On Air with Zephyr

The hiatus is over and we're back for Season 2! In this episode we talk to Ed Mason at Jet Zero Australia about Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

We are BACK for Season 2 for more conversations with leading experts in emissions, air quality and climate change. New episodes are back from next week!

COP28 was held in the UAE in November and December 2023. Professor Ben Newell returned to give us an exclusive run-down of what happened at COP28.

The Conference of the Parties (or COP) are yearly conferences held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC parties to assess progress in dealing with climate change. COP28 will convene in the United Arab Emirates in November and December of this year. The conference serves as a possible (and crucial) chance to b...

Indigenous cultures and traditions are built upon sharing natural resources. Australia’s First Nations peoples have cared for Country for sixty-five thousand years with both innovative and traditional land management practices and play a crucial role in the ecosystems we all inhabit. The impact of climate change can endanger the survival of indigenous communities both in Australia and worldwide. I...

The idea of nuclear power in Australia has been hotly debated for decades. Today we’re going to talk about whether the new breed of nuclear power plants are part of the solution to the climate crisis and how air quality links into the nuclear energy discussion.

Methane is a greenhouse gas emitted from coal mines, oil and gas wells, landfills, wetlands and the agriculture sector. Methane emissions are the second largest contributor to climate change and it is more potent in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2). This means there are potential “quick wins” in targeting methane reductions early in the decarbonisation process. Satellite data of total-colu...

December 2022 marked 70 years since the Great Smog of London which claimed 12,000 lives. This event lead to a significant change in air quality management and control and the emergence of the Clean Air Act of 1956. This month's guest, Dr Gary Fuller, talks about the Great Smog of 1952, amongst other things in his book 'The Invisible Killer: The Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution- and How We Can...

We are all aware that global emissions will need to be reduced to limit global warming below 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. Another part of the ‘climate change arsenal’ involves the capture and/or extraction of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. And that’s where this month’s podcast takes us – to direct air capture.

From late 2020 to the middle of 2022, the world experienced a triple La Nina which brought a record amount of rainfall to south-east Australia. The latest reports suggest that we could now be heading for not only an El Nino but a super El Nino. So what is this? And is this likely to happen? In this episode we talk to associate professor Dr Andrea Taschetto about all things La Nina and El Nino and...

We are all aware of the impact that climate change is having across the world. The facts are there to see. Sometimes we can get lost in the 'doom and gloom' of these statistics and we spend less time and attention on how the world could effectively tackle the climate crisis. And that's where science comes in. In this episode we talk to climate scientist Dr Helen Cleugh about how science can save t...