‘Existential threat': climate change risks finally grab Australia's attention

When Cyclone Evan slammed into Samoa five years ago next week, it triggered the near-complete loss of power and water supplies in the capital, Apia, and forced villagers to relocate to schools and the university for months.

An overhead view of Ejit, of the Marshall Islands, where
rising sea levels are already an inescapable part of daily life.

The category-4 tempest was the strongest to hit the Pacific nation in a couple of decades. For Samoan Brianna Fruean, one of the Pacific Climate Warriors, it was another sign - along with rising sea levels, and more intense floods and droughts - that action needed to be taken. 

"Climate change is happening right in front of our eyes," Fruean said this week on the sidelines of a meeting in Fiji of Civicus, a global civil society group.

Helen Clark - the former New Zealand prime minister and an ex-senior United Nations official - was also at the Suva gathering. Clark says she is not surprised by its central topic.

Read Peter Hannam’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Existential threat': climate change risks finally grab Australia's attention.”

In battery boom cobalt-supply chain, Democratic Republic of Congo has the power

The cars of the future will depend increasingly upon supplies of an obscure metal from a country in the African tropics where there has never been a peaceful transition of power and child labor is still used in parts of the mining industry.

A "creuseur," or digger, climbs through a cobalt
and copper mine in Kawama, in the Democratic
 Republic of the Congo. Sixty per cent of the
 world's cobalt comes from the Congo.

Most major automakers are pledging to build millions of electric vehicles as the world's governments crack down on climate-damaging emissions from traditional-fuel engines. As a result, demand is surging for lithium-ion batteries and the materials needed to make them – including cobalt, a relatively rare substance found mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The country formerly known as Zaire – which hosted boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman for their 1974 heavyweight title bout, dubbed the "Rumble in the Jungle" – supplies 63 per cent of the world's cobalt.

Congo's market share may jump to 73 per cent by 2025 as producers like Glencore expand mines, according to Wood Mackenzie. By 2030, global demand could be 47 times more than it was last year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates.

Read the story by Tom Wilson in today’s Melbourne Age - “In battery boom cobalt-supply chain, Democratic Republic of Congo has the power.”

Our electricity system is 'ageing, inefficent and unprepared'

Just today the Climate Council has reminded us that Australia is a serious “foot dragger” when it comes to electricity supplies.

The realities of climate change demand that we find some source other than coal to power our electricity generators, not only are our governments looking in the wrong direction, they are actively pursuing outmoded processes.

Australia has more sunshine than most countries making us the envy of the world and yet solar power is an idea, a technology that our governments are doing the utmost to avoid contemplating.

The Australian dilemma is clearly spelt out in a report from the Climate Commission headed: “Australia energy sector: ageing, inefficient and unprepared”.