Australia’s new climate laws are just the start for our clean energy future
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation [CEFC] and Australian Renewable Energy Agency [ARENA] have the potential to dramatically reshape the investment environment for renewable energy in this country. If they are to be as effective as they possibly can be, the renewable energy industry and those who want to see it grow as fast as it can have a very small window of opportunity to help shape the CEFC’s investment mandate and make suggestions for who should be on the boards of both
independent statutory authorities. We need to get these right and get them moving to give big solar and all the other technologies themarket signal they need to start building.
Now begins the campaign for serious climate action, The Drum, CHRISTINE MILNE, 9 Nov 11 Yesterday we celebrated a huge achievement, with the passage of the Clean Energy Future legislation that finally puts a price on pollution
and gets us ready for historical investments in clean, renewable energy, energy efficiency and protection of landscape carbon.
But, in a very real way, yesterday’s vote is a new beginning for the campaign for serious climate action, not the end. This package of bills was designed carefully to have as many points of review as possible, as many opportunities for campaigning as possible, and as much independent expert advice as possible. Critically, it is designed with complete upward flexibility: there is no limit to ourambition if we are ready to aim high.
The challenge now is to build the political will for ambitious, science-based action over the years ahead. Continue reading
Australia’s carbon tax becomes law
Finally, carbon tax becomes law, The Labor government has finally got its carbon price plan through the Senate — on a vote of 36 to 32. The Age, Michelle Grattan November 8, 2011
The carbon price begins with a tax, starting next July and will move later to a trading scheme. The issue has dogged Labor, contributing to Kevin Rudd’s fall from the leadership, after he backed off on his emission trading scheme, delaying it when he could not get it through the Senate.
‘‘The Gillard government has today secured a clean energy future for all Australians,’’ Ms Gillard said.
Senator Brown said it was ‘‘a green-letter day that will echo down the ages’’. He said the debate on the legislation was over. ‘‘There will be no rescission of this legislation,’’ he said. Mr Abbott has promised he will scrap the legislation.
Finance Minister Penny Wong told Parliament: ‘‘Today we deliver. This is a reform for our children. Today marks the beginning of Australia’s clean future’’. Later she said the issue had been ‘‘a reminder of how hard reform can be’’ and thanked those who had campaigned through difficult times… : http://www.smh.com.au/environment/finally-carbon-tax-becomes-law-20111108-1n4rq.html#ixzz1dAdTELxy
Australia’s carbon tax has a symbolic and leadership value in international effort against global warming
The passage of this initiative is still hugely important, if for no other reason than that it shows Big Coal can be rolled. The coal industry is an even larger part of the Australian economy than it is of the American, and it has an enormous amount of political power. And just like here in the U.S., there are plenty of shrill politicians in Oz who claim that any new tax will lead to economic ruin.
Gillard told Members of Parliament that they would be judged on their vote by every Australian, “because the final test is not are you on the right side of the politics of the week, or the polls of the year.”
“The final test is this: are you on the right side of history?”
Australian Carbon Tax Vote: A Very Big Deal, ROLLING STONE, : OCTOBER 13, By JEFF GOODELL So maybe there is hope for us yet. After what one Aussie columnist calls“the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign ever waged before the Australian public,” with millions of dollars spent on media ads and climate skeptics flown in from around the world, Australia’s House of Representatives voted yesterday, 74 to 72,to levy a tax on carbon pollution. The proposal, which was pushed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, will impose a price of $23 on a ton of carbon pollution, starting in 2015. After 2015, an emissions-trading scheme will be introduced, with the goal of cutting total carbon pollution 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. The legislation still needs to pass the Senate, but because Greens control the balance of power there, that is not likely to be a problem. Unless something dramatic happens, in a few months Australia will have taken an important first step toward saving itself from the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
This is a big deal. Continue reading
Carbon tax bill will benefit most Australians
Carbon tax bill is good news for Australia, Guardian UK, 14 Oct 11, Once the dust settles, the majority in Australia are likely to find that the bill will benefit them Thanks to a narrow victory for the government, Australia now looks likely to join the EU and New Zealand in introducing a comprehensive policy to make carbon polluters pay for the damage they cause. This is very good news. It has been an uphill battle, with the opposition and business lobby all but claiming that the sky would fall in should the bill be passed.
But once the dust settles and the lamenting subsides, the majority of people of Australia are likely to find that the bill passed on Wednesday benefits them. Much of the money raised from the carbon price of £15 per tonne of emissions will be recycled in the form of tax breaks and compensatory payments.
It will also be used to stimulate investment in new clean energy technologies leading to new jobs and increased inward investment. Hopefully over time this will boost Labour and the Greens’ popularity, so ensuring that the policy is protected – despite opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood promise” to repeal the legislation.
Australia’s energy system is among the most polluting in the world thanks to its heavy reliance on coal, but Australia’s climate is vulnerable to the impact that climate change brings. Acting to reduce emissions is in the country’s self-interest in the longer term, especially if it can act as an inspiration for other countries to follow.
South Korea and China are looking to introduce emissions-trading schemes and all eyes in the global carbon market are now firmly looking eastwards. There could be significant advantages for Australia’s financial institutions in being amongst the first to participate in this market, just as London has benefited from being the hub of the European carbon market….
Being out in front has its advantages and confers a moral superiority but there will always be forces of conservatism who will be made to feel uncomfortable. It is therefore more important than ever that countries in the early adopters group work together to defend their actions and encourage more into the fold.
No one, in Europe or Australia, can now claim to be going it alone, and with luck soon many more will step up and join the race to the top. As Australia has shown this will not be easy, but we must defy those who would rather participate in a race to the bottom where ultimately everyone is a loser….http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/carbon-tax-australia?newsfeed=true
Australia’s House of Representatives passes The Australian Clean Energy legislative package,
Australian clean and renewable energy legislation passed, Reinforced Plastic 13 October 2011 The Australian Clean Energy legislative package, which put a price on carbon emissions and promotes renewable energy, has been passed by the House of Representatives. By Kari Williamson The 19 Bills comprise the Clean Energy legislation and the Steel Transformation Plan Bill, which put a price on carbon emissions, promote investment in renewable and clean energy technologies, and support action to reduce carbon pollution on the land.
The legislation will now be introduced to the Senate, and aims to be passed through the upper house by the end of the year. According to media reports, there could be over US$13.2 billion on the table for renewable energy and other low-carbon investment if the legislation passes the Senate.
Australia is currently one of the top 20 polluting countries in the world. http://www.reinforcedplastics.com/view/21326/australian-clean-and-renewable-energy-legislation-passed/
Australia-Norway climate proposal seen as “recipe for inaction”
“This is the only way ahead. There is no other way than failure,” said a senior climate negotiator from a developed country on the Australia-Norway proposal, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks.
World divided on new plan to combat global warming, Reuters David Fogarty, Reuters, SINGAPORE October 2, 2011 A new plan to curb global warming risks becoming a battleground between rich and poor nations and could struggle to get off the ground as negotiators battle over the fate of the ailing Kyoto climate pact.The 1997 Kyoto Protocol covers only emissions from rich nations that produce less than a third of mankind’s carbon pollution and its first phase is due to expire end-2012. Poorer nations want it extended, while many rich countries say a broader pact is needed to include all big polluters.
Australia and Norway have proposed negotiations on a new agreement, but say it is unrealistic to expect that to be ready by 2013. They have set a target date two years later, in 2015. Continue reading
Barry Jones brings some much needed common sense to the climate change ‘debate’
a way of evaluating the risk of action v. non-action:
* If we take action and disaster is averted, there will be massive avoidance of human suffering.
* If we take action and the climate change problem abates for other reasons little is lost and we benefit from a cleaner environment.
* If we fail to act and disaster results then massive suffering will have been aggravated by stupidity.
* If we do not take action and there is no disaster, the outcome will be due to luck alone, like an idiot winning the lottery…
Climate change debate? Pity about the science, ABC Radio National 2 Oct 11, Barry Jones was Minister for Science in Bob Hawke’s government and is a Fellow of all four of Australia’s Learned Academies. Today he discusses the development and the debate of climate science over the years… Continue reading
Australia’s Climate Change future- more important than politics
Under the Gillard government’s proposed carbon tax, the revenue will be recycled to ensure that 90 per cent of households will be no worse off and that compensation will be paid to the most trade-exposed industries.
The science is clear. And if countries such as China continue their massive drive to reduce their reliance on carbon-intensive industries, most of the new mines on which Australia’s present prosperity depends will become stranded assets within five years…
On climate change, it’s all-out war, September 26, 2011, The Age, Kenneth Davidson, The world continues to pour billions into fossil fuels. It makes no sense. AN OLD Chinese proverb points out the longest journey starts with the first step. The carbon tax now being debated in Australia may seem revolutionary, but mea
sured against the science it is microscopic compared with the steps that will be needed within the next few years to keep global warming within 2 degrees.
And even a warming of the planet by 2 degrees will be no picnic. Already, with the global temperature 0.8 degrees above the level before the Industrial Revolution, extreme weather involving drought, flooding rains and extreme heat and bushfires has adversely affected Australia’s economic growth and people’s lives. Worse, irrespective of what measures are taken now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there is at least a further 0.6 degrees of warming in the pipeline as the existing build-up of greenhouse gases takes its toll on the climate.
Nuclear power a victim of, not a solution to – climate chnage
rather than being a solution to climate change, nuclear is actually significantly undermined by climate change. The coalition does not want to address climate change, but we are going to have more extreme weather events in Australia, more high-temperature days. It is completely unsuitable technology in this country. But I do want on the record that Senator Abetz reiterated that it is coalition policy to build nuclear reactors in Australia. He still has not said where he would build them—
Australian Parliament, Senate speech, Senator Christine Milne, 21 Sept 11“……..On climate change, there is this ridiculous assertion that nuclear energy is required to address climate change. It is actually the opposite. In this report it states that the assumptions that need to be reviewed are regarding the types of accidents that are possible. The report says that an assessment of those accidents was way too modest and that they need to look at the possible effects of climate change in relation to nuclear energy. That is because nuclear cannot take the heat. We have seen right around the world in the last decade several occasions where nuclear reactors have had to be closed down because of extreme heat conditions, which will be increasing as the rate of climate change accelerates.
Let me give you a few examples. In July 2010 in Alabama we saw the shutdown of nuclear facilities to the point where it cost that energy agency or energy department $50 million, all of which had to be paid for by customers in Tennessee, when they had to close down the reactors because they could not cool them, there was no water to be able to do it, and also they could not dispose of the hot water into river systems which were already depleted. Continue reading
Polluting industries’ front groups – Australia’s Climate Sceptics
(includes video) Rogues or respectable? How climate change sceptics spread doubt and denial, Independent Australia, 14 Sep 2011, Professor Ian Enting takes a look at the front groups and published texts of Australia’s climate sceptics. He says, “most prominent pseudo-sceptical scientists are…gathering together to provide apparent respectability to front organisations that are designed to spread confusion”..…
The reality is that the most prominent pseudo-sceptical scientists are …..gathering together to provide apparent respectability to front organisations that are designed to spread confusion.
This is the message from Merchants of Doubt : How a Handful of Scientists Obscured Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.
Authors Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, backed up by documents obtained in the course of tobacco litigation, show that not only was greenhouse denial using the same misinformation techniques as the tobacco industry, but that it was often the same groups and the same people. These anti-science activities hide behind names such as “Friends of Science”.
In Australia we have a similar phenomenon, with the additional twist of often using names that aim to capture a “martyr for science” image. They present themselves as being ignored by an entrenched establishment, when in reality they are ignoring or distorting the accumulated scientific knowledge.
An early starter was the Lavoisier Group — a single issue organisation similar in structure and name to organisations like the Bennelong Society (on indigenous affairs), the HR Nicholls society (on industrial relations) and the Samuel Griffith Society (on constitutional matters and support for the monarchy). But for the Lavoisier Group, the “martyr for science” ethos is a bit of a stretch — Lavoisier was executed for his activities as a tax collector.
The latest entry is the Galileo Movement , again co-opting the name of a “martyr for science” for an anti-science activity. The Galileo Movement’s founders funded the previous visit to Australia by Viscount Monckton. The movement’s “Independent Climate Science Group” includes Monckton, Bob Carter, S. Fred Singer and Ian Plimer as well as Garth Paltridge.
Monckton’s extravagant claims were described by John Abraham earlier in this series. Monckton’s recent testimony to the US Congress has been extensively refuted by a larger group of scientists…. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/environment/rogues-or-respectable-how-climate-change-sceptics-spread-doubt-and-denial/
Australia about to legislate commitment to action on climate change
Carbon tax law to embed Australia’s global pledge, SID MAHER , the Australian, September 12, 2011 LEGISLATION establishing the carbon tax will enshrine Australia’s international commitments to limit global warming to 2C and give the new Climate Change Authority discretion to set an overall limit by 2050 on greenhouse gas emissions.
The Australian understands the legislation, to be introduced into parliament tomorrow by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, will enshrine in law Australia’s pledge to a global effort to limit temperature rise to 2C by 2050….Debate on the bills is expected to start this week but a joint parliamentary inquiry is likely to be established to run alongside the parliamentary debate. Continue reading
Fossil fuel industries have a stranglehold on Australia’s renewable energy development
Part of the problem is that Australia’s renewable energy industry is, by and large, a subset of the fossil fuel industry. Origin, AGL and Truenergy have a stranglehold on electricity markets and they want to decide the pace of our response to climate change…..
Renewable energies are the only zero emission solution that we know will work, at scale – and once a plant is built we get free fuel forever.
Body politic sapping energy from climate change plans, SMH, September 3, 2011 The wheels of clean energy are turning in ever-diminishing circles as politics hogs its place in the sun, writes Paddy Manning. PARTY-POLITICKING on the carbon tax is to be expected. It would be scandalous if a Coalition state government came out and backed the multiparty climate change committee’s ”clean energy future” package.
What is galling is watching the clock turn back on state policies designed to help tackle climate change. Backsliding on support for renewable energy in Victoria and NSW is a foretaste of life under Tony Abbott.
According to the Clean Energy Council, Premier Ted Baillieu happily kissed goodbye to as much as $3 billion in wind farm investment this week – a perverse outcome given Victoria’s excellent wind resource. What will that do for the state’s competitiveness in clean energy, let alone for Australia’s response to climate change? It seems Baillieu and his colleagues couldn’t care less. Continue reading
Mining giant Xstrata (and Glencore?) in court over global warming
it will be the first in Australia to argue for an outright refusal of a mine based on its climate change impacts
Graziers, greenies ally against Xstrata, Brisbane Times, Christine FlatleyAugust 22, 2011 – Global giant Xstrata should be refused permission to open a new coal mine in Queensland that will have serious adverse impacts on the climate and nearby graziers, a court has heard.
Green group Friends of the Earth appeared in the Brisbane Land Court today in an attempt to scuttle an 11,000-hectare coal mine planned for the small town of Wandoan, 400km northwest of Brisbane. Continue reading
Urgent threat of Climate Change to Western Australia
Report: Act now on climate to save WA TV Channel 9 News, 16 Aug 11, A report by the Climate Commission has predicted up to 28,900 coastal homes in Perth and Western Australia’s southwest will be flooded by the end of the century due to rising sea levels.
The Climate Commission will release a report on Tuesday titled The Critical Decade: Western Australian Climate Change Impacts. The report forecasts sea levels on WA’s coast will continue to rise at double the global average, impacting significantly on WA’s coastal infrastructure and eroding the state’s iconic beaches…….
WA’s declining rainfall and higher temperatures are also expected to have serious implications on agriculture and urban water supplies in the southwest, the report reveals. Climate Commissioner and author of the report, Professor Will Steffen, says WA’s economy, coastal infrastructure, biodiversity, mining infrastructure, agriculture and tourism industries are all vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate.
“We are more certain of the climate change risks for water resources for southwestern WA than any other part of Australia,” he said…. Professor Steffen said the risks had never been clearer, which meant action had never been more immediately necessary.
“This is the critical decade. The decisions we make this decade will determine the severity of climate change impacts our children and grandchildren suffer,” he said…. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8286068/report-act-now-on-climate-to-save-wa
A Christian Climate Change Believer Puts the Case for Australia’s Action on Climate Change
How do climate sceptics respond to the cloud of witnesses for global warming? By denying the full body of evidence…
A carbon price will mean a rise in household budgets but there will also be compensation in the form of tax cuts or payments. Ninety percent of Australians will actually see compensation higher than the price increases.
As a general rule of thumb, a household with a combined income of less than $100 000 will probably be better off under the carbon pricing scheme.
Eternity 16 Aug 11, John Cook a leading campaigner on climate change and, yes, a Christian too, puts the case for taking action.”…….Just as an Old Testament judge required multiple witnesses, scientists look for multiple sources of evidence. Our understanding is considered robust when scientists have found independent measurements all pointing to a single, consistent conclusion.
On the question of global warming, natural witnesses are found in our climate. Warming is directly measured by thermometers scattered across the globe, which find that the two hottest years on record were 2005 and 2010.
In addition, we have many natural thermometers painting a similar picture. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are dissipating at an accelerating rate, shedding hundreds of billions of tonnes of ice every year. Scientists are observing tens of thousands of species shift towards cooler regions. Arctic sea ice is melting faster than even the worst- case predictions. Even tree-lines are shifting in response to warming temperatures.
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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