Antinuclear

Australia way behind in new energy race

Australia is losing the new energy race  Business Spectator, Giles Parkinson 1 Dec 09 ”

“………………..Australia is at real risk of watching the clean energy transformation pass right by.

It is rapidly losing the opportunity of becoming a regional financial centre for carbon trading. International investment banks started giving up on that idea more than a year ago. They didn’t even bother attending the local carbon expo on the Gold Coast in October, preferring instead to mingle with the crowd at rival events in Singapore and South Korea.

Nor does Australia have a renewable energy industry to speak of. Despite being a centre of world renowned research and unlimited resources, the country has forsaken its intellectual capital to foreign shores such as the China, the US and Germany. While international governments spend billions supporting the roll-out of emerging renewable technologies, the sum total of Australia’s spending since the election of the Rudd government amounts probably to less than $20 million.

Not a single clean energy facility has been built as a result of the current federal government’s policies. A few wind farms have popped up because state governments have committed to having renewable offsets for installations such as desalination plants, but even Australia’s geothermal producers, who cannot easily pack their wares, are hedging their bets by pursuing opportunities in friendlier investment environments such as Europe, Asia and South America, and the solar industry exists on little more than hope…………..

nor have Australian businesses – with the exception of a few – properly prepared themselves to embrace the challenge of energy efficiency, refusing to entertain the idea that energy prices will sometime soon rise significantly – ETS or not – and threaten one of the country’s more significant competitive advantages.

But if politicians are having trouble moving past ‘Go’, perhaps there is some consolation in the fact that investment managers may finally be seeing the light of day.

Australia is losing the new-energy race – Giles Parkinson – News – Business Spectator

December 1, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy | energy