Meat and Livestock…
Read MoreNavigating the Carbon Maze
With Australia’s carbon policy changing on what seems like a weekly basis staying up to date and identifying opportunities to get involved in voluntary programs can be frustrating as well as consuming valuable time that could be better spent elsewhere. If you need help navigating the carbon maze, read on… Current status of Australia’s carbon policy The…
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