Just a few months ago there had been growing consensus among scientists, activists, economists and even investors that 2020 would be pivotal in the fight to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.
Around the world global warming had become manifest in the intensity of fires and floods, droughts and storms, prompting politicians to catch up with the view of voters on the urgency of the problem.
In November, world leaders were to meet in Scotland for the 2020 United Nations Climate Change Conference to set even more ambitious emissions targets and outline concrete plans on how to meet them in the effort to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees.
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| Projects that will use hydrogen in transport, such as this hydrogen-power bus in France, are among those potentially eligible for the CEFC funding. |
Rather than lose the momentum that had been growing, scientists and activists groups around the world are focusing on a campaign to ensure that economic stimulus packages being adopted around the world are green.
On Friday, the World Economic Forum released a statement in support of the European Union’s “Green Deal”, declaring that it must become the “cornerstone” of Europe’s pandemic recovery.
“Rather than rebuilding the 20th-century economy, we must focus on spending stimulus money wisely and on preparing Europe for a competitive and inclusive 21st century, climate-neutral future.”
Earlier this month, the University of Oxford released findings of a study of 700 previous stimulus packages which showed that a green stimulus created more jobs per dollar spent than a black one.
Launching the study, one of the lead authors, Professor Cameron Hepburn, told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that he believed the decisions politicians made in coming weeks would decide how future generations experienced climate change.
“The recovery packages are vital to getting our economies going again and to putting us on a cleaner path to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” he said.
The Oxford research was one of a wave of reports, studies and papers recently released as various groups seek to catch the attention of leaders. In one report, the World Bank suggested that tax concessions could be offered to low-carbon fuel categories while the current low prices might be an opportunity for countries to withdraw subsidies to the oil sector.
The International Monetary Fund made similar recommendations advocating for measures to modernise grids, expand public transport and support climate change adaptation projects.
The United Nations secretary general António Guterres declared that taxpayers’ money deployed in stimulus should be spent on “new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition” and that when it was used to rescue business, it should be “tied to green jobs and sustainable growth”.
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| The word's first liquid hydrogen ship, the Suiso Frontier, is christened at the Kobe Works yard in Japan. Credit: Kawasaki Heavy Industries |
Alongside the EU’s moves towards green stimulus, Joe Biden, presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, has embraced the Green New Deal championed by elements of his party as part of his election platform.
South Korea’s new government, elected in part on its environmental policies, has announced its own $US110 billion New Green Deal, designed to boost employment and meet a target of producing net zero emissions by 2050.
So far China’s efforts have been mixed, with governments backing both new coal-fired power plants as well as high-tech grid improvements that could reduce emissions.
In Australia, political signals are mixed.
Asked by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age if the pandemic presented Australia with an opportunity to set more ambitious reductions targets, Energy and Emissions Reductions Minister Angus Taylor advocated for increasing gas use and exports, saying that countries with access to cheap liquified natural gas were able to cut emissions faster.
This is despite the increasing body of research showing gas to be as bad for the atmosphere as coal.
But Mr Taylor has also backed hydrogen, which is increasingly seen as the crucial new clean energy technology, and a potential source of employment and export dollars for Australia.
Last month, Fatih Birol, executive director at International Energy Agency, wrote that hydrogen technology today is at the same state of development and adoption wind and solar were during the crisis in 2009, when massive green stimulus packages supercharged their uptake and put them in the position of undercutting fossil fuels on costs today.
“They have the potential to be the coming decade’s breakout technologies,” he wrote.
'It is a natural for expansion.'Mr Taylor agrees, telling the Herald and The Age “it’s not heralded much, but Japanese power generators are talking about feeding hydrogen into their old gas power systems, which creates phenomenal export potential for us in Australia, and offers a huge advantage (to generators) that they don’t have to rebuild their plants.”
Professor Ross Garnaut
But Mr Taylor has drawn criticism for backing so-called “brown” hydrogen alongside “green”.
Hydrogen emits no greenhouse gases when burned in engines or power plants, but splitting water by electrolysis to create hydrogen consumes electricity. Clean energy advocates argue that Australia has the space to build wind and solar power stations to become a green hydrogen export leader, but Mr Taylor has not ruled out a role for gas and coal.
Leading economist and renewable energy expert Ross Garnaut says Australia’s vast capacity to generate wind and solar energy could fuel not only exports but a boom in domestic heavy industry and replace petrol for transport.
“The full emergence of Australia as an energy superpower of the low-carbon world economy would encompass large-scale early-stage processing of Australian iron, aluminium and other minerals,” Professor Garnaut says.
He told the Herald and The Age that Alcoa and Rio Tinto had already signalled they did not see a long-term role for the nation’s three largest aluminium smelters in their portfolios under current electricity supply arrangements due to their high electricity cost and emissions output.
He believes that if such plants made use of Australia’s advantages in low-cost renewable energy, they could expand their output to meet demand during a global revival in aluminium demand.
Similarly, Professor Garnaut sees an opportunity in production of silicon, which is in demand for photo-voltaic cells and computer chips, and whose key ingredients he describes as high-grade sand or quartz, carbon, which can be renewable carbon from biomass, and “a huge amount of energy”.
“It is a natural for expansion,” he says.
Links
- Erosion from surging seas threatens roads, homes and beaches
- While the world looked the other way, corporate giants abandoned coal
- Natural gas is a much ‘dirtier’ energy source than we thought
- Climate Change and COVID-19: UN urges nations to ‘recover better’
- Thinking ahead: For a sustainable recovery from COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
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