USA urges for renewable energy, as Abbott plans to prevent it

The announcement of the review came after United States Secretary of State John Kerry declared on Sunday that:

we have to invest in new technology that will help us bring renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydro power, not only to the communities where those resources are abundant but to every community and to every country on every continent..

Renewables inquiry leader vows ‘open mind’ on target’s future The Conversation Michelle Grattan Professorial Fellow at University of Canberra, 17 February 2014, ……..The last review of the Renewable Energy Target was completed in December 2012 by the federal government’s Climate Change Authority. It concluded that the government should retain the current Renewable Energy Target, and that scrapping it would save an average household only $15 a year.

The new review will be finished by the middle of this year and feed into the government’s energy white paper.

The announcement of the review came after United States Secretary of State John Kerry declared on Sunday that:

we have to invest in new technology that will help us bring renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydro power, not only to the communities where those resources are abundant but to every community and to every country on every continent…….

The head of the review panel, Mr Warburton, came under fire after his appointment was announced because of his previously expressed view that “the science is not settled” on the cause of climate change…..

‘Weapon of mass destruction’: Kerry

Meanwhile, speaking in Jakarta at the end of his three-nation visit to Asia, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared climate change is “perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction”, and dismissed its deniers as flat earthers.

In an extremely strongly-worded speech, Kerry said “a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and extreme ideologues” should not be allowed to compete with scientific fact.

“Nor should we allow any room for those who think that the costs associated with doing the right thing outweigh the benefits,” he said.

“We certainly should not allow more time to be wasted by those who want to sit around debating whose responsibility it is to deal with this threat, while we come closer and closer to the point of no return.”

He said that US President Barack Obama and he believed very deeply “that we do not have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society”…….

Kerry said that this week he would be instructing all the chiefs of missions of American embassies all over the world “to make climate change a top priority and to use all the tools of diplomacy that they have at their disposal in order to help address this threat”.

“In a sense, climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction,” he said.

The science of climate change was “leaping out at us like a scene from a 3D movie”, with 97% of climate scientists confirming that climate change was happening and that human activity was responsible. Scientists agreed that “if we continue to go down the same path that we are going down today, the world as we know it will change – and it will change dramatically for the worse”.

Scientists predicted that by the end of the century, the sea could rise by a full metre – enough to put half of Jakarta under water……the United States is prepared to take the lead in bringing other nations to the table.”

He said that he was pleased to say the leaders of China – which he has just visited – “agree it is time to pursue a cleaner path forward.” http://theconversation.com/renewables-inquiry-leader-vows-open-mind-on-targets-future-23305