Since Liberal Coalition govt dumped carbon price, greenhouse emissions have soared
Electricity emissions soar since Coalition dumps carbon price, Independent Australia Giles Parkinson 9 April 2016 RenewEconomy‘s Giles Parkinson discusses Australia’s rapidly rising electricity emissions following the Coalition’s axing of the carbon price and in direct contradiction to the Paris climate agreement.
AUSTRALIA’S ELECTRICITY emissions continue to rise and are now 5.5 per cent higher than they were before the carbon price was dumped, putting Australia against the global trend which is seeing energy emissions flat-lining even as the global economy expands.
Pitt & Sherry analyst Hugh Saddler says in his latest monthly survey that total emissions from electricity generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM) – all but Western Australia and the Northern Territory – increased again in the year to March 2016.
Annual emissions were 5.5 per cent higher than in the year to June 2014, when the Coalition killed the carbon price introduced by the Labor Government, to much acclaim from the government.
This startling jump in emissions comes despite the fact that Australia has signed up to the Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to 2°C, and if possible 1.5°C. Energy emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, have flatlined for the past two years.
The rise in emissions also comes amid rising global CO2 levels, soaring temperatures, and the most serious coral bleaching event ever witnessed in the Great Barrier Reef.
Saddler blames the rise in emissions on a number of factors. One is the removal of the carbon price, which paved the way for more burning of coal, black coal in particular.
Another is the rise in coal generation in Queensland to support the exports of liquefied natural gas — which will contribute an extra 8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year.
A third is the increase in demand, driven largely by natural gas (LNG) requirements in Queensland but also rebounds in peak demand in other states, particularly in response to the unusually hot summer worsened by the “El Niño” effect, which has exacerbated the rise in global temperatures………..
While the Coalition has dumped the grants mechanisms to renewable energy projects, so it can “protect” taxpayers’ money, it continues to use taxpayer funds to make handouts to polluters to reduce emissions under the Emissions Reduction Fund.
The ERF will be supported by something called the “safeguard mechanism”, which is supposedly designed to ensure that while emissions are cut in one sector that they do not rise in another.
However, under details released on Wednesday, polluters, including those in the electricity sector, will be allowed to emit as much as they have at any point in the five year period from 2009-2014 without penalty.
The Government says in a preview of its legislation:
A baseline will apply across the electricity sector, with individual baselines to apply in the event that the sectoral-baseline is exceeded. The sectoral baseline will be set at the high point of sectoral emissions over the period 2009-10 to 2013-14.
Individual baselines will also be set at each facility’s highest annual emissions between 2009-10 and 2013-14. Generators will have access to the same emissions management options as facilities in other sectors, as well as similar baseline adjustments to accommodate economic growth. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/electricity-emissions-soar-since-coalition-dumps-carbon-price,8863
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