Junkee - Osman Faruqi
The federal Coalition government has been crying poor when it comes to investing in science and innovation. They've slashed more than $100 million and hundreds of jobs from the CSIRO, and wound back a number of climate change focused programs. Which is a smart thing to do when sea levels are rising and ice caps are melting,
right? But despite cutting environmental programs and research, the
government has managed to find $24 million to fund so called "clean
coal" technologies.
Last week the Minister for Resources, Senator Matt Canavan, announced the details
of seven grants worth nearly $24 million funded through the "Carbon
Capture and Storage Research Development and Demonstration Fund". The
largest grant, worth nearly $9 million, was handed over to Swiss company
Glencore. The government also handed over $700,000 to multi-national
oil firm Shell, and gave millions to the CSIRO — but only to test carbon
dioxide storage programs.
So what are carbon dioxide storage programs, why are we funding them and do they work?
What Is Carbon Capture And Storage?
Coal is the biggest contributor
to global climate change. The burning of fossil fuels like coal leads
to the release of carbon dioxide, which then enters our atmosphere and
leads to global warming through the greenhouse effect.
Scientists are telling us that we need to stop burning coal and rapidly
invest in clean, renewable energy technologies that are less harmful to
the environment if we want to avoid runaway climate change.
But because this is Australia and our politicians love ignoring the advice of scientists, we've managed to avoid the shift to renewable energy,
and are still obsessed with mining and burning coal. That's where
carbon capture comes in. The idea is to physically capture the carbon
dioxide released from the burning of coal and bury it somewhere
underground so it doesn't enter the atmosphere. Sounds like a crazy plan
cooked up by a Bond villain? That's because it basically is.
The problem with carbon capture and storage is that it doesn't work. And trying to make it work will cost a lot of money. Money
that would be better spent on building proven alternatives to coal like
solar and wind power. The UK government this year scrapped its $1.7 billion carbon capture and storage program and will instead look at alternative ways of reducing emissions.
Last week's announcement shows that our government is still committed
to carbon capture and storage. They've slashed $100 million from the
CSIRO, much of it from climate change mitigation and adaptation
programs, and spent $24 million on an unproven, expensive technology.
Subsidising Massive Coal Companies Doesn't Make Any Sense
Glencore is a massive, multinational commodities company that made a
$10.5 billion profit last year. So why exactly are Australian taxpayers
giving them millions of dollars to experiment with carbon capture and
storage? The grant will be used to test whether or not it's viable to
inject carbon dioxide emissions from a nearby coal fired power plant
deep underground. The Group Executive for Glencore's global coal
business, who also happens to be Chairman of the World Coal Association,
is absolutely stoked.
"The Project highlights the important role Australia is playing in
developing innovative, practicable and scientifically sound solutions"
he said in a press release.
Though when you think about it there's nothing particularly innovative,
practical or scientifically sound about spending millions of dollars
trying to bury carbon dioxide underground.
Regardless of the wider context, spending tens of millions of dollars
on an unproven technology would be a very silly thing to do. But in the
face of massive funding cuts to the CSIRO and environment programs more
generally, it's particularly dumb and reckless. We know how to reduce
emissions: we need to invest in renewable energy. Australia is the sunniest country on Earth but solar power only makes up 2.4 percent of our energy mix.
This latest announcement makes the government's priorities perfectly
clear. Despite all of Malcolm Turnbull's talk about innovation and
creating jobs in new industries, he's choosing to cut the CSIRO, the
organisation that gave us Wi-Fi,
in order to fund an old industry like coal. The rest of the world is
making the switch to renewables. We desperately need to catch up before
we get left behind, and we can't do that if we're paying companies like
Glencore and Shell to literally bury our emissions underground.
Links
No comments :
Post a Comment