Fixing the gap between Labor’s greenhouse gas goals and their policies

As the federal election approaches, Labor has two principal climate and energy targets: a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the 2005 level by 2030, and for half of Australia’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 (up from its current share of 19%).

Labor leader Bill Shorten.

The renewable electricity target is easily achievable with inexpensive extensions to Labor’s existing policies, but that policy would still leave Labor far short of its emissions target.

Because electricity contributes only 34% of Australia’s total emissions, more substantial policies are needed to reduce emissions from both electricity and the rest of the energy sector to achieve Labor’s greenhouse target.

Read the story from The Conversation by an Honorary Associate Professor from the University of New South Wales, Mark Diesendorf - “Fixing the gap between Labor’s greenhouse gas goals and their policies.”

Snowy Hydro 2.0 could hasten death of fossil fuel-generated electricity

Snowy Hydro CEO Paul Broad and Prime
 Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Snowy Hydro
Tumut 3 power station in Talbingo,
NSW, last week.

Malcolm Turnbull's "Snowy Hydro 2.0" could set Australia on a path to 100 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2030 energy sector experts claim.

Just weeks after spruiking the merits of "clean coal" generation, there is surprise at the scale of the Prime Minister's pumped hydro plans among academics who study reducing emissions in the electricity industry.

Read Heath Aston’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Snowy Hydro 2.0 could hasten death of fossil fuel-generated electricity.”

Price hike blame game: a sad product of a dismal climate change debate

Dismal climate change debate
prompts power price hikes.

Recent news reports highlighting that the price of generating electricity in South Australia has increased three to four times its historic levels have left politicians, commentators and renewables advocates in an agitated state. One side of the debate blames renewables, the other argues vociferously that it’s the fault of evil fossil-fuel generators and that renewables actually reduce the price of electricity.

This blame game is a sad product of the dismal debate Australia has had about climate change and the transition to a low-emissions electricity sector over the past decade. Transitions tend to be painful. The challenge for policymakers is not to avoid the transition because it’s painful – running away at the first sign of high prices does not make a brave politician. It is to make the transition as painless as possible.

But a debate about how best to make the transition is not the debate the country has been having. Instead we have oscillated from arguing that climate change does not need a substantial response, to introducing policies such as Direct Action that have no perceived impact on consumers and limited impact on the environment, to advocacy for an immediate transition to cheap, job-creating renewable electricity. The result is a policy mess, with no clear direction forward.

Read The Guardian story - “The electricity price hike blame game: a sad product of a dismal climate change debate.”

Jobs and growth to be found in renewable energy infrastructure

Building 50% renewables by 2030 would create more than 28,000 jobs nationally, new research by Ernst & Young (EY) and the Climate Council has found.

"The Renewable Energy: Future Jobs and Growth" report finds that 50% renewable electricity by 2030 will create almost 50% more employment than our business as usual trajectory (34% renewables by 2030).

This report compares two scenarios for the national energy sector – business as usual renewable energy growth (34% renewable electricity in 2030) and 50% of electricity derived from renewable sources in Australia by 2030. Both scenarios show increased uptake of renewable electricity will create employment nation-wide.

-      50% Renewable Electricity (50RE) scenario in 2030 will lead to over 28,000 new jobs, nearly 50% more employment than a business as usual (BAU) scenario.

-      Jobs are created in the construction, operation and maintenance of renewable energy installations, as well as in related industries.

-      Across the period 2014- 2030, over 80% of full-time employment created by 50RE is additional to the economy.

-      Job losses in coal fired electricity generation are more than compensated for by increased employment in the renewable energy sector. However, the transition for employees in the fossil fuel sector must be planned well.

The net effect on jobs of 50RE is positive across Australia and each individual state: every state will experience net job growth.

-      New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland will have the largest net growth in jobs, around 11,000 and 6,000 respectively.

-      South Australia and NSW will experience the largest per capita jobs growth.

-      Victoria will see a net gain of around 4,000 jobs by 2030.

Unlike other industry transitions such as in automotive manufacturing and steel smelting, which have seen many jobs move offshore, a transition to 50RE will create jobs in Australia.

-      A large proportion of new jobs gained in the electricity supply sector by 2030 will stem from construction and installation activities related to renewable energy infrastructure. Many of these jobs will be additional to the economy, though location and skills may differ from those currently in demand.

-      Most states will see half of all new jobs created in rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV): rooftop solar PV jobs are generally accessible, being located in areas where people already live and work.

Renewable energy is now 'unstoppable'

Renewable energy in full flight -
it's now unstoppable.

Once upon a time, people imagined that replacing fossil fuels with renewables like solar and wind would jeopardize the electric grid’s reliability. Then along came some major countries which showed that it didn’t, and that there really are no limits to renewable integration.

The result was explained last year in a Bloomberg Business piece aptly headlined, “Germany Proves Life With Less Fossil Fuel Getting Easier”: “Germany experiences just 15 minutes a year of outages, compared with 68 minutes in France and more than four hours in Poland.”

Germany is the most powerful economy on the planet to depend so much on renewable electricity — renewables currently deliver 28 percent of Germany’s total grid power (and up to 40 percent in some regions). The United States has a very long way to go to hit that level, by which time there will be an even wider range of cost-effective strategies to deal with much higher levels of renewables.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Why The Renewables Revolution Is Now Unstoppable.”