Climate, Nuclear News – what’s in the budget.
Climate Change “is the great moral challenge of our generation” – Kevin Rudd 2007.
After 7 years – what has happened to Australia’s enthusiasm for action on Climate Change? Sadly, Australians have elected a Climate 
Denialist government – a government that makes John Howard’s look like a radical greenie.. And, hardly noticed in the swathe of cuts to welfare, to youth affairs, homelessness programs, health, education, the Budget’s attack on renewable energy is barely noticed.
Except for the children of the rich, the future is very insecure. That’s the near term future. For ALL of Australia’s children , the future in the changing climate is insecure, indeed, fearful. Ignoring world trends for action, ignoring President Obama’s call for climate action, ignoring the renewable energy revolution already underway, Tony Abbott has acted faithfully in the service of the polluting industries.
The Budget:
- abolishes Australian Renewable Energy Agency. (the agency’s remaining unallocated funds of about A$1 billion could be returned to the general revenue pool).
- moved to eliminate the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation
- dumped The million solar roofs program ( a core pre-election promise) “In place of the million roofs program, which was at once stage budgeted for $1 billion, the government has announced a derisable $2.1 million for “community” solar projects on RSL and bowling clubs and the like in 7 marginal electorates. (Yes, they are that cynical)”.– Giles Parkinson.
- cut $21.7 million over four years through the amalgamation of the National Environmental Research Programme and the Australian Climate Change Science Programme to form a new National Environmental Science Programme.
- slashed $111.4 million over four years from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the main scientific research body.
- axed Clean Technology Innovation Program
- frozen funding for the Cooperative Research Centres
- drops election promise to re-establish Low Carbon Australia – a body that sought to provide specialist financing for energy efficiency projects.
- will replace the Carbon Tax by Emissions Reduction Fund The ERF allows farmers and land managers to earn carbon credits by storing carbon or reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the land. These credits can be sold to people and businesses wishing to offset their emissions.
- cut $459.3 million (or around three-quarters) of funds from the Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships Program,
- cut $16.8 million over two years from the National Low Emissions Coal Initiative
- cut $10.0 million from the budget from the Bureau of Meteorology
Uranium industry has a poor short term future and a poor long term future – from World Nuclear Association analyst, Steve Kidd.
reactions to Australia’s Anti Renewable Energy Budget
The Anti-Renewable Energy Budget – Reactions http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4303 As feared, the first Budget delivered by the new Government has seen the axe swung upon the Australian Reneweable Energy Agency (ARENA).
According to the Budget papers:
“The Government will achieve savings of $1.3 billion over five years from 2017-18 (including $223.3 million in 2018-19, $455.9 million in 2019-20, $125.4 million in 2020-21 and $131.1 million in 2021-22) by abolishing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and repealing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act 2011. Funding of $1.0 billion over eight years will remain available to support existing priority projects.” The Government says the savings will be redirected to repairing the Budget and to fund policy priorities.
The Clean Energy Council expressed its disappointment in the announcement.
“A global race for renewable energy is on, and the removal of ARENA will see potential Australian and international investors now look to countries with much stronger support for renewable energy innovation, meaning we may well miss out on billions of dollars of investment and highly-skilled jobs,” said Deputy Chief Executive Kane Thornton.
“Abolishing ARENA is a backwards step for the ‘clever country’ at a time when job losses in traditional industries like the automotive and manufacturing sectors mean we need new, innovative industries to take their place and fill this void.”
The Australian Solar Council also reacted strongly, calling the budget a “boulevard of broken dreams” for the solar industry.
“The Budget has delivered a trifecta of broken promises to the solar industry,” said John Grimes, Chief Executive of the Australian Solar Council. “The Government promised the Australian people an additional million solar roofs by 2020. The Budget contains no funding to make this happen. A Million Solar Roofs is a mirage.”
“The Government promised to maintain the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) but, instead, the Budget has delivered a death warrant for ARENA. Unless the Senate stands up to the Government, ARENA will be abolished.”
“The Government promised to maintain the Renewable Energy Target but every indication is this key policy will also be thrown on the scrapheap.”
The Sustainable Energy Association of Australia called the axing of ARENA a regressive step.
“ARENA was designed to increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia and to make it more affordable. It has been welcomed by both the industry and by investors, who were looking at Australia as a growing market for clean technologies,” said SEA Chief Executive Kirsten Rose.
“Unfortunately, the proposed scrapping of ARENA means it’s likely that investment in a cleaner energy sector won’t happen in Australia, but will go to other countries with stronger, more stable policy environments for renewable energy,” said Ms Rose.
Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said the Budget was “just a tunnel vision for motorways and stranded fossil fuel assets that will be worthless to our economy within decades.”
The sorry tale of the Abbott government’s dismantling of Australia’s Climate Change Action
Australia’s Abbott Government Dismantles Climate Safeguards by News Editor in Air/Climate, Gov/Politics, Latest News, RSS on May 12, 2014 CANBERRA, Australia, (ENS) – Step by step, the Australian Coalition Government, headed by Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is tearing down the climate change mitigation and adaption measures put in place by the previous two Labor governments.
The carbon price established through a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme that took effect in July 2012 under the Gillard Government is on its way out.
Called a “carbon tax” by opponents, it is to be replaced by an extension of the Emissions Reduction Fund introduced as draft legislation Friday by Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
Hunt said, “Australians voted for the removal of the carbon tax and for the implementation of a climate change policy that actually reduces emissions. Through the ERF, we will achieve our emissions reduction target without a tax on families and small business.” But the vast majority of Australia’s carbon price has been paid by a small number of larger companies, including 25 electricity generators.
Australia is a major coal-producing nation, and burning coal generates about 85 percent of Australia’s electricity. Coal-burning power plants emit carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, and the coal industry is a vigorous opponent of the carbon price.
The Emissions Reduction Fund is the centerpiece of the Coalition Government’s Direct Action Plan to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by five percent below 2000 levels by 2020, the same target as adopted by the previous governments.
An extension of the existing Carbon Farming Initiative, the ERF allows farmers and land managers to earn carbon credits by storing carbon or reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the land. These credits can be sold to people and businesses wishing to offset their emissions.
The latest step in the Abbott Government’s policy of scrapping all support of climate-related or renewable energy action was revealed this morning. The budget due out Tuesday is likely to eliminate the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA.
ARENA Chairman Greg Bourne warned that the agency’s remaining unallocated funds of about A$1 billion could be returned to the general revenue pool.
ARENA was established in 2012 to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies and increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia. The agency has a $2.5 billion budget to fund renewable energy projects, support research, development and activities to capture and share knowledge.
The Abbott Government has also moved to eliminate the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation and may also weaken or delay the country’s Renewable Energy Target.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne said, “Axing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is a damning reflection on the backward thinking of the Abbott government. The Abbott government has no vision for the future, or indeed, the present day.”
The country’s largest environmental group, the Australian Conservation Foundation, is outraged.
“If the government chooses to scrap ARENA, it is yet another instance of prioritising the profits of big polluters over Australians’ desire for a safe climate and clean energy,” said Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, the Foundation’s climate change program manager.
“The government could choose to scrap the $13 billion in planned handouts for big polluters to get discount diesel and other subsidies to miners, but instead, it seems it is choosing to scrap an agency that is helping strengthen the major growth industry of the 21st century,” said McKenzie-McHarg.
“With ARENA possibly gone, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Climate Change Authority and price on pollution all on the chopping block, Australian jobs and investment in solar and other clean technology across the country will come to a stand still,” she said.
“It’s ripping the heart and soul out of Australia’s clean energy future,” said McKenzie-McHarg……..http://ens-newswire.com/2014/05/12/australias-abbott-government-dismantles-climate-safeguards/
Birth defects from ionising radiation near Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing area
HBO: ‘Genetic passports’ for major population exposed to nuclear radiation? “It has deformed their genes, sorry it’s a bit of a bummer” — Twins attached by organs growing outside body, ’1-eyed cyclops’, babies with giant heads… “they respond to the people around them” (GRAPHIC PHOTOS & VIDEO) http://enenews.com/hbo-genetic-passports-major-population-exposed-nuclear-radiation-deformed-genes-sorry-bit-bummer-twins-attached-organs-growing-body-one-eyed-cyclops-babies-heads-photos-video
PVICE, by Thomas Morton, May 4, 2014: “How Fucked Are Nukes? […] way worse than Hollywood has the special effects to depict. A lot of mainstream accounts […] soft-pedal the body horror that acute radiation poisoning causes […] eyewitness testimony from Robert Jay Lifton’s Hiroshima classic Death in Life: […] “at a glance you couldn’t tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back […] very young girls, not only with their clothes torn off but with their skin peeled off as well. My immediate thought was that this was like the hell I had always read about.” […] If you haven’t already gone to the bathroom to slit your wrists […] VICE on HBO covers the second major population intentionally exposed to atomic radiation—the Kazakhs living around the Semipalatinsk Testing Polygon, where the Soviet Union tested 456 nuclear bombs.
While they weren’t close enough to the blasts to experience the sort of immediate deformities [suffered by the Japanese –] It deformed their genes. Sorry it’s a bit of a bummer.”
Science cuts in Australian budget
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation gets $31m over four years towards the costs of operating the Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) nuclear research reactor…..
$111m was cut from the CSIRO over the forward estimates.
Funding cuts were also slated for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ($27.5m) and the Australian Institute for Marine Science ($7.8m). The Australian Research Council, which funds much basic research, particularly outside the biomedical sphere, receives a $75m cut over the forward estimates.
Unfortunately, the long-feared cuts to the Cooperative Research Centres did eventuate. Funding for CRCs will be frozen from current funding levels of $148m, and by 2017-18 will decline to $138m, a considerable cut in real terms. The government says that it will save about $124m over the forward estimates by crimping funding for the CRCs and axing the Clean Technology Innovation Program. Still, given the recommendations of the Commission of Audit, many in the sector may be pleased that the program escaped abolition altogether……..
Also being abolished, as foreshadowed, is the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The government will save $1.3bn by killing off the clean tech innovation fund, which has acted to support renewable energy projects in their start-up and early stages.
Overall, the science budget represents a clear change in the government’s priorities. Biomedical research is a big winner. Anything that isn’t medical research has suffered.
Environmental programs in particular have been targeted. It’s almost as though the government went looking for programs that featured the words “clean”, “green” or “renewable”. http://www.theguardian.com/world/australia-news-blog/2014/may/13/mixed-bag-for-science-in-joe-hockeys-first-budget
Abbott government promised energy efficiency project – now dumped
Government dumps promise for energy efficiency agency http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/latest/government-dumps-promise-for-energy-efficiency-agency/story-e6frg90f-1226917229830 TRISTAN EDIS MAY 14, 2014 The budget papers have stated that the Government will drop an election promise to re-establish Low Carbon Australia – a body that sought to provide specialist financing for energy efficiency projects. Low Carbon Australia was originally established by the Rudd Labor Government but was subsequently merged into the Clean Energy Finance Corporation around a year ago.Complicating matters for the government was that they wished to abolish the CEFC while at the same time reviving Low Carbon Australia. Yet its staff and functions had been integrated into the CEFC.
To date the government has been unable to pass the necessary legislation to repeal the act which enables the CEFC to continue to operate and finance projects.
74% of Germany’s energy needs generated from renewable energy
Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent Of Energy Needs From Renewable Energy http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/13/3436923/germany-energy-records/
BY KILEY KROH
MAY 13, 2014 ON SUNDAY, GERMANY’S IMPRESSIVE STREAK OF RENEWABLE ENERGY MILESTONES CONTINUED, WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION SURGING TO A RECORD PORTION — NEARLY 75 PERCENT — OF THE COUNTRY’S OVERALL ENERGY DEMAND BY MIDDAY. WITH WIND AND SOLAR IN PARTICULAR FILLING SUCH A HUGE PORTION OF THE COUNTRY’S POWER DEMAND, ELECTRICITY PRICES ACTUALLY DIPPED INTO THE NEGATIVE FOR MUCH OF THE AFTERNOON, ACCORDING TO RENEWABLES INTERNATIONAL.
In the first quarter of 2014, renewable energy sources met a record 27 percent of the country’s electricity demand, thanks to additional installations and favorable weather. “Renewable generators produced 40.2 billion 
kilowatt-hours of electricity, up from 35.7 billion kilowatt-hours in the same period last year,” Bloomberg reported. Much of the country’s renewable energy growth has occurred in the past decade and, as a point of comparison, Germany’s 27 percent is double the approximately 13 percent of U.S. electricity supply powered by renewables as of November 2013.
Observers say the records will keep coming as Germany continues its Energiewende, or energy transformation, which aims to power the country almost entirely on renewable sources by 2050.
“Once again, it was demonstrated that a modern electricity system such as the German one can already accept large penetration rates of variable but predictable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar PV power,” said Bernard Chabot, a renewable energy consultant based in France, via email. “In fact there are no technical and economic obstacles to go first to 20 percent of annual electricity demand penetration rate from a combination of those two technologies, then 50 percent and beyond by combining them with other renewables and energy efficiency measures and some progressive storage solutions at a modest level.”
To reach the lofty goal of 80 percent renewables by 2050, Germany had to move quickly. Despite being known for gray skies, the country has installed an astonishing amount of solar photovoltaic (PV) power — setting multiple solar power generation records along the way. At the end of 2012, Germany had installed considerably more solar power capacity per capita than any other country. The rapid growth has slowed, however, with 3.3 GW of PV installed in 2013, compared to 7.6 in 2012. And as countries like the U.S., Japan and China catch up, installations have continued to drop in 2014.
Regardless, a recent analysis by the consulting firm Eclareon found that solar power has reached grid parity in Germany, meaning once all of the costs are accounted for, the price of commercial solar power is now equal to retail electricity rates.
And wind power reached record output levels last year — producing a massive 25.2 GW and accounting for 39 percent of the electricity supply on a single day in December.
The unprecedented growth of solar PV in particular has been fueled in large part by policies that incentivize clean energy. Germany’s simple feed-in tariff (FIT) policy, which pays renewable energy producers a set amount for the electricity they produce under long-term contracts, has driven the solar power boom. But as installations continued to outpace government targets, Germany announced last year that it would begin scaling back its feed-in tariff.
The barest mention of radiation danger in jubilant story of a mum who wants to live on Mars
Brisbane teacher and mum Natalie Lawler in running for a life on Mars CONNOR O’BRIEN THE COURIER-MAIL MAY 14, 2014 NATALIE Lawler has it all: A loving partner, two wonderful children, a career … but she’s prepared to give it all up for a shot at the stars.
No, not The Voice.
Ms Lawler has cast her eyes much, much higher: Mars.
The Brisbane maths teacher is in the running to be one of the first civilians to live on the Red Planet. Ms Lawler was one of 200,000 people across the globe to apply for Mars One’s revolutionary program which may see the first human steps taken on Mars in just a decade. The shortlist is now down to 705, including 27 Australians, and Ms Lawler is among them.
There’s only one catch: It’s a one-way trip. Doesn’t that bother her a bit?………
1 This month
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