APRA chief: energy transition will ‘have played out by 2030’ — RenewEconomy
APRA says switch to technologies like batteries, electric vehicles and solar will have largely played out by 2030, and warned of financial risk of ignoring climate change. The post APRA chief: energy transition will ‘have played out by 2030’ appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via APRA chief: energy transition will ‘have played out by 2030’ — RenewEconomy
October 14 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “George P Shultz To Republicans: Climate Action Is An Insurance Policy Reagan Would Like” • When Ronald Reagan got behind the effort to save the ozone layer, there was much less scientific consensus than there is now on climate change, and uncertainty was holding up action. Reagan pointed out a need for action […]
NSW energy minister says renewables and storage will replace old coal generators — RenewEconomy
NSW Energy minister confident he has right settings to encourage investors to drive decarbonisation of state’s grid, and says responding to climate change is prudent business management. The post NSW energy minister says renewables and storage will replace old coal generators appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via NSW energy minister says renewables and storage will replace old coal generators — RenewEconomy
Clean-energy hub Adelaide a drawcard for local and global innovators — RenewEconomy
Bringing together key local and global energy-storage innovators, the Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition (AES 2020) is returning to Adelaide. Registrations to exhibit and sponsor have opened. The post Clean-energy hub Adelaide a drawcard for local and global innovators appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Clean-energy hub Adelaide a drawcard for local and global innovators — RenewEconomy
After this year’s Climate Action Summit, what happens next? — The European Sting – Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology – europeansting.com
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. People across the world need to embrace “fundamental change” in order to combat climate change and meet the target of restricting the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Claudio Forner, from UN Climate Change in Bonn, told UN News in an interview […]
The impossibility of nuclear power solving climate change
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Two nuclear power plants a week nwi times.com Eric Peters, 14 Oct 19, “…………According to a very interesting analysis by professor Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado published recently by Forbes, [to reach zero carbon emissions] it would entail putting at least one new nuclear reactor online every week until 2030 or 2050 (the number of new reactors needed to get to “net zero” carbon-dioxide emissions depending on how soon we want to get there). Leaving aside the regulatory hurdles involved in permitting a single new plant — and the money that would be have to be found to finance the construction of scores of new plants.
Pielke is a mathematician who has done the math, and the numbers are daunting. ……
Pielke, who is also a climate scientist who worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says the only way to replace that much fossil fuel energy with “carbon-neutral” energy using actually feasible technology would be to use nuclear energy. A lot of it.
In his Forbes article, Pielke explains that one nuclear power plant like the Turkey Point reactor complex in Homestead, Florida, generates the equivalent of about 1 million metric tons (1 mteo) of fossil-fueled energy each year. That’s a lot of juice but it hardly puts a dent in the problem………..
Pielke cites International Energy Projections about world energy demand tomorrow. The IEA estimates that “global energy consumption will increase by at least 1.25 percent per year to 2040.”
This will mean a lot more mteos and reactors (or some other carbon-neutral way) to produce them.
“To achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, the world would need to deploy three Turkey Point nuclear plants’ worth of carbon-free energy every two days, starting tomorrow and continuing to 2050,” Pielke writes. “And at the same time,” he adds, the fossil-fueled equivalent of one Turkey Point plant would have to be “decommissioned every day, starting tomorrow and continuing to 2050.” This isn’t just a tall order. It’s an impossible one……. https://www.nwitimes.com/opinion/columnists/guest-commentary/guest-commentary-two-nuclear-power-plants-a-week/article_a206346c-d2f9-55d7-b935-6782b4001cd5.html |
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Clean Energy Council slams Federal Nuclear Inquiry as “distraction” from real energy challenges
CEC slams nuclear inquiry as “distraction” from real energy challenges, https://reneweconomy.com.au/cec-slams-nuclear-inquiry-as-distraction-from-real-energy-challenges-40379/
Sophie Vorrath. 14 October 2019 The Clean Energy Council has delivered a scathing submission to the federal government’s nuclear power inquiry, describing the review itself as a waste of time, and the consideration of nuclear energy as a viable generation source in Australia as “beyond comprehension.”The CEC’s belated submission on the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia said the clean energy industry was disappointed the federal parliament had prioritised the inquiry over “much more pressing and worthwhile topics” such as the need for integrated energy and climate policy.
The Clean Energy Council has delivered a scathing submission to the federal government’s nuclear power inquiry, describing the review itself as a waste of time, and the consideration of nuclear energy as a viable generation source in Australia as “beyond comprehension.”
The CEC’s belated submission on the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia said the clean energy industry was disappointed the federal parliament had prioritised the inquiry over “much more pressing and worthwhile topics” such as the need for integrated energy and climate policy.
“Inquiries such as this are not only misdirected, but also act as a distraction to addressing the real challenges confronting investors, customers and institutions attempting to facilitate and respond to this transition,” CEC chief Kane Thornton said.
And it said little had changed since past analysis of the topic had concluded that nuclear power was too costly, took too long to develop, and would require “a minor miracle” to win community support.
These factors, considered in the light of the “extraordinary progress” of renewable energy and energy storage, and its potential to deliver reliable, affordable and clean power for Australia, just made the inquiry seem even more ridiculous.
“It is beyond our comprehension as to why Australia would contemplate replacing one dirty energy energy production technology with another that produces large amounts of highly hazardous waste, when it could fulfil its objectives of zero emissions with technologies that are lower-cost, faster to develop and readily available now,” the CEC said.
The submission points to the findings of the CSIRO’s GenCost study of 2018, which puts the cost of small modular reactors in excess of $250/MW/hr, compared to the prices of wind and solar energy at $50/MWh. Firmed wind and solar costs, meanwhile, are now below $70/MWh.
And it points out that the only remaining roadblock to the wholesale shift to renewables in Australia is a political one.
“A lack of federal energy policy and combination of a range of regulatory challenges mean that investment confidence in large-scale renewable energy and the accompanying energy storage is fragile,” the submission says.
“As Australia’s coal fired generation continues to close, there is a clear need for policy and regulatory reform to support the continued deployment of renewable energy and energy storage that will secure system reliability and lower energy prices.”
Barnaby Joyce and former foreign minister Bob Carr urge stopping extradition of Julian Assange to USA
Barnaby Joyce joins calls to stop extradition of Assange to US, The Age, By Rob Harris, October 13, 2019 Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has joined calls for the Morrison government to try to halt Julian Assange’s potential extradition from Britain to the United States on espionage charges, as the WikiLeaks founder’s supporters intensify their campaign to bring him to Australia.
Mr Joyce joined former foreign minister Bob Carr in voicing concerns over US attempts to have the 48-year-old Australian stand trial in America, where he faces a sentence of 175 years if found guilty of computer fraud and obtaining and disclosing national defence information.
Also seeking to increase pressure on the federal government is actress Pamela Anderson, who is demanding to meet Prime Minister Scott Morrison to request he intervene in the case. She plans to visit Australia next month.
Assange’s supporters say they are increasingly concerned about his health and his ability to receive a fair trial in the US………
Mr Carr has challenged Foreign Minister Marise Payne to make “firm and friendly” representation to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, believing Australians would be “deeply uneasy” at a fellow citizen being handed over to the “living hell of a lifetime sentence in an American penitentiary”.
Mr Joyce, who in 2007 was the first Coalition MP to call for the then Howard government to act over the detention of Australian David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay, said his position was principled and he gave “no opinion of Mr Assange whatsoever”.
“If someone was in another country at a time an alleged event occurred then the sovereignty of the land they were in has primacy over the accusation of another nation,” Mr Joyce said.
“It would be totally unreasonable, for instance, if China was to say the actions of an Australian citizen whilst in Australia made them liable to extradition to China to answer their charges of their laws in China. Many in Hong Kong have the same view.”
Assange is serving a 50-week sentence in Belmarsh Prison in south-east London for bail violations after spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden to answer allegations of rape and molestation in 2012.
In June, the then British home secretary, Sajid Javid, signed an extradition request after the US Justice Department filed an additional 18 Espionage Act charges over Assange’s role in obtaining and publishing 400,000 classified US military documents on the war in Iraq in 2010.
Mr Carr, the former NSW premier who served as foreign minister in the Gillard government, said he understood many people would have reservations about the “modus operandi” of Assange and his alleged contact with Russia.
Mr Carr said the Morrison government should make strong representations to the US on behalf of an Australian citizen who “is in trouble because he delivered on our right to know”.
“I think the issue will gather pace and in the ultimate trial there’ll be a high level of Australian public concern, among conservative voters as much as any others.”……..
Mr Carr said the Morrison government should make strong representations to the US on behalf of an Australian citizen who “is in trouble because he delivered on our right to know”.
“I think the issue will gather pace and in the ultimate trial there’ll be a high level of Australian public concern, among conservative voters as much as any others.”…….https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/barnaby-joyce-joins-calls-to-stop-extradition-of-assange-to-us-20191013-p53080.html
Kalgoorlie Mayoral Candidate John Katahana wants a Small Nuclear Reactor for the town
Cannabis, nuclear power and Mardi Gras: General Hercules’ out-of-this-world pitch for Kalgoorlie mayoral tilt, The West Australian,
Typhoon #Hagibis re-spreads #nuclear contamination far and wide – Workers heightened risk at #Fukushima
Shaun McGee, nuclear-news.net 13 Oct 19, The latest typhoon to hit Japan has slammed into the area around the Fukushima nuclear plant triggering nuclear contamination of land and waterways that means TEPCO will need to redo a lot of the cleanup they have already done.
Also, contamination workers will have to sort out the damaged remaining nuclear waste plastic bags which will be a risky procedure because of the high Gamma “dose” levels, as well as the particulates of isotopes that can be ingested, inhaled and in the case of micro particles through safety clothing and skin.
Just when we thought TEPCO might be getting a handle on the waste issue (in limited areas) and therefore the health risks, we see 8 years hard work and health risks being repeated again.
Rivers, waterways and drinking water are at risk from these contaminants with both radiological and toxic dangers. Food in the fields, fish in the sea and both human and animals are all at risk.
Taiwan has made representations on the issue of Sea contamination; In fact not only were the bags of nuclear waste damaged but many were completely washed away;
Also, inside the nuclear plant itself radiation alarms went of as the typhoon struck. TEPCO maintain that it was only a malfunction but if that is the case it still shows that the sensitive areas on the devastated nuclear site are insecure and now exposed to the air;
Also, inside the nuclear plant itself radiation alarms went of as the typhoon struck. TEPCO maintain that it was only a malfunction but if that is the case it still shows that the sensitive areas on the devastated nuclear site are insecure and now exposed to the air;
The temperatures after the Typhoon meant that high humidity and the more general damage in the Fukushima Prefecture will hamper repair and cleanup. Also, clean up will prove difficult as there are radioactive hotspots possibly all over the Fukushima prefecture and along the coastline. I am sure testing for the spread of radiation will be left to a few dedicated citizen radiation monitors (whose work is often shared on this blog – nuclear-news.net).
Once again the citizens of Fukushima who remained or who have returned and have battled to reconstruct their homes and business`s suffer another double whammy of natural disaster and nuclear disaster.
Here at nuclear-news.net, our hearts and prayers go to the people of Fukushima and other effected areas, wishing a speedy recovery. Our thoughts too to the injured and to those that have died. Namaste. …… https://nuclear-news.net/2019/10/14/typhoon-hagibis-re-spreads-nuclear-contamination-far-and-wide-workers-heightened-risk-at-fukushima/
Pamela Anderson to confront Scott Morrison and plead for Australia to help Julian Assange
Pamela Anderson is on her way to Australia, and she’s challenging our Prime Minister on entry.
The former Baywatch superstar is headed to the Gold Coast next month to shoot a series of ‘Unexpected Situation’ commercials for Ultra Tune.
The ads are expected to air over summer, in conjunction with the 2020 Australian Tennis Open and Big Bash Cricket.
She’s no stranger to the land down under, after her affiliation with jailed Wikileaks founder and Australian, Julian Assange, gained world-wide attention.
Late last year, Anderson made a public plea on 60 minutes for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to do more to help. “Defend your friend, get Julian his passport back and take him back to Australia and be proud of him, and throw him a parade when he gets home,” Ms Anderson said.
Scott Morrison then told 1029 Hot Tomato’s Flan, Emily Jade and Christo that he’s had “plenty of mates who’ve asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort the issue out with Pamela Anderson.”
Ms Anderson called out the comments as ‘disappointing’, ‘smutty’, and ‘unnecessary’, and is now – a year later – wanting to address them face to face.
She’s announced she’ll again be petitioning him to intervene on Julian Assange’s behalf.
“What is also important to me about this visit is the opportunity to speak to the Australian people and petition Prime Minister Morrison to intervene on behalf of Australian citizen, Julian Assange, who is being made a scapegoat of and suffered inhumanely for disseminating factual information we all should know about.
“Mr Morrison made a series of personally, disparaging remarks about me and I’d like to challenge him to debate this matter in front of the Australian people,” Ms Anderson said in a recent statement.”
Sources of content : http://www.mygc.com.au/pamela-anderson-challenges-scott-morrison-ahead-of-australia-visit
Hundreds of climate scientists back Extinction Rebellion protest movement
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Hundreds of climate scientists call on protesters to step up efforts to save the planet, https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2019/10/13/climate-scientists-call-for-more-protests/ More than 300 scientists have endorsed a civil disobedience campaign aimed at forcing governments to take rapid action to tackle climate change, warning that failure could inflict “incalculable human suffering”.In a joint declaration made in London, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries, including Australia, broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters from The Netherlands to Australia.
Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolise their research credentials, a group of about 20 of the signatories gathered on Saturday to read out the text outside London’s Science Museum. “We believe that the continued governmental inaction over the climate and ecological crisis now justifies peaceful and non-violent protest and direct action, even if this goes beyond the bounds of the current law,” said Emily Grossman, a science broadcaster with a PhD in molecular biology, who read the declaration on behalf of the group. “We therefore support those who are rising up peacefully against governments around the world that are failing to act proportionately to the scale of the crisis,” she said. The declaration was co-ordinated by a group of scientists who support Extinction Rebellion, a civil disobedience campaign that formed in Britain a year ago and has since sparked offshoots in dozens of countries. The group launched a fresh wave of international actions on Monday, aiming to get governments to address an ecological crisis caused by climate change and accelerating extinctions of plant and animal species. A total of 1,307 volunteers had since been arrested at various protests in London by Saturday, Extinction Rebellion said. A further 1,463 volunteers have been arrested in the past week in another 20 cities, including Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney and Toronto, according to the group’s tally. More protests in this latest wave are due in the coming days. While many scientists have tended to shun overt political debate, preferring to confine their public pronouncements within the parameters of their research, the academics backing Extinction Rebellion say they feel compelled to speak out. “The urgency of the crisis is now so great that many scientists feel, as humans, that we now have a moral duty to take radical action,” Grossman told Reuters. Other signatories included several scientists who contributed to the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has produced a series of reports underscoring the urgency of dramatic cuts in carbon emissions. Extinction Rebellion has electrified supporters who said they had despaired at the failure of conventional campaigning to spur action. But its success in paralysing parts of London has also angered critics who complained the movement has inconvenienced thousands of people and diverted police resources. The group said more than half the signatories of the declaration are experts in the fields of climate science and the loss of wildlife. Although British universities and institutes were well represented, signatories also worked in countries including Australia, the United States, Spain and France. |
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Marshall Islands, stuck with low lying nuclear waste, declares a Climate Emergency
Marshall Islands, low-lying US ally and nuclear testing site, declares a climate crisis https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/marshall-islands-low-lying-us-ally-and-nuclear-testing-site/article_4b37cc0d-040d-5b2a-b83e-1df6d71dfb74.html, By Susanne Rust Los Angeles Times (TNS), Oct 11, 2019
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- The Marshall Islands, a low-lying chain of atolls and key U.S. ally in the Central Pacific, has declared a national climate crisis because of the mounting risk of sea-level rise, the nation’s president announced this week.
The nation’s parliament, the Nitijela, overwhelmingly supported a measure that calls upon the international community to step up its efforts to mitigate global warming and provide aid to nations unable to finance safeguards against rising seas.
“As one of only four low-lying coral atoll nations in the world, the failure of the international community to adequately respond to the global climate crisis of its own making holds particularly grave consequences,” wrote President Hilda Heine in a tweet Wednesday.
Low-lying coral atoll nations such as the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean are particularly vulnerable to rising oceans, averaging just a few feet above sea level. There have already been episodes of “King Tide” flooding in the Marshall Islands, which consists of 29 coral atolls, located about 5,000 miles from Los Angeles and 2,000 from Hawaii.
A recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that sea level could rise by 1 to 4 feet by 2100, potentially submerging many of these nations, and by 2050, making many uninhabitable.
The report echoes research sponsored by the Department of Defense, which found Kwajalein Atoll, where the U.S. leases a strategic military base, could become unlivable by 2030, if the Antarctic ice sheet were to melt. Mid-century inhabitability due to flooding, storm waves and ground water contamination by salt water was predicted in a more conservative model.
The resolution calls upon the Nitijela to “unite fully and unequivocally behind the science” and to recognize the rights of the Marshallese youth to grow up in a “climate safe future.”
It asks the international community to “consider additional ways to respond to and support the extreme vulnerability and special circumstances” unique to low-lying coral atoll islands, such as the Marshall Islands.
“Prolonged and unseasonal droughts are hitting us real hard, and saltwater is creeping into our freshwater lands,” said Heine last month at the United Nations Climate Action conference in New York. “We are on the very front line of climate change.”
The United States used the Marshall Islands as a nuclear testing ground during the Cold War, detonating 67 nuclear bombs on the nation between 1946 and 1958.
The U.S. is committing $10 million to the Pacific region for disaster resilience, weather forecasting and “to address environmental challenges,” said a U.S. State Department spokesperson Friday. “The United States recognizes that addressing environmental degradation and climate change is a priority in the Pacific — especially for the Marshall Islands — due to the threat posed by sea level rise and the region’s vulnerability to natural disasters.”
An example , from UK, of media’s mindless and incorrect spin on ‘Rediscover Nuclear’
Radiation Free Lakeland 12th Oct 2019, New Nuclear** On the anniversary of the Windscale disaster and in the midst of the building of a new gas plant especially for Sellafield, the North West Evening Mail publishes a press release from the nuclear industry touting the ‘Rediscover Nuclear’ campaign.
Some of the laughable descriptions include “homegrown” “safe” “low carbon”. Each of these claims is a big fat lie. As Phil Johnstone tweets: UK “homegrown” nuclear. “UK only ever sold 2 reactors back in 60s, British Energy no longer exists. The UK doesn’t really have much of a civil nuclear industry. What is “homegrown” about it? Electricite de France? China General Nuclear Power Corporation?
https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2019/10/12/homegrown-dont-make-me-laugh/
Energy – the most effective, but most neglected, way to cut back carbon emissions
Business Green 10th Oct 2019, Energy Efficiency. The public needs reminding that saving energy is good for the planet, argues Andrew Warren.
British people are very confused about what they should most usefully be doing, in order to assuage any guilt they might feel about damaging the climate. A Smart Energy GB study released this week found just three in 10 people think being energy efficient would have the biggest impact on protecting the environment.
This startling finding was backed up another a survey of 2,000 people undertaken by Opinium Research. That found saving energy tends to come way down the list of possible practical response under consideration. The most popular response to the Opinium survey was to “avoid throwing away food”. This was followed by various moves to reduce plastic wastage – buying plastic-packed groceries, single-use plastic bottles, using plastic shopping bags – or simply not recycling enough.
Steven Day, co-founder of Pure Planet, which sponsored the opinion survey, commented: “It is great that the majority of people are thinking more about their impact on our environment. But it looks like they
are feeling guilty about the smaller things – not the biggest-impact
activities causing the greatest harm.”
This lack of awareness of the potential for saving energy contrasts enormously with similar surveys undertaken twenty years ago, admittedly when overall awareness of the threat of climate change was far lower. Then, the vast majority of people would always respond to questions to the threat of climate change by emphasising the need to save energy, both at home and at work.
Since 2010 there have been no publicly funded awareness campaigns supporting energy efficiency funded by central government. Their abandonment directly followed the privatisation of the two main public advice agencies, the Energy Saving Trust and the Carbon Trust.
1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net/
FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia Read the published submissions on the Parliamentary website. Read the SUMMARIES of submissions here.
Julian Assange and the Australian Media | Q&A
EVENTS
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION – theme for October 19
Christian Porter’s press freedom ‘safeguard’ raises fears over reporters’ independence
Key points:
- Mr Porter’s directive could protect ABC and New Corp employees from prosecution for reporting on national security issues
- But Law Council president Arthur Moses SC fears the decision will pressure journalists to keep in governments’ good books to avoid criminal charges
- The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance says the measure could act as a safeguard but it was the wrong approach
Under pressure to do more to protect press freedom, Christian Porter issued a directive that prosecutors will need his approval before charging journalists under certain sections of Australia’s secrecy laws.
The decision could shield ABC and News Corp employees from facing possible criminal charges over their reporting on national security issues following June’s raids by the Australian Federal Police.
But Law Council of Australia President Arthur Moses SC said it would not help solve the “legitimate concerns raised by the media” since the raids.
“Let me be very blunt about this, it does not allay the concerns that have being raised in relation to press freedoms in Australia,” Mr Moses said.
“It puts the Attorney-General, who after all is a politician, in the position of authorising prosecutions of journalists in situations where they may have written stories critical of his Government.
“It creates an apprehension on the part of journalists that they will need to curry favour with the Government or, in particular, the Attorney-General in order to avoid prosecution………..
The directive did not rule out the prospect of the journalists facing charges, nor did it make any mention of any particular cases.
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance president Marcus Strom agreed Mr Porter’s measure could act as a safeguard, but did not agree it was the right approach.
“We’d like to think it’s a welcome development for Dan Oakes, Sam Clark and Annika Smethurst who have been facing prosecution recently,” Mr Strom said.
“[But] we don’t want politicians to be deciding the fate of journalists.
“It doesn’t seem to be a solution to the problem — which is that journalism is effectively criminalised in this country.”
Mr Strom has argued for the decision to be made as part of a judicial process instead.
The Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said while Labor welcomed the measure, Mr Porter still needed to rule out any charges being laid against the three journalists.
“This direction is not legislation … it won’t prevent police raids, it won’t prevent other actions of intimidation by the Government,” he said.
“What we urgently need are more robust protections for press freedom.” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-01/journalists-under-pressure-government-onside-press-freedom-afp/11562102
PETITION
Free Julian Assange, before it’s too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition
