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Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Caitlin Fitzsimmons is the environment and climate reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously the social affairs reporter and the Money editor.

Australia’s renewable energy transition is the biggest driver of greenhouse emissions cuts.

As Coalition battles, government says it’s on track for climate cuts

Australia’s national greenhouse emissions fell 1.4 per cent in the year to March 2025 and are sitting at 28 per cent below 2005 levels.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons

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Redbank Power Station near Singleton in the Hunter Valley is seeking approval to restart as a biomass reactor.

Disused coal plant could burn wood and call it renewable energy

Would restarting Redbank Power Station in the Hunter Valley as a biomass reactor be net zero or is this a “convenient untruth”?

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Matt Kean, the former Liberal NSW treasurer now serving as chair of the Climate Change Authority.

How do you decarbonise an economy? Line by line, says Matt Kean

The Liberal Party true believer finds himself at the centre of one of the Albanese Labor government’s most confounding policy challenges.

  • Nick O'Malley and Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Master fly casting instructor Peter Morse practising his casting in Wentworth Falls Lake on Monday. He does not catch or eat fish from the lake.

More than 20 new ‘forever chemicals’ found in Sydney tap water

The study comes as NSW Health accepted the recommendations of an expert panel that concluded that PFAS is low risk to human health, putting the state at odds with emerging international best practice.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
A new study finds that whales and dolphins play together.

Revealed: How playful whales and dolphins socialise with each other

Scientists thought dolphins “harassed” whales. It turns out they’re just playing together – and the love is mutual.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Jason Iggledon flying his drone on the rocks at the southern end of Bondi Beach.

Jason uses a drone to look for sharks at Bondi. Here’s what he sees

A number of coastal Sydney councils are considering which beaches to nominate for a trial of no shark nets this summer.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
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Land clearing in late 2024, near Gin Gin in Queensland.

Queensland clears forest area twice the size of Brisbane in one year

Hundreds of thousands of hectares of trees and shrubs were cleared over 12 months, with the vast majority making way for livestock.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Beer bottles are lighter than they were 20 years ago because manufacturers are using less material.

Recyclers say a 10¢ container refund has no ‘pulling power’. They want it doubled

The beverage industry argues the push is out of touch on the cost of living. Yet everyone agrees that a nationally consistent approach is needed.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
People crossing a Sydney CBD street in the rain on Thursday.

August to bring more rain and snow, but for farmers it’s ‘storm Lotto’

The heavy rain stretching along the east coast is a harbinger of a wetter-than-average August and start to spring.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
A koala at Smiths Creek in Leumeah near the new Georges River Koala National Park earlier in 2025.

Will a new national park protect Sydney’s chlamydia-free koalas?

The protection comes as the state pushes ahead with the construction of 73,000 homes on the Cumberland Plain, but koala corridors and road crossings are lagging development.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons