Experts cast doubt on Coalition's power price pledge

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has pledged to slash wholesale power prices, but experts say he is seeking to take credit for a result that was already predicted and largely outside the government's control.

The government says it will lower the wholesale electricity price by 25 per cent.

Mr Taylor on Friday announced that a re-elected Morrison government would introduce a "price target" to cut the average wholesale electricity price to less than $70 a megawatt hour by the end of 2021 – a 25 per cent reduction on current levels.

The wholesale market is where energy generators and retailers trade electricity. Wholesale costs comprise about one-third of household electricity bills, and a greater share for industrial customers.

Mr Taylor's announcement was an attempt to refocus public attention on the government's election promise to make electricity more affordable and reliable. The Coalition has been under heavy scrutiny throughout the election campaign for its lack of ambition on climate policy, including the absence of measures to cut emissions from the polluting electricity sector.

Read the story from The Age by Nicole Hasham and Cole Latimer - “Experts cast doubt on Coalition's power price pledge."

IAG says climate change could make world ‘uninsurable’: Financial Review

The insurance industry will be unable to operate effectively if the current trajectory of climate change proves accurate, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) Executive Jacki Johnson told the Financial Review.

Climate change will make the world uninsurable.

Johnson’s comments come after the UN Environment’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) announced a partnership with a group of 16 large, global insurers and reinsurers (of which IAG is included), to develop a new generation of risk assessment tools that enable the risk transfer industry to better understand the impacts of climate change on their business.

She adds that a failure to reduce greenhouse emissions could result in a world that is “pretty much uninsurable”, an outcome that would hit poorer regions hardest.

In Australia, Johnson says a temperature rise of over three degrees would inflict higher levels of extreme weather events such as cyclones and flooding to Queensland, while a rise of more than four degrees would render insurers unable to provide protection in certain areas of the world.

Read the Reinsurance News story - “IAG says climate change could make world ‘uninsurable’: Financial Review.”

5 Plants and Animals Utterly Confused by Climate Change

Every year, as the seasons change, a complex ballet unfolds around the world. Trees in the Northern Hemisphere leaf out in the spring as frost recedes. Caterpillars hatch to gorge on leaves. Bees and butterflies emerge to pollinate flowers. Birds leave the Southern Hemisphere and fly thousands of miles to lay eggs and feast on insects in the north.

Lauren Kolesinskas for The New York Times

All of these species stay in sync with each other by relying on environmental cues, much as ballet dancers move to orchestral music.

But global warming is changing the music, with spring now arriving several weeks earlier in parts of the world than it did a few decades ago. Not all species are adjusting to this warming at the same rate, and, as a result, some are falling out of step.  

Read the story by Livia Abeck-Ripka and brad Plumer from The New York Times - “5 Plants and Animals Utterly Confused by Climate Change.”

Climate change soon to cause mass movement, World Bank warns

Climate change will result in a massive movement of people inside countries and across borders, creating “hotspots” where tens of millions pour into already crowded slums, according to the World Bank.

Lalmonirhat in Bangladesh was flooded last year. It is one
of the areas likely to be hard-hit by climate change,
leading to high levels of migration. 

More than 140 million people in just three regions of the developing world are likely to migrate within their native countries between now and 2050, the first report on the subject has found.

The World Bank examined three regions, which between them account for 55% of the developing world’s population. In sub-Saharan Africa, 86 million are expected to be internally displaced over the period; in south Asia, about 40 million; and in Latin America, 17 million.

Read Fiona Harvey’s story from The Guardian - “Climate change soon to cause mass movement, World Bank warns.”

(Australia’s present border concerns will be trivial compared to what the country faces when the predicted impacts of climate change evolve into reality, which will be within a decade or so - Robert McLean) 

Electrify Everything & Save The Planet!

Have you ever wondered why so many of the items we use on a daily basis are switching away from fossil fuel power to electricity? About 80% of the world’s GHG emissions are a direct or indirect result of extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Electricity offers a more efficient, lower-cost, and sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuel power.

Yes, we need to electrify everything.

Consumer energy technologies fall into two basic types: those that run on electricity (anything that plugs in or has a battery) and those that directly combust fuels like oil, gasoline, natural gas, or biomass. Let’s zoom in specifically on vehicles to understand the importance of electrification.

The gas-powered internal combustion engine is intrinsically inefficient. Less than a quarter of the energy consumed is used to drive the vehicle — the balance is rejected as waste heat. The preferable scenario is to choose electricity to drive our vehicles of all sizes and capacities. If that were the case, more than 90% of the energy devoted to our personal transportation would be deployed usefully. Let’s translate that in a different way. We could provide the driving potential of a gallon of gasoline by substituting as few as 8 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity.

Read the story by Carolyn Fortuna on CleanTechnica - “Electrify Everything & Save The Planet!”

Curbs on fuel pollution ruled out in favour of cheaper options

Moves to introduce stringent regulations for Australian fuels have been excluded from the government’s most recent consultation paper in favour of cheaper options that would result in more damage to the environment and public health.

Environment department says it will no longer
 consider changes that would provide greatest health benefit.

The Ministerial Forum on Vehicle Emissions is considering changes that would reduce emissions from motor vehicles, including regulations that would improve the fuel-efficiency of new cars and limits on pollution levels in fuel.

The motoring lobby and the petroleum industry have been fighting the introduction of the strongest regulations on both fronts. This week the department of environment revealed it did not plan to continue examining the strongest options.

Read Michael Slezak’s story in The Guardian - “Curbs on fuel pollution ruled out in favour of cheaper options.”

Tropical thunderstorms are set to grow stronger as the world warms

Thunderstorms are set to become more intense throughout the tropics and subtropics this century as a result of climate change, according to new research.

A supercell thunderstorm in the US state of Oklahoma. 

Thunderstorms are among nature’s most spectacular phenomena, producing lightning, heavy rainfall, and sometimes awe-inspiring cloud formations. But they also have a range of important impacts on humans and ecosystems.

For instance, lightning produced by thunderstorms is an important trigger for bushfires globally, while the hailstorm that hit Sydney in April 1999 remains Australia’s costliest ever natural disaster.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a Lecturer from the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, Martin Singh - “Tropical thunderstorms are set to grow stronger as the world warms.”