Antinuclear

Australia’s major parties ignore climate change and renewable energy

Despite efforts by some media to bring climate change to the forefront – as witnessed by the SMH editorial today – such pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears in the current campaign.

Neither Treasurer Chris Bowen nor Opposition spokesman Joe Hockey mentioned climate change or a clean energy transition in their hour-long debate on Monday, focusing instead on an absurd argument about revenue and budget forecasts in forward estimates – a complete irrelevance to everyday Australians and the major issues confronting the country.

Renewables future no more costly than fossil fuels  REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 21 August 2013“……..The consideration of future costs is a crucial point in the current federal political debate, where policies such as high emission reduction targets and high renewables scenarios – as proposed by The Greens – are seen as reckless, dangerous, marginal or fringe policies.

The frustration is that while such targets form part of the mainstream policy discussion in most other countries, each of the big parties in Australia are as keen as the other to put as much distance between themselves and the Greens. So while most other countries debate how quickly they should be moving to decarbonise the economy, the overall theme in Australia is how slowly it should be done.

The common reason for this is cited as cost to the consumer, but the reality is that the cost to consumer is no greater in these ambitious scenarios than it is under the more modest transitions modeled by Treasury. And if other environmental costs are included, such as the health impacts of fossil fuels, then the numbers change again.

As Corbell (he’s from the Labor Party) noted in his interview with RenewEconomy this week, a 90 per cent renewables target would cost no more to consumers if tied in with energy efficiency and other measures. It’s a shame that no other politician from a mainstream party is talking in those terms on a national scale.

As Corbell noted, the real push back comes from incumbent generators and vested interests, because it is they who face lower revenues and profits – which is why their industrial lobby groups are calling for a dilution of Australia’s relatively modest 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 (in the case of the generators), or for climate policy to be completely re-evaluated (in the case of the Business Council of Australia).

Both strategies are focused on creating further delay in the inevitable transition to a low-carbon economy. Unions and environmental groups operating under The Southern Cross Climate Coalition today released a policy platform that stressed that environmental policies can be directly linked to employment growth and economic expansion.

It says that low-carbon and energy productive technologies and practices are essential for maintaining and growing jobs, and this applies as much to traditional industries as it does to innovate industries of the future.

Despite efforts by some media to bring climate change to the forefront – as witnessed by the SMH editorial today – such pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears in the current campaign.

Neither Treasurer Chris Bowen nor Opposition spokesman Joe Hockey mentioned climate change or a clean energy transition in their hour-long debate on Monday, focusing instead on an absurd argument about revenue and budget forecasts in forward estimates – a complete irrelevance to everyday Australians and the major issues confronting the country. . http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/renewables-future-no-more-costly-than-fossil-fuels-55338

August 21, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | election 2013