Zero emissions

THE STAWELL TIMES NEWS reports: Stawell Climate Action Group has handed over the results of a survey about renewable energy to Federal Member for Mallee, John Forrest.

Group spokesperson, Julie Andrew said of the 105 Stawell households that were surveyed, 91 percent wanted strong policies to support new jobs and investment in renewable energy.

She said a remarkable 90 percent of those surveyed wanted Australia to develop a plan to move to 100 percent renewable energy.

"We found when we talked with people and shared information, people in our region overwhelmingly want to talk about solutions," Ms Andrew said.

"They want to get behind a positive vision. They are tired of the negativity and bickering by politicians and just want our elected representatives to get on and do something."

WHEN environmentalist Ngaire McGaw says she's working for a brighter future, she really means it.

As the convener of Sustainable Jamboree she has spent years campaigning for a zero emission future for Australia through the use of renewable energy sources like solar power.

So when Ms McGaw learned of an organisation committed to the same goal she was keen to become involved.

Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) is an independent climate solutions group with a mission to decarbonise Australia within a decade.

Beyond Zero Emissions is launching a new research initiative to investigate pathways to a zero emissions buildings sector.

Following the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan, which was released in partnership with the University of Melbourne last year, the group has turned its attention to the built environment.

“Australia's building sector contributes around 23 per cent of the national carbon footprint,' said Matthew Wright, Beyond Zero Emission's Executive Director.

There are practical and effective ways for Australia to tackle the cause of climate change and its effects.

Many native-born Australians, and those born overseas who migrated to Australia in search of a better life, did not anticipate that our expectations might be prematurely curtailed by population growth, peak oil or climate change. A decade ago, when we celebrated the new millennium, such ideas were hardly on the radar.

Not on our radar, perhaps, but not entirely unexpected. A little thought would have told us that exponential growth in our use of natural resources is bound to end when those resources run out, or if damaging by-products compromise our environment.

In 1972 the Club of Rome's report, The Limits to Growth, warned of just such a scenario, and from 1990 onwards the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change drew attention to the risks of climate change.

Governments and corporations were well aware of these assessments. Some, including the Europeans, took notice. But successive Australian governments, under Hawke, Keating and Howard, took no heed: ''She'll be right''.

Australia's exports risk being hit with carbon taxes on overseas markets unless the Federal Government acts quickly to put a price on emissions, a University of Melbourne science think tank says.

Exports such as metals, minerals, agriculture and manufactured goods will be affected by carbon penalties to be imposed on imports under the European Union's proposed carbon tax, Beyond Zero Emissions spokesman Matthew Wright said.

The warning comes as the Federal Government-appointed Climate Commission has published its first report, saying the world is warming faster than expected. One of the report's authors, Australian National University climate scientist Professor Will Steffen, said Australia ''no longer had the luxury any more of climate denialism'' and called for an end to ''the fruitless phoney debate'' over the reality of climate change and the science supporting it.

The report said climate science was ''being attacked in the media by many with no credentials in the field'' and attempts to intimidate climate scientists ''have added to the confusion'' in public debate.

Sadly, the major environmental policy announced in the Federal Budget yesterday was not an environmental policy at all but the change to the Fringe Benefits Tax.

The government announced changes to the car fringe benefits rule from the statutory formula method, under which the calculated fringe benefit decreases with greater distances travelled, to a single rate of 20% regardless of distance travelled.

In the past, this absurd policy has encouraged people to drive longer distances, and thus emit more pollution, to reduce the tax paid.

The measure has caused massive spikes in driving in the days before cut-off dates, needless long trips and in some cases aimless driving up and down highways just to reach certain thresholds. It is hard to imagine a more carbon-dumb policy.

Unfortunately, the main objective here and elsewhere in the budget is to reduce spending to support the equally absurd obsession with returning the budget to surplus.

Critics have dubbed the 2011-12 Federal budget "tough as tofu" but at first reading, it does have a few elements that should bring a little cheer to Australia's process control and automation industries. Some initiatives are long term; others are long overdue and a few are tentative steps in the right direction.

However, by curtailing spending on a host of clean energy initiatives, the message is clear: Why bother investing in these technologies when the returns are five or ten years away? [The not-for-profit group Beyond Zero Emissions disagrees and believes Australia can reach 100 per cent renewable energy within a decade, using technology that is commercially available right now.]

Some sectors welcomed the budget. "The Federal Budget support for major infrastructure projects and its focus on skills and training is a positive response to the challenges facing the Australian infrastructure sector," said Jim Barrett, Executive Director of the Australian Constructors Association (ACA).

By Mark Ogge

Earth hour is great fun, but if Australia were serious about climate change, we would move to 100 per cent renewable energy.

TOMORROW NIGHT, AUSTRALIA will be among the world's first nations to turn off the lights for Earth Hour. Famous national landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Federation Square will be plunged into darkness along with hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to draw attention to the climate crisis.

The massive challenge of climate change is driven largely by our dependence on fossil fuel energy. The coal, oil and gas the world burns each and every year produces billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Securing a safe climate will require nothing less than an unparalleled restructuring of the global energy system.

Last week, a YouTube clip of a solar death ray created by a U.S. teenager become an internet sensation, receiving over 1.7 million views and attention from Australia’s major news outlets - perhaps looking for the daily quirky news filler.

While the coverage of this clip focused on the destructive potential of the backyard prototype, the ‘solar-death ray’ reminds us of how relatively simple technological concepts can harness the sun’s powerful radiation to produce energy.

The central idea behind the ray is to reflect and concentrate solar radiation to a specific point. This is the same process used by concentrating solar thermal power plants, albeit on a larger scale, to produce clean renewable energy. Solar thermal plants use a variety of designs such as a parabolic trough, dish or heliostat design that concentrate the sun’s rays to a point of capture.

By Matthew Wright

Gas-fired cogeneration is often presented as a climate change solution for Australian households and commercial buildings. But before policymakers get carried away and encourage the mass deployment of decentralised gas electricity/heating plants, we should take a good look at the benefits of heat pumps.

Put simply, heat pumps employ highly efficient space-heating technology that uses much less energy and emits less greenhouse gas than almost any other, including their gas-fired competitors. Heating in Australia is predominantly provided by gas (government incentives allowed gas to propagate for water and space heating), but in Japan, it’s common for heating and cooling to be provided by heat pumps. With a focused policy, governments can move Australia towards the same technology widely used by the carbon-efficient Japanese.