Australian renewable energy technologies need government stimulus
Many Australian ideas are now being commercialised overseas, such as David Mills’ solar thermal technology
Without government intervention to ‘tilt the marketplace’, Australia could lose its potential competitive edge in developing renewable energy technologies and will become a passive importer of technologies developed overseas,
The route to a renewable energy future for Australia, Eco Business, February 22nd, 2012 ,By : Vicky Kenrick , Renewable energy production is excelling in Europe and making its name as a simple and cost effective alternative to fossil fuel power generation; meanwhile it is barely developed within Australia and in need of increased focus and investment.
That may come in 2013-2014. Despite the recession affecting the global economy, the world invested a record US$251 billion in clean energy during 2011, with the US streaking ahead in green spending ($54 billion) and boosting confidence among climate action advocates. This was further endorsed last month at COP17 where the major green-house emitting countries recognised the need for further investment in renewable technologies.
According to Kobad Bhavnagri, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s lead clean energy analyst in Australia, Australia’s investment is on track to rise to US$6.8 billion next year and will aim to be a total of $45 billion by 2020, However, is this enough investment to meet the target of renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal making up 20 per cent of the energy supply for Australia?
Despite some of the best renewable energy resources on the planet, Australia has been slow at tapping into the potential of these. Nevertheless, Australia did see an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year; with the biggest contribution to the $4.7 billion spend on renewable energy, coming from solar power installations. Continue reading
Hypocrisy of New South Wales govt – permitting uranium exploration, “but not mining”
Uranium in Broken Hill? 16 February, 2012 ABC News, By Natalie Whiting and Cherie McDonald “………. Environemtal impact A local Greens member says he is concerned about the legislative change, saying the Government wouldn’t have overturned the ban if it didn’t intend to mine…
… the Greens Broken Hill spokesman Cameron Jones says local residents should think carefully if they want uranium
mining in the far west because that will be the result of exploration. “Exploring is lovely, exploring is what great people like Burke and Wills did, and Sturt did (but) mining companies are not like those things at all. “Mining companies don’t invest in exploration as they like to call it, unless they’re willing to go further.
“You don’t dig a hole in the ground and go ‘oh, we found something, let’s leave it there’, what you do is you dig a hole in the ground, you find it, and you find a way to dig it up.”
He says Broken Hill residents need to make a conscience decision about whether they want to be exporting uranium from the region….. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/02/16/3432617.htm
Australia’s pro nuclear zealots continue to “spin” Fukushima
One year on, Fukushima is still spinning The Drum, Jim Green, 16 Feb 12, The first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster is fast approaching and it promises to be another silly-season for Australia’s pro-nuclear zealots.
They have form. While the crisis was unfolding in March last year, Ziggy Switkowski advised that“the best place to be whenever there’s an earthquake is at the perimeter of a nuclear plant because they are designed so well.”
Switkowski wants dozens of nuclear power plants built in Australia – dozens of places to shelter from earthquakes.
Even as nuclear fuel meltdown was in full swing at Fukushima, Adelaide University’s Professor Barry Brook reassured us that:
“There is no credible risk of a serious accident… Those spreading FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] at the moment will be the ones left with egg on their faces. I am happy to be quoted forever after on the above if I am wrong … but I won’t be.”
Eggs, anyone? Continue reading
Uranium industry leading South Australia to economic disaster
FORMER Australian ambassador Richard Broinowski feels sorry for South Australia because of its uranium industry. CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL Business Editor , AdelaideNow , February 14, 2012 In a rowdy lecture at UniSA’s Hawke Centre, Mr Broinowski said the days of the industry were numbered following the Fukushima disaster.
This would directly affect SA with its three mines at Olympic Dam, Beverley and Honeymoon. “I’m very sorry for SA,” he said. “You’ve got a Premier who wants this, who sees dollar signs flashing before his eyes.”
Mr Broinowski, a former ambassador to South Korea and to Vietnam, is now an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney.
He declared himself to be a member of the anti-nuclear industry and in a lecture to about 150 people at the Hawke Centre on Monday night, gave a taste of a book he is writing on Fukushima and its political fallout. He predicts the collapse of the nuclear industry in Japan within ten years.
The end was nigh even though Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda did not have the same “fire in the belly” to close the nuclear industry as predecessor Naoto Kan who was in charge at the time of earthquake and tsunami disaster.
“The Japanese have turned the corner,” Mr Broinowski said. “There’s going to be change.
“… The nuclear industry in Japan has a short life. I give it 10 years before there is a dimunition. A lot of reactors are not going to go back on-line, no new ones are going to be built and the ones which will be allowed to come back online will done grudgingly and simply as part of the mix to get over the interregnum until they go to renewables.”
Japan’s position, coupled with the stance of Germany where there is also a political decision to phase out the nuclear industry, would show the world the power source was unnecessary, he said…… http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/im-very-sorry-for-sa-broinowski/story-e6fredj3-1226270697506
Waubra and Landscape Guardians cosy with mining investment company
Wind farms, the Waubra Foundation and a post-office box Crikey, by Simon Chapman, 10 Feb 2012 On January 24 I was interviewed in prime time by ABC 702’s breakfast radio host Adam Spencer about wind farms and health. During the interview, I noted that two prominent anti-wind farm groups, the Waubra Foundation and the Australian Landscape Guardians, shared a post-office box with a mining investment company.
The president of the Australian Landscape Guardians Inc, Randall Bell, subsequently […] http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/02/09/wind-farms-and-mining-investment-companies-australia/
Factual rundown on Australia’s Nuclear Waste Dump Debate
Factbox: Muckaty Nuclear Waste Dump SBS World Newsw, 08 February 2012
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1624930/Factbox:-Muckaty-Nuclear-Waste-Dump
Australia should follow successful renewable energy economy banks in Europe, China USA
Why we need a big green bank for low carbon transition, REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson 9 February 2012 One of the arguments that has been thrown forward against the proposed Clean Energy Finance Corporation – and will no doubt continue to be so in the coming months – is that it will be good money thrown after bad, and the $10 billion planned injection by the federal Government over a five year period is out of all proportion to the task at hand. There is a general assumption, as there was in the carbon debate, that Australia is doing something that no-one else has contemplated, and that it is recklessly and needlessly leading the world. But as in the carbon pricing debate, this is not so.
The experience of the Solar Flagships, and other grants-based programs for that matter, highlight the need and the opportunity for the CEFC. Institutional investors, noting the $100 billion that will be required in renewable energy investments at a minimum over the next two decades, insist that such an independent financial institutions will play a critical role in stimulating the transition to a clean economy.
Recent surveys suggest that this is the approach of all the countries that are currently playing a leading role in clean energy investment – Germany, China, the US and Brazil – and each have state-owned development banks, or their equivalent, underwriting the majority of cleantech investment. Continue reading
Australia’s media obscures real meaning behind Aboriginal tent embassy
Aboriginal people have every right to be angry, and public protest is one of the most important avenues available to them to make their voices heard.
About 2000 people had gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and to reaffirm the struggle for Aboriginal sovereignty. Several Aboriginal leaders spoke of the history of the embassy as a place where Aboriginal people asserted their existence and demanded change in the face of a political establishment that wants to ignore them.
This is why the Tent Embassy remains important today. Its work is a long way from finished.
Aboriginal people are right to protest, Green Left, February 4, 2012, By Ash Pemberton Truth and accuracy have never been the highest priorities for the mainstream media. But hysteria and misrepresentation of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protest in Canberra on January 26 have been taken to an absurd level.
Terms like “mob violence”, “thuggery” and “riot” have been used by journalists and politicians to describe a protest where no one was injured, no property was damaged and no one was arrested.
Selectively edited television footage has been used to poison public opinion against protesters, giving the false impression they posed a threat to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott. Rather than speak to the small crowd about Abbott’s earlier comment that the Tent Embassy should move on, Gillard and Abbott chose to run from a function they were attending about 100 metres away from the Tent Embassy.
The media’s portrayal of Gillard and Abbott as victims of Aboriginal aggression is deeply ironic. Such a portrayal is possible only when deep racism and ignorance are the norm in society. Continue reading
Lindsay Soutar’s drive for renewable energy, making life uncomfortable for politicians
Her 100% Renewable campaign, which she began from scratch two years ago, now has about 100 groups with tens of thousands of members nationwide, making life uncomfortable for politicians with actions that go well beyond demonstrations and banner waving..
She argues some in the climate movement are naive because they think making a persuasive case without applying political pressure is enough, when ”massive vested interests” such as mining companies run counter-campaigns…..
Knocking on doors of change, SMH, February 4, 2012 No topic is off limits for the environmental optimist who thinks it’s time to stop ‘scaring the pants off people’, writes Debra Jopson. – Lindsay Soutar…. the Young Environmentalist of the Year…..Soutar, 30, is something of a legend in green circles for giving up her paid work advising local councils on emissions reductions and then creating a national campaign aimed at shifting Australia to 100 per cent renewable energy. …. Continue reading
Tony Abbott insensitive to Aboriginals’ right to decide on future of their political protest
Why Abbott’s tent embassy comments were wrong, SMH, Russell Marks,February 2, 2012 “…….What was wrong with what Tony Abbott said? It was his assumption that he, as a non-indigenous man, could rightfully or usefully express an opinion on the way indigenous people conduct their politics of reform, protest and resistance. And it was that Abbott expressed such an opinion on a day many indigenous people mourn as commemorating a colonial invasion.
If non-indigenous Australians are to truly “work on our own racisms”, then we (my own ancestry is European) must not only acknowledge the problem, but we must also acknowledge indigenous people’s rights to determine their own
strategies in response to the problem…….
he remains blind to the racism that has informed nearly every policy in this area since European colonisation, from protectionism to assimilation to the Northern Territory intervention: the racism of paternalism, of “we know what’s best for you”.
Unfortunately, most of the media commentary since the incident has missed this core aspect of the protests.
The protesters’ rights to express their anger have been roundly dismissed. As the media chased the story down various rabbit holes,….. mainstream opinion is hostile to indigenous demands fortrue equality……
If non-indigenous Australians are to contribute towards improving those shameful epidemiological statistics and towards a true national reconciliation, then we must acknowledge the racism inherent in the kind of paternalism that allows Tony Abbott to express an opinion on the suitability of the tent embassy – and the racism inherent in our inability to see anything wrong with that. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/why-abbotts-tent-embassy-comments-were-wrong-20120201-1qssk.html#ixzz1lFoz8HD3
Australian Nuclear Free Alliance represented at Yokohama international conference
The lands of the Kookotha people, the group that are from the land next to mine, are currently occupied by the world’s biggest mining company, BHP Billiton.
The mine is called Olympic Dam and it use 33 million litres of ground water per day, for free. The water is drawn by pipe from my land. Since the beginning of time, Aboriginal people have taken care of our land Australia.
But the uranium mine poisons the water, land and life through releasing radiation….
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/49872 VIDEO Peter Watts: Uranium should stay in the ground, Green Left, , January 31, 2012 Arabunna man Peter Watts is the co-chair of ANFA, the Australian
Nuclear Free Alliance. Formed in 1997, ANFA (formerly the Alliance Against Uranium) brings together Aboriginal people and relevant NGO’s concerned about existing or proposed nuclear developments inAustralia, particularly on Aboriginal homelands.
In early 2012, Watts represented ANFA at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World, held in Yokohama, Japan, in the wake of the Fukushima disasters. Continue reading
Economic forecasts cast doubt on Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion
BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam – To Go, Or No Go? Commodities and Futures, By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | January 31, 2012 The slowing global economy could potentially affect the construction and start-up operations of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s $20 billion expansion into the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine.
On Monday night, executives of the Australian mining giant met with South Australian government and opposition leaders to thresh out concerns as the board of BHP Billiton Ltd. discusses on grating the ultimate approval that will push the multi-million Olympic Dam mine expansion and development.
SA Premier Jay Weatherill earlier said he had hoped BHP Billiton Ltd.’s approval would be released by middle of this year. However, Mr Weatherill was also quick to acknowledge the present and real danger affecting the world’s economy will likely push the board of the Australian miner to pause and stall its decision …….. the state parliament passed in 2011 the legislation to enable the expansion of the world’s largest open-cut mine,
Quiet discussions between Australia and Russia on nuclear technology
Lavrov to discuss space, nuclear cooperation in Australia, Ria Novosti 30 Jan 12 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss bilateral cooperation in high-tech industries, including space and nuclear power, during his one-day working visit to Australia on Tuesday. The talks with Australian officials will focus on bilateral cooperation in nuclear power, space and mining industries, information technologies and agriculture, the ministry said……
Russia and Australia signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement in September 2007. Australia, the global leader in uranium production, agreed to supply fuel to Russia for conversion and use in its nuclear reactors. http://en.ria.ru/russia/20120131/171037702.html
Slow move to sell Australian uranium to India
Australia to soon start talks with India on uranium supply IBN Live, 2012 New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI) Australia 
will embark on commercial discussions with India on the nuclear commerce, a senior Australian High Commission officer said here today but did not give any time frame for it. Terming as “positive” the proposed move of 46th national
conference of the ruling Labour Party to export uranium to India, a resolution for which was moved by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Counsellor-Commercial in the High Commission Grayson Perry, said “robust discussions (political and commercial) will take place between India and Australia. “It is a positive move because earlier there were no discussions”, … http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/australia-to-soon-start-talks-with-india-on-uranium-supply/958007.html
Preserving country and culture- Laurie Baymarrwangga – Senior Australian of the year
Protecting Australia – Senior ANinety-five-year-old Laurie Baymarrwangga from the Crocodile Islands in East Arnhem land is the senior Australian of the year. ABC Rural, By Liz Trevaskis , 26 January 2012 The Aboriginal elder has dedicated her life to the preservation of environment, culture and ecological knowledge, and has donated $400,0000 of her own money to establish projects including a local ranger program and a turtle sanctuary.ustralian of the Year fights for environment and culture…
. She has worked in enormously wonderful ways to create homelands, to put together dictionary projects, to aid livelihood projects like the Crocodile Islands rangers, and she’s worked to help bilingual education and help children learn their own
language on their own country. ….http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2012/s3416266.htm?site=darwin
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 