Energy Efficiency

The best Australia can hope for from either mainstream political party on the subject of climate change and clean energy is that they don’t really mean what they say.

Both the ALP and the Coalition have brought policies that most independent analysis suggests will fail to reach the presumed bipartisan target of a 5 per cent reduction in emissions from 2000 levels by 2020.

That, in itself, makes both policy positions untenable. They don’t match the science, they don’t match the expectations of public polling and they don’t match the business need for some sort of certainty to unlock the tens of billions of investment that must be made to bring Australia’s energy network, and its broader economy, into the 21st century.

The most remarkable thing is that the media and the electorate will let them get away with it. The extent to which they do will be answered by the performance of The Greens, the party – according to RBA board member Warwick McKibbin – that has produced “closest to the best policy on climate change”. And the only party that is unable to deliver it.

[Read more →]

Chinese officials have warned of a severe threat to wildlife from one of the country’s worst reported oil spills as an army of volunteers was dispatched to beaches to try to head off the black tides.

At least one man has drowned in crude during the clean-up operation, which has expanded as the area of the slick has doubled in size despite earlier government assurances that it was being contained and posed no risk to ecologically sensitive areas.

Five days after a pipeline explosion at the north-east port of Dalian, oil had reportedly spread over an area of 430 square kilometres, prompting a dispersal mission along the coast.

Hundreds of local volunteers are spreading absorbent matting along the Yellow Sea shoreline in an attempt to stop the slick from damaging beaches.

[Read more →]

Survey reveals pollies’ climate change confusion

By Margot O’Neill for Lateline

A new survey of Australian politicians shows a clear majority believe climate change is happening, but many appear to be unsure about some of its consequences.

The University of Queensland (UQ) survey of more than 300 federal, state and local government politicians found that nearly 70 per cent believed human-induced climate change is happening and rated it as one of Australia’s most important challenges.

But more than 40 per cent of those questioned said they believed it would be safe for the planet to warm by 4 degrees Celsius, despite scientific warnings that a global temperature increase of 2 degrees or more could be dangerous.

The survey also uncovered confusion about what climate change really means.
[Read more →]

Well, if it’s good enough for the government to guarantee the performance of banks – who largely caused the GFC – then why not a Policy to introduce a $5 billion loan guarantee scheme that would complement their target of a zero carbon economy?

The Greens released the policy at the launch of their Tasmanian federal election campaign in Hobart and have said that businesses willing to develop large-scale renewable energy projects would be eligible to apply for 100 % loan guarantees, similar to a scheme in the United States.

[Read more →]