Lethal Heating: 04/21/21

21/04/2021

(AU SMH) Military Leaders, Security Chiefs Demand Action On Climate Threat

Sydney Morning Herald - Nick O'Malley

The two existential threats that keep former chief of defence Admiral Chris Barrie awake at night are nuclear war, which he says the Australian government can’t do much about, and climate change, which he says the Australian government is not doing enough about.

Former Chief of Defence Admiral Chris Barrie is calling for urgent action on climate change. Credit: Andrew Taylor

Barrie is one of more than 30 current and former defence personnel and security sector staff to join the newly formed Australian Security Leaders Climate Group, which is calling on the Australian government to undertake a whole-of-nation assessment of the security risks posed by climate change.

“As ex-service members and experienced practitioners of national and international security who have witnessed up close the devastation of war and crisis, we recognise that climate change is a fundamental threat to the security and prosperity of all Australians,” he said.

“Yet Australia is ill prepared for climate impacts, with climate security risks not being fully assessed or understood in Australia.

Climate change a security threat in Australia, says intelligence expert

“We are being left behind, with some of our closest allies already taking action. In the US, the Biden Administration has elevated climate change to a high-level national security issue, with significant stature within national security decision-making.”

A spokesman for Energy and Emissions Reductions Minister Angus Taylor said that Australia was responding to climate change by reducing its emissions faster than many of its peers.

“Between 2005 and 2018, Australia’s emissions fell faster than Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Korea or the United States. Over that same period, half of G20 members actually increased their emissions,” he said.

Admiral Barrie said he had seen scenarios which outlined the potential impact of Bangladesh’s coastal areas becoming inundated in the foreseeable future, prompting mass forced migration and resulting in tens of thousands of climate refugees attempting to reach Australia by boat.

“These are the kinds of prospects that we need some leadership over. It involves the whole nation, it involves every one of us. We all have to pull this boat. And that includes the federal government,” he said.

“The problem is we don’t have an action plan, so we are wandering around in circles trying to figure out what to do.”

Admiral Barrie said he believed United Nations climate talks in Glasgow in November will be the last chance the world has to properly address the threat.

“What we want is an action plan, so that we can get on at all throughout our community, all through our local governments, our state and federal governments and start pulling together in one direction.”

He said the climate summit hosted by United States President Joe Biden at the end of this week was a crucial opportunity for world governments to voice their support for immediate action.

“It is a leadership issue, and I think it is a pity that a group like ours has to get together and say that.”

Founding members of the group include former deputy chief of the Royal Australian Air Force Air Vice-Marshal John Blackburn, AO, and former Defence Department director of preparedness and mobilisation Adjunct Associate Professor Cheryl Durrant.

“The first duty of the Australian government must be the safety and security of its citizens. Today, the government is failing to address the growing impacts of climate change and therefore failing to protect its own people. Unlike the pandemic, we cannot quarantine ourselves from climate change and there is no vaccine.”

Associate Professor Durrant said a review of the threat was critical to filling in a “major strategic gap” in Australian security planning.

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(AU ABC) Scott Morrison Reveals $1bn Energy Deal With South Australian Government

ABC News

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announced the deal on Sunday. (ABC News)

A bilateral energy and emissions agreement worth more than $1 billion has been struck between the federal and South Australian governments, the Prime Minister says.

Scott Morrison announced the $1.08 billion State Energy and Emissions Reduction Deal at a press conference in the Clare Valley, north of Adelaide, on Sunday morning.

The deal will aim to deliver more affordable and reliable power to South Australians, unlock gas supplies, and kick-start work on a new interconnector between SA and New South Wales.

Mr Morrison said it would also provide funding for emissions-reduction projects, including hydrogen.

The agreement involves a $660 million contribution from the Commonwealth and $422 million from South Australia.

"We're doing everything we can to ensure South Australians get lower cost, more affordable, more reliable energy, but importantly also lower emissions for the future — both here in South Australia and more broadly by backing in the incredible technology that Australia is and will continue to lead the world in," Mr Morrison said.

"This is a smart state. Lower cost, affordable, reliable energy with lower emissions — that is what is necessary to drive this state forward and Australia forwards."

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said the deal would provide more jobs in SA's energy sector.

"This new agreement for energy and emissions reductions is going to take us to the next level," Mr Marshall said.

"It is all about lower cost energy, it's about lower emissions and, importantly, it's about creating jobs in the renewable sector here in our state."

Government's 'gas-fired' plan under fire

Mr Morrison said the deal, which follows similar ones made with the New South Wales and Tasmanian governments, would be a "key driver" of the country's economic recovery from COVID-19.

Amid international pressure to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the federal government has come under attack for pushing ahead with its plan to increase the amount of gas in Australia's energy system.

The Greens last year rejected Mr Morrison's statements when he revealed his government's agreement with NSW, and argued the plan's reliance on "toxic methane gas" put the country's "weak climate targets on a certain path to failure".

At the time, Greens MP Adam Bandt said the government's agreement with NSW amounted "to little more than climate criminality".

Energy Minister Angus Taylor rejects claims he pressured a top bureaucrat to change report conclusions on gas pricing. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

Four Corners last week revealed the government had been accused of pressuring experts who questioned its gas-fired plan — something Energy Minister Angus Taylor denied.

The South Australian agreement includes a gas target of an additional 50 petajoules a year by the end of 2023, plus a stretch target of 80 petajoules a year by 2030.

Mr Taylor said the increased targets would lead to benefits for both South Australia and the national electricity market.

"The focus on gas will help South Australia meet its own gas needs and assist efforts to prevent forecast shortfalls in the broader east coast gas market from 2023, as part of our gas-fired recovery," he said.

The deal also includes $400 million for what the government labelled "investment priority areas", including carbon capture and storage, electric vehicles, hydrogen and other emissions reduction projects in SA.

South Australia's Minister for Energy and Mining, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, said the "historic" commitment would contribute to the state achieving net 100 per cent renewables by 2030.

"The joint commitment to develop hydrogen hubs in South Australia is a strong sign to our global partners in Asia and Europe that South Australia can lead the nation in this new industry," he said.

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(AU SBS) Net Zero Emissions Won't Be Achieved In 'Cafes And Wine Bars', Scott Morrison Says

SBS - AAP | SBS

Scott Morrison has admitted Australia's energy mix has to change over the next 30 years, while highlighting a preference for a 2050 net zero emissions target.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said factories in regional Australia and scientific research will drive the country's plan to move to net zero emissions. Source: AAP

Just days away from a global climate summit where Australia will join other major emitters, Scott Morrison has pledged to protect industry on the road to net zero, "preferably by 2050".

But the prime minister has admitted Australia's energy mix will have to change over the next 30 years to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

"We are going to meet our ambitions with the smartest minds, the best technology and the animal spirits of our business community," he told the Business Council on Monday night, spruiking gas and hydrogen.

"We're not going to achieve net zero in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities.

"It will be won in places like the Pilbara, the Hunter, Gladstone, Portland, Whyalla, Bell Bay, the Riverina. In the factories of our regional towns and outer suburbs."

But critics warn him against flirting with net zero targets and letting Australia lag behind on climate action.

"The federal government has been increasingly isolated on the world stage and this sort of net-zero lip service while propping up the gas industry will not cut it," Greenpeace spokeswoman Nelli Stevenson said on Tuesday.

Later this week, Mr Morrison will speak at a virtual climate summit hosted by US President Joe Biden.

America and China - the world's two biggest carbon polluters - have agreed to co-operate to curb climate change, leaving Australia increasingly isolated.

On the digital fringes, three days of global climate action will feature a summit with youth climate activists including Greta Thunberg, along with other events to demand more ambition.

19 March: Underwater climate protest held in Saya de Malha

Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese is targeting the Morrison government's ability to handle a renewable energy technology rollout, pointing to the national broadband network.

The opposition leader says Australia cannot have the same "technological misadventure" with renewable energy.

"We need to be at the front of the pack, not well behind the pace," he will tell a virtual summit on Tuesday

Mr Albanese says low-cost electricity from renewables will help businesses grow so they can hire more Australians.

"With the right policy settings, falling power prices will act as a catalyst for a revival of the Australian manufacturing industry," he said.

20 February: United States officially rejoins the Paris climate agreement

The Morrison government is using the same argument but in a bid to justify expanding the gas industry.

Rather than setting out a plan for the phase-out of export resources like coal, Mr Albanese says its future will be based on global demand.

"Labor respects existing resource export industries for the jobs they provide to Australians," he will say.

"Decisions about the long-term future of those industries will be made in the boardrooms of Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul and New Delhi."

But he says renewables represent the future.

"We must use cheap, clean energy to maintain existing energy-intensive industries, like aluminium and steel, and also to develop new opportunities that have not previously been viable."

Labor's climate and energy policies include money for a national reconstruction fund, an upgrade for Australia's power lines, $200 million for community batteries and tax reforms to lower the cost of electric vehicles.

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