Angus Taylor’s energy projects push

It is a federal government program for which there appears to exist no constitutional or legislative authority, which has no established guidelines for assessing projects and an opaque process for allocating millions of taxpayer dollars.

The Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor.

It’s not sports rorts. It’s something called the Underwriting New Generation Investment (UNGI) program and it’s the baby of the federal Energy minister, Angus Taylor.

And in recent weeks, as the attention of the nation’s media and populace has been focused on the Covid-19 crisis, it moved a couple of steps forward.

One step was the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments, which encompassed a broad range of energy initiatives, not all of them bad in environmental terms.

But buried in the various attached schedules to the agreement are measures designed to prop up coal-fired electricity generators and weaken environmental protections.

Read the story from The Saturday Paper by Mike Seccombe - “Angus Taylor’s energy projects push."

State of play: renewable energy leaders and losers

States and territories are leading the transition to renewable energy in Australia, as the Federal Government is not only failing to lead but getting in the way of progress. 

Every year the Climate Council tracks the relative progress of Australian states and territories based on their performance across a range of renewable energy metrics: share of electricity from renewable energy; proportion of households with rooftop solar; large-scale wind and solar capacity per capita; and targets or policies in place to support the transition. 

The Climate Council outlines the progress made by each state and territory government over the last twelve months in the race to a renewable future. 

This report is the Climate Council’s fifth scorecard evaluating state and territory progress on renewable energy. This report follows on from previous state and territory renewable energy updates in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018

Read the new report: “State of play: renewable energy leaders and losers”.

Climate change should be key to royal commission: Greg Mullins.

The threat of climate change and a more harmonised approach to hazard reduction burns across Australia are set to be examined by the Federal Government's proposed natural disasters royal commission.

Greg Mullins - the threat of climate change.

The inquiry will also look at whether there should be national standards and reporting for natural disaster risk management, preparedness and resilience.

Listen to the discussion Radio National - “Climate change should be key to royal commission: Greg Mullins.”

Australia’s Devastating Wildfires Were Not Inevitable

Blue Mountains, Australia—“There is no one in this current federal government that has any semblance of a sense of crisis,” Mark Greenhill tells me as we sit in his mayoral office in Katoomba, a small town some 100 kilometers west of Sydney. It is December 19. For over a month, three massive bushfires have plagued this small mountain community, a UNESCO World Heritage site, ravaging its ecosystem and laying waste to residents’ homes. I could smell the smoke in Sydney that morning; the haze descended on the city at least a dozen times in the past month, casting a sepia-toned pall and tripping office fire alarms. But it was nothing compared with Katoomba, where my eyes began to burn the moment I stepped off the train.

The country was once actually poised to lead on climate politics, and now, it burns.

As Greenhill speaks, his eyes dart to the window behind me. “Oh, fuck,” he says. I turn to look. A thick gray plume is billowing up from the trees just north of us. He jumps up and rushes to the window. “That is a cloud of fire,” he says. “That’s climate change right there.” A moment passes as the two of us stand in silence. “So, so,” he continues, picking up his train of thought, “there’s no sense of that national crisis. And that’s what we’re missing.” He points back to the fire cloud—“I’m just going to find out what that is”—and begins texting furiously. 

The technical term for what we saw that day is “pyrocumulonimbus,” or “pyroCb” for short. PyroCbs are weather events generated by wildfires. They can produce dry lightning storms, high winds, even full-blown tornadoes. (An aerial photo of the Hiroshima bombing, long thought to capture the distinctive nuclear mushroom cloud, was only recently reidentified as an image of the pyroCb from the ensuing firestorm that swept through the city.) In recent weeks, “pyroCb” has become a household term in Australia—a literal manifestation of the fires but also a symbol, nudging us to see what is happening to the country in the terms of armed conflict. As the fires tear through town after town with ruthless efficiency, pyroCbs lend them the look of an airborne attack: climate blitzkrieg. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison called in the navy to evacuate thousands of people stranded on beaches and mobilized the Australian Defence Force to help fight the fires, the symbolism became reality. Australia went to war with itself.

Read the story from The Nation by Daniel Judt - “Australia’s Devastating Wildfires Were Not Inevitable.”

Court Quashes Youth Climate Change Case Against Government

A federal appeals court has thrown out the landmark climate change lawsuit brought on behalf of young people against the federal government.

Kelsey Juliana, a lead plaintiff in the climate change lawsuit against
 the federal government, at the Supreme Court in September. 

While the young plaintiffs “have made a compelling case that action is needed,” wrote Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz in a 32-page opinion, climate change is not an issue for the courts. “Reluctantly, we conclude that such relief is beyond our constitutional power. Rather, the plaintiffs’ impressive case for redress must be presented to the political branches of government.”

The two members in the majority of the three-judge panel thus agreed with the Trump administration that the issues brought up in the case, Juliana v. United States did not belong before the courts.

The appeals court decision reverses an earlier ruling by a district court judge, Ann Aiken, that would have let the case go forward. Instead, the appeals court gave instructions to the lower court to dismiss the case.

Read the story from The New York Times by John Schwartz - “Court Quashes Youth Climate Change Case Against Government.”

Government announces mental health funding to tackle bushfire trauma

The federal government will put $76 million into emergency mental health services for bushfire-affected communities, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison pointing to the widespread trauma caused by the unprecedented crisis.

Smoke from the massive bushfires in eastern
 Victoria and NSW engulfs Melbourne.

The "initial" mental health funding will go to counselling sessions, extra psychological treatment under Medicare, expanded access to telehealth remote counselling, specialist trauma care for emergency services personnel, local community wellbeing programs and Headspace youth centres in significantly impacted communities.

Read the story from The Age by Fergus Hunter - “Government announces mental health funding to tackle bushfire trauma.”

Scott Morrison pledges $2 billion to fire recovery as blazes continue to burn

The federal government has committed $2 billion over two years to a new agency tasked with rebuilding bushfire-ravaged towns.

Scott Morrison has announced an additional $2 billion over two
 years to a new agency tasked with rebuilding bushfire-ravaged towns.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the new funding in Canberra on Monday as firefighters in Australia’s ravaged south east made the most of cool conditions and rain to prepare for the next bushfire onslaught.

The national bushfire recovery agency will be led by former Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin and work closely with the states and territories to rebuild homes and critical infrastructure destroyed in the bushfires.

Mr Morrison made the announcement after a National Security Committee of Cabinet meeting, saying the recovery effort took precedent over a budget surplus.

Read the story from The New Daily - “Scott Morrison pledges $2 billion to fire recovery as blazes continue to burn.”

A local mayor can see we face a climate emergency, why can't the PM?

Despite soaring rhetoric about Australian values and the absolute priority of securing the future of the Australian people, it is crystal clear that the federal government, the opposition and much of our corporate and media leadership have absolutely no understanding of the greatest threat facing this country, namely human-induced climate change. Having dug themselves a massive climate denial hole, and lacking the honesty to climb out, they are now intent on dragging the rest of the community down with them.

Glen Innes has experienced some of the worst conditions
 in the NSW bushfire disaster including two fatalities and
 widespread destruction of homes.

Not so the mayor of Glen Innes Severn Council. Coming to grips with the loss of lives and properties in her community in this weekend’s devastating fires, Carol Sparks had no doubt of the emergency we face. "We are so impacted by drought and the lack of rain," she said. “It's climate change, there's no doubt about it. The whole of the country is going to be affected. We need to take a serious look at our future.”

Read the opinion piece from The Sydney Morning Herald by Ian Dunlop -  “A local mayor can see we face a climate emergency, why can't the PM?”

Federal Government hands $1 billion to Clean Energy Finance Corporation to boost power grid reliability

The Federal Government has committed $1 billion to help improve the reliability of the electricity grid, in a move it says will help households get "a fair deal on energy".

Investment in wind farms and battery
 projects have been suggested by experts.

In what energy experts described as good signal but a drop in the ocean compared to requirements over the coming decades, the $1 billion will be handed to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) for investment in technologies that help to maintain the reliability of Australia's electricity grid.

The CEFC, set up under the 2012 Labor government, is required to turn a profit for the taxpayer. In the last financial year it leveraged $3 worth of private investment for each taxpayer-dollar lent.

If that ratio continued, the new money could result in a total of about $4 billion being invested into grid-reliability projects.

Read the ABC News story by Michael Slezak - “Federal Government hands $1 billion to Clean Energy Finance Corporation to boost power grid reliability.”

Scott Morrison says drought the Coalition's 'first call' – but makes no mention of climate

Scott Morrison has indicated the federal government might be prepared to commit extra relief funding to drought-stricken communities, reaffirming the drought is the government’s top priority.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, told the Liberal
party federal council the drought is ‘the rock I’m
going to put in the jar first’.

In a triumphal speech to the Liberal party’s federal council in Canberra on Saturday, Morrison again said the drought was “the most pressing and biggest call on our budget”.

“It is the first cab off the rank, the first thing we sit together and say, ‘Once we have done everything we can in this area, then we can consider other priorities’.

“It is the biggest call on the budget because it is the most pressing, the rock I’m going to put in the jar first. It is the first call because that is what is needed in our rural and regional communities. They know we cannot make it rain and they know we cannot make it like it was before the drought.”

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Doherty - “Scott Morrison says drought the Coalition's 'first call' – but makes no mention of climate.”

Every State Should Monitor Methane to Meet Climate Goals

Scientists have made it clear: To prevent calamitous climate change fallout in our lifetimes, we have to take bold action. With the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent proposed rollback on the regulation of methane emissions, it’s also clear that states can’t rely on the federal government right now to act responsibly. It’s up to us. Fortunately, states have data-gathering tools at their disposal to shape effective policy, but they have to start using them now.

Every state has the opportunity to leverage satellite and sensor
data and end the polarization around climate change.

While much of the discussion about greenhouse gases is focused on carbon dioxide, methane packs an even more powerful climate punch —trapping 28 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 100 years.

Last week, Santa Fe-based Descartes Labs (where Mark is a cofounder) announced a bold initiative to utilize satellite mapping and modeling to monitor methane emissions, starting in the world’s highest-producing oilfield, the Permian Basin. The project supports New Mexico’s goal to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. As an energy-producing state, we recognize that meeting this goal requires collaboration with the industry and the most innovative technologies available. We hope that other state and local governments will take similar actions.

Read the story from Wired by Michelle Lujam Grisham and Mark Johnson - “Every State Should Monitor Methane to Meet Climate Goals.”

When it comes to coal, Australia has transitioned away from economics and common sense

Australia isn’t transitioning away from extracting fossil fuels, it is doubling down on them. That’s right – even though Australia is already the third largest fossil fuel exporter in the world, the federal government still wants to double our coal exports, drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight and open more farmland to fracking.

‘Australia isn’t just the world’s largest coal exporter.
We are the world’s largest exporter of LNG, the third
largest exporter of fossil fuels and the 14th largest
emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world.’

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal. In fact, our share of the world’s traded coal market is bigger than Saudi Arabia’s share of the world oil market. If Australia opened the Adani mine, and all the other mines proposed in Australia, we would indeed double our coal exports. But we would also drive down the world price of coal, drive down production in existing coalmines, and drive up global emissions. It’s not complicated. But while Australia shows no sign of transitioning away from fossil fuels, we have well and truly transitioned away from economics and common sense when it comes to coal.

And in the rush to mine more coal, Australia is transitioning away from its stated foreign policy. Since the second world war, Australia has sought to play a leadership role among the Pacific Island nations. This positioning has provided both a physical buffer to our north and a significant diplomatic platform. But that could all be coming to an end.

Read the story from The Guardian by Richard Denniss - “When it comes to coal, Australia has transitioned away from economics and common sense."

Climate insecurity - The real threat is staring us in the face

As if the climate emergency was not already bad enough, today’s revelations that the Australian Defence Force is concerned about the security implications of global warming only underscores the fiddle-while-Rome-burns incompetence of our federal government. This morning the ABC revealed documents showing the military warning of increased “sea-borne migration” due to warming, which could mean 100 million refugees seeking to come to Australia. Meanwhile, serving defence chief Angus Campbell has warned [$] that China might occupy Pacific islands abandoned as seas rise. Today it’s the ADF in the news, but just about every Australian institution is calling for urgent action to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees: the Reserve Bank, ASIC, the courts and the banks who have refused to fund Adani’s coalmine. Everyone, that is, except Australia’s denialist politicians and their media cheerleaders who seem determined to drive the country over a cliff.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the USS Ronald Reagan. 

Last week David Attenborough told a British parliamentary inquiry it was “extraordinary” that climate-change deniers were in power in Australia, given we are “already facing having to deal with some of the most extreme manifestations of climate change”. As economist Ross Garnaut warned more than a decade ago, Australia’s large agricultural sector and a reliance on trade with developing nations in Asia, which are also put at risk by rising temperatures, makes it one of the most vulnerable countries in the developed world.

Read the story from The Monthly by Paddy Manning - “Climate insecurity - The real threat is staring us in the face.”

Carbon pricing vital for financial stability: Westpac

Banking giant Westpac says the federal government must play a role in developing a price on carbon if the financial risks of climate change are to be understood and mitigated.

Michael Chen, the bank's head of sustainability and prominent player in the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI), said without mitigation the effects of climate change would threaten the financial system's stability.

"Central banks and regulators around the world are saying climate risk is financial risk, but the financial system hasn’t adequately priced in environmental and social risk, and this is a risk for the financial system’s stability," Mr Chen told The Australian Financial Review.

Read the story from the Financial Review by James Fernyhough - “Carbon pricing vital for financial stability: Westpac.”

Threatened species panel should include agriculture sector: report

The federal government should take advice from the agriculture sector when deciding on protections for threatened animals and plants, says an official report that recommends spending $1 billion encouraging farmers and others to protect the environment.

Farmers say national environment laws are too
complicated and don't reflect the realities of farm life.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley welcomed the findings on Thursday, saying it was "the right time to have a conversation" about how farming, business and environmental interests could be brought together.

Many in the agriculture sector say Australia's central piece of environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, is too complicated and unfairly restricts farming activities. However, conservationists say land clearing for agriculture is a key factor in the increasing number of threatened species and critical habitats must be protected.

The Department of the Environment and Energy commissioned veteran policy adviser Wendy Craik, a former executive director of the National Farmers Federation, to review how federal environment laws interact with agriculture.

Read the story from The Age by Nicole Hasham - “Threatened species panel should include agriculture sector: report.”

Minister for Hot Air

The federal government is obliged by Senate order to report national emissions data each quarter.

Angus Taylor - a master of spin.

This data was supposed to be released to the public last Friday by the office of the energy minister, Angus Taylor. It was instead leaked to The Australian on Wednesday, when the news cycle was swamped with reports of the recent AFP raids on the media. (Some leaks from government to journalists are still okay, apparently.)

Graham Lloyd, The Australian’s “fearless” environment reporter (their words), spun [$] the news accordingly.

Here’s the first paragraph, published in yesterday’s paper: “Australia is not given sufficient credit internationally for the carbon dioxide savings it helps other nations achieve, Energy Minister Angus Taylor says.”

Read the story from The Monthly by Nick Feik - “Minister for Hot Air.”

Climate policies: Twelve dumped in half a decade

Over the past five years, the federal government has cancelled a dozen energy efficiency programs that were saving money and reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, and shelved possible replacements.

Karen Middleton.

Among the reasons for both moves were that they irritated business, were Labor-initiated or a low Coalition priority and risked comparisons with the Rudd government’s home insulation scheme.

Some of the cancelled programs were linked to the Gillard government’s carbon price and abolished by Tony Abbott, but the largest program was a 2006 Howard government initiative that after five years of operation was saving business $800 million annually, despite some complaints about onerous requirements.

Read the story from The Saturday Paper by Karen Middleton - “Climate policies: Twelve dumped in half a decade.”

‘Astounded': former fire chief unloads on politicians over climate change inaction

Decorated Australian firefighter Greg Mullins says climate change is contributing to bushfires so horrendous that homes and lives cannot be protected, and the federal government will not acknowledge the link because it has failed on emissions reduction policy.

Greg Mullins says both major parties have failed
to take steps to arrest Australia's contribution to
climate change.

The extraordinary comments by Mr Mullins, a former NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner, coincides with the Tuesday launch of the group Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, which will lobby the major parties to drastically reduce fossil fuel use and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Nicole Hasham - “‘Astounded': former fire chief unloads on politicians over climate change inaction.”

(Listen to Greg Mullins on the Climate Conversations podcast)

New coal power stations are polluting - and expensive

The Federal Government refuses to rule out using its Underwriting New Generation Investments program to support the construction of a new coal fired power station or extend the life of an existing coal power station.

New coal power stations are expensive, take many years to build and are highly polluting. Coal is no match for renewable energy.

To tackle climate change, Australia needs to rapidly phase out the use of coal and gas power and transition to a clean, renewable energy future.

Australia’s fleet of twenty remaining coal power stations is ageing. By 2030, 55% of coal power stations in the National Electricity Market will be over 40 years old. Very old coal power stations become increasingly expensive to operate as maintenance costs increase. These power stations are already breaking down frequently.

Read the story from the Climate Council - “New coal power stations are polluting - and expensive.”

Winds of change for Golden Plains as huge wind farm gets go-ahead.

A massive 170 square kilometre wind farm has passed the final Victorian planning hurdle, and could be powering in four years if the federal government approves the project.

The Golden Plains wind farm has passed
the final Victorian planning hurdle.CREDIT:

The $1.5 billion wind farm, sprawling over 17,000 hectares near the small town of Rokewood south of Ballarat, passed environmental approvals last month.

Acting Planning Minister Lily D’Ambrosio will on Saturday announce the Victorian government has granted a planning permit for the project in the Golden Plains Shire.

All that remains is for the federal government to sign off on it.

Read the story from The Age by Bianca Hall and Adam Carey -“Winds of change for Golden Plains as huge wind farm gets go-ahead.”