Seventeen records broken in South Australia amid animal culls and mass fish deaths in other parts of the country
People in Adelaide head to the beach to escape Thursday’s record-breaking Australia heatwave. Photograph: Kelly Barnes/AAP
Temperature records have tumbled across South Australia,
with the city of Adelaide experiencing its hottest day on record, as
the second heatwave in as many weeks hit southern parts of Australia. Adelaide
hit 46.6C on Thursday afternoon, the hottest temperature recording in
any Australian state capital city since records began 80 years ago.
The Red Lion, a pub in the city’s Elizabeth North suburb, promised to
hand out free beers if the mercury rose above 45C. By 1pm, there was a
line out the door and round the block.
In Port Augusta, 300km north-west, an all-time record was also set, as the city hit 49.5C.
Last week, temperatures in Adelaide, home to 1.3 million people, hit
45C, sending homelessness shelters into a “code red”, and sparking fears
of another mass fish death in the Menindee Lakes in the neighbouring state of New South Wales.
In central and western Australia, local authorities were forced to carry out an emergency animal cull, shooting 2,500 camels – and potentially a further hundred feral horses – who were dying of thirst.
IMAGE
World ranking maximum temperature 24/1/2019
Australia 91 of 100 places
On Thursday, 17 records were broken across South Australia, either of all-time temperatures or January records.
Sternhouse Bay (45.6C), Port Lincoln (47C), Minnipa (47.3), and Snowtown (47.3C) were among the hottest, with Snowtown beating its previous record by 1.3C.
Thursday’s heat is set to spread across the states of Victoria and New South Wales, just days after an earlier record-breaking heatwave passed across the country.
Last week, a dozen heat records fell, with nine alone in NSW. The small NSW outpost of Noona, around 800km west of Sydney, recorded the country’s highest ever overnight minimum temperature of 35.9C.
The back-to-back heatwaves are part of a summer that the Bureau of Meteorology predicted as being hotter and drier than average, partially as a result of climate change.
On Friday, Victoria will become the “hottest place in Australia”, according to Jonathan How from the bureau.
The cities of Mildura, Swan Hill and Echuca are set for 46C, which could break records.
In Melbourne, as Novak Djokovic and Lucas Pouille settle in for the
semi-finals of the Australian Open, the maximum temperature will be 43C,
with 44C in some suburbs.
Only 19 percent of chief executives say it is a serious risk to their business, a new poll finds.
Britain's Prince William and natural
historian Sir David Attenborough, watch the screening of Attenborough's
new documentary "Our Planet" at Davos. Climate change may be a theme at
the gathering, but a new poll finds it's less a priority for business. ASSOCIATED PRESS
DAVOS, Switzerland ― With all the evidence of a coming climate catastrophe,
which threatens the very future of civilization, one would expect
humanity to put every effort into solving the crisis. But time and
again, we see how difficult it is for the majority of people to rise to
the challenge.
This is particularly true of the business
community, which in the West is built largely on ensuring that the next
quarter’s profits roll in to keep shareholders happy and result in
executive bonuses.
A telling piece of evidence presented at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting this week in Davos is hidden away in a flagship survey of 1,378 chief executives
from more than 90 countries. It shows that concerns about climate
change and environmental damage have sharply fallen over the past year.
In 2018, the annual poll by professional services provider PwC
showed a rather paltry 31 percent of chief executives were “extremely
concerned” by climate change. The problem then barely squeezed into the
top 10 perceived threats, below issues such as increasing tax burdens
and the availability of key skills.
But this year, with
rising alarm over trade threats and populism, only 19 percent of
business leaders highlighted the risks of climate change, which fell to
13th place on their list of priorities.
“I am rather shocked by
this,” said Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace
International, visibly shaken when I showed her the PwC results. “By
focusing on short term profits, they are missing this moment in history.
For me, we are at a moment where we need to step back and look deeply
into ourselves and how we stand as a species and internalize the state
of emergency and then decide if we want to be on the right side of
history or not.
“The fact that CEOs’ biggest concern in the PwC report is overregulation tells me they do not understand and have not read the IPPC report on climate change.”
The report, published in October by the United Nations’
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, found that the world is
rapidly running out of time for avoiding catastrophic climate change.
Many
CEOs believe in their minds that if they are talking about climate
change and creating some initiatives around it, then they are taking
care of it, Morgan said. But because they have not faced up to the issue
for so long, she added, “we need a whole different approach with all
hands on deck. There is a point of no return where we cannot turn back
the impacts and the world can be overrun by runaway climate change.”
Morgan
called for young people to rise up and engage in nonviolent direct
action “to bring this message to corporate leaders in a different way.”
Christiana Figueres, the architect of the Paris climate agreement and now the convener of Mission 2020, a global initiative to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, said
she was hugely disappointed CEOs failed to see the gravity of the
situation. Especially, she added, when there are enormous opportunities
from tackling climate change.
“Businesses are in the
position they are as a result of a focus on quarterly profit statements.
If you plan corporate strategy around this, then this is the result you
get,” Figueres said.
Business leaders are not alone in
failing to focus on longer-term dangers at the expense of what is
currently in their face, Figueres added. “We all do this. We tend to
focus on the exceedingly urgent short term rather than the much larger
consequences over the longer term.”
Figueres used the
metaphor of a doctor telling someone they may suffer a heart attack in
the future unless they start now to exercise more and eat healthier
food. Despite this, the patient often ignores the advice and focuses on
more immediate obligations.
This interpretation is
supported by the research of Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at
Harvard University, who found that humans are not wired to deal
effectively with long-term problems.
In an interview with NPR,
Gilbert said we are much more likely to take alarm at terrorism. Global
warming, he said, is “not something that threatens us this afternoon,
but rather something that threatens us in the ensuing decades.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in a panel alongside Sir David
Attenborough, has discussed the challenges of tackling climate change
and encouraged world leaders to take on kaitiakitanga (guardianship or management).
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
speaks during the Safeguarding the planet session at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photo: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
The Safeguarding Our Planet panel in Davos also included former US
vice-President Al Gore as an interviewer and panel members Mahindra
Group chair Anand Mahindra and Japan's Zero Waste Academy chair Akira
Sakano.
Ms Ardern's panel visit is part of her trip around Europe with Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
World Economic Forum: Safeguarding Our Planet
Environmental threats have dominated the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, which surveyed leaders, for the third year in a row.
After last year's heatwaves, storms and floods across the globe,
extreme weather events top the list of most likely risks and come third
for impact in the global risks report.
"Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation" is in second
place on both lists, reflecting respondents' increasing concerns about
environmental policy failure," the report stated.
"The results of climate inaction are becoming increasingly clear. The
accelerating pace of biodiversity loss is a particular concern."
New Zealand PM says that what the world needs now is empathy.
Ms Ardern also acknowledged the risk by saying: "What greater threat
to our wellbeing is there than the current threat of climate change."
While the hottest five years ever had been the past five years, Mr
Gore said there was a solution for climate change but posed the question
if people were willing to commit to change.
Ms Ardern responded by saying politicians had a short time in power,
and the challenge was to embed in that time the infrastructure for
long-term change.
She said kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the environment) played an important role in this.
"One of the biggest threats I think that we have ... [are] political cycles.
"This needs to be something that we embed in our national cycles, in
our political cycles, and in our actions and it needs to endure beyond
us as individuals.
"So if we can do anything, we will be creating legislation which
embeds those targets, that ambition we need, and then right through to
the basic pragmatic things. Like planting a billion trees over 10 years,
creating investment funds, doing each of the things that will set us on
a long-term path for guardianship [kaitiakitanga], because that's what
we all have to take the responsibility for."
Sir David said he could not imagine a situation more serious. He said
things were getting worse faster, and the maddening thing was that we
knew how to deal with it, we just needed to do it.
Sir David Attenborough,
broadcaster and natural historian, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
participate in the Safeguarding the planet session at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Photo: AP
However, Ms Ardern said there was cause to remain optimistic about change for the better.
"Ten years ago, when I first came to parliament I remember standing
at a town hall meeting and speaking passionately about the issue of
climate change and being roundly booed, including I think by members of
my own family," she said.
"But even in that 10-year period, how dramatic the shift has been. No
longer do you have the significant questioning of the science that we
had perhaps even in that period of time."
She said in the face of resistance towards change, there needed to momentum for it.
"We build a movement with us and I want to acknowledge the work of
Sir David - a voice of authority, trust and respect and to all those
leaders that use the platform they have - it creates the space for us as
politicians to do the right thing."
Mr Gore asked what the prime minister had to say to other world
leaders who did not believe in climate risks or were not taking them
seriously.
Ms Ardern responded by saying that the best method was to show rather than tell.
"It only takes a trip to the Pacific to see that climate change isn't
a hypothetical, and you don't have to know anything about the science
or even have an argument about the science to have someone from one of
the Pacific Island nations take you to one of the places they used to
play as a child on the coast and show you where they used to stand and
now where the water rises."
She also said it was about being on the "right side of history".
"Do you want to be a leader that you look back in time and say that
you were on the wrong side of the argument when the world was crying out
for a solution?"
Sir David encouraged those leaders to think of future generations and
the consequences they would have to deal with if leaders failed to act.
"Think of the children. Think of your children and your children's
children, and what we are doing to the planet at the moment. Can you
look them in the eye and say 'I knew what could be done to stop the
degradation of the environment and climate, but it was too difficult and
rather boring and you are now going to take the consequences'?"
Ms Ardern said that young people had done a good job.
"Young people have been the leaders that we need. Now everyone is
looking to us. We've got the rulebook, we know what's required, it's
about a matter of getting on and doing it and turning what has been seen
as a threat with a great deal of pessimism and fear into an
opportunity."
Photo: AFP / Gail Orenstein/NurPhoto
She said it was a chance to transition and future-proof economies as well.
"That might be jarring if we do it quickly [future-proof economies]
or if we take a longer track it can be something that we prepare our
people for. So I think it's our only option.
"What we're inclined to believe is that any economy needs to start
thinking about our measures of success beyond just our economic success,
and our traditional forms of measuring that of course tended to be GDP
and growth and for us that doesn't tell an entire story."
She used the ban on new deep-sea oil and gas exploration permits as an example of transitioning economies.
"That was a significant move but that was for us about anticipating
where we need to move ... and saying unless we anticipate that change,
make that decision now, there will be a very jarring experience for the
people currently employed in those industries and that's what transition
is all about."
She also discussed how the wellbeing budget would play a role in embedding needed changes too.
"This year for the first time... we will be undertaking a wellbeing
budget where we're embedding that notion of making decisions ... how are
people, how's their overall wellbeing and their mental health for
instance, how's our environment, the clean and fresh waterways faring in
our state of growth.
"These are the measures that I think can give us a sense of success
and within that of course we need to then factor in, as we transition
our economy, how are our people faring in terms of their economic
wellbeing and capacity."
Cities in northeast China were
blanketed in thick smog, with the weather bureau issuing orange smog
alerts – its second-highest warning – for seven areas in the region. Photo: AFP / Bian peng - Imaginechina
An editorial by the prime minister featured in the Financial Times yesterday where she also mentioned the wellbeing budget and climate change.
"In May, my government will present the world's first "wellbeing
budget". This is not a concept we came up with ourselves. The OECD and
the IMF have, for a while now, have urged countries to look beyond a
strong balance sheet and a strong economy to redefine success.
"This isn't woolly but a well-rounded economic approach - the same
kind we will use to confront the challenges posed by climate change,
digital transformation, social exclusion, poor health, housing and
domestic violence.
"We must accept that the race to grow our economies makes us all
poorer if it comes at the cost of our environment, or leaves our people
behind."
Sir David had earlier also warned of the dangers of losing touch with the natural world in an interview with Prince William at the forum.
"It's not just a question of beauty or interest or wonder, it's the
essential ingredient, essential part of human life is a healthy palate,"
he warned.
"We are in the danger of wrecking that".
Davos 2019: broadcaster tells prince that humans have power to exterminate whole ecosystems ‘without even noticing’
David Attenborough warns of damage humans can do ‘without even noticing’
Sir David Attenborough
has warned that humankind has the power to exterminate whole ecosystems
“without even noticing”, and urged world leaders to treat the natural
world with respect, during an interview with Prince William in Davos. Prince William
also took world leaders to task at the World Economic Forum in
Switzerland, asking Attenborough why those in key positions have “taken
so long” to address climate change.
Attenborough said the connection between the natural world and urban
societies had been “remote and widening” since the industrial
revolution, meaning humans do not realise the effect their actions have
on the global ecosystem. The 92-year-old broadcaster added that it was
“difficult to overstate” the urgency of the environmental crisis.
“We’re now so numerous, so powerful, so all-pervasive, the mechanisms
we have for destruction are so wholesale and so frightening, that we
can actually exterminate whole ecosystems without even noticing it. We
have to now be really aware of the dangers of what we’re doing, and we
already know that of course the plastic problem in the seas is wreaking appalling damage upon marine life, the extent of which we don’t yet fully know.”
He stressed that the natural world “is not just a matter of beauty,
interest and wonder” but a coherent ecosystem on which we depend for
“every breath we take, every mouthful of food we take.” A healthy
planet, Attenborough added, is an essential part of human life.
“If we don’t recognise the kind of connections I’ve been describing,
then the whole planet comes in hazard, and we are destroying the natural
world and with it ourselves.”
‘The Garden of Eden is no more’, David Attenborough warns Davos summit
William pressed Attenborough for a key message for the politicians and business leaders gathered in Davos this week.
“Care for the natural world. Not only care for the natural world but
treat it with a degree of respect and reverence,” Attenborough said,
adding that there was a worrying tendency to waste resources.
“The thing that I really care for in our ordinary daily lives is not
to waste the riches of the natural world on which we depend. And it’s
not just energy ,which of course is very important, but it’s also
dealing with the natural world with a degree of respect. Not to throw
away food, not to throw away power – just care for the natural world of
which you’re an essential part.”
The Duke of Cambridge started and ended the session by congratulating
Attenborough for winning the Crystal award, which recognises
individuals who have helped make the world a better place, at the World
Economic Forum on Monday night. William added it was a “personal treat”
to be asking Attenborough questions, and quipped that it was a good
change of pace from being the subject of interviews himself.
Asking why global leaders have taken so long to react to climate
change, William said: ““Why do you think world leaders and those in key
positions of leadership; why do think they’ve taken so long … there have
been quite a few faltering steps to act on environmental challenges?”
Prince William greets Sir David Attenborough on stage at Davos. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
Comparisons were also drawn between the broadcaster’s burgeoning BBC
career in the 1950s, compared with his latest project that sees him team
up with Netflix and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for an
upcoming series called “Our Planet” to be released on the online TV streaming site.
Attenborough said his early work in the mid-1950s involved
himself, one camera and one cameraman, and it was relatively “easy” to
impress Britons simply by televising an armadillo. Now the systems are
“unbelievable”, taking viewers to the sky and depths of the ocean in
ways that 50 years ago, “people couldn’t imagine”.
Prince William noted Attenborough’s late shift to environmental
activism, noting that for many years the presenter “held back from
speaking publicly about environmental issues”.
Attenborough said that at the start of his career, it was nearly
inconceivable that the environment would be in such a state of crisis
and even pockets of animal extinction seemed like the exception rather
than the norm.
“To be truthful I don’t think there was anyone in the mid-50s who
thought there was a danger that we would annihilate parts of the natural
world. There were animals that were in danger, that’s true and there
were animals that we could see if we didn’t do something they were going
to become extinct.
“And the notion that human beings might exterminate a whole species … you just hadn’t thought about it,” he said.
“Now of course we’re only too well aware that the whole of the
natural world is at our disposal, as it were. We can do things
accidentally that exterminate a whole area of the natural world and
species that live within it.”
Renewable energy can supplant fossil fuels across the global economy,
with Australia among the three regions best placed to benefit because
of its rich solar and wind resources, according to a new study funded by
the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's One Earth project.
The
work – based on a two-year project between the University of Technology
Sydney, the University of Melbourne and German Aerospace Centre – found
a combination of renewables and energy efficiency can achieve the
net-zero emissions outcome needed by 2050.
Solar farm in Kerang, Victoria: Study finds the shift to renewables for all energy sources is within our reach. Credit: Leigh Henningham
"The
main barrier is neither technical nor economic – it's political," Sven
Teske, research director at the UTS's Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable
Futures, said, adding "it's not too late" to restrict global warming to
1.5 degrees, the lower end of the Paris climate target. The research,
released on Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, modelled 72
regional energy grids at hourly increments through 2050, including the
Australian states on the National Electricity Market and other regions.
Costs
would be moderated in Australia because the average age of coal-fired
power plants was about 40 years, and would soon have to be replaced
anyway. Solar and wind-generated electricity was also already cheaper
than new coal, he said.
Fossil-fuel use in other sectors, such as
transport and agriculture, could also be phased out and replaced by
synthetic fuels, particularly hydrogen. Australia's abundant sun and
wind resources gave the nation an advantage only matched by north Africa
and the Middle East as a renewable powerhouse, Dr Teske said.
Australia
would benefit from the transition from the export of hydrogen-based or
other synthetic fuels, and from shipments of cobalt and silver used for
storage and solar panels, respectively.
While biofuels offered
potential to supplement renewables, the sector would be constrained by
the need to maintain farm land to feed growing populations.
Reforestation would also be needed to provide a carbon sink to help
reduce carbon-dioxide levels, he added. “Citing a
growing body of research, we show that using land restoration efforts
to meet negative emissions requirements, along with a transition to 100
per cent renewable energy by 2050, gives the world a good chance of
staying below the 1.5-degree target," Malte Meinshausen, founding
director of the Climate and Energy College at the University of
Melbourne, said.
The
research, understood to cost in the range of $1 million, was the first
in Australia by the foundation set up by prominent actor and
environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio.
Given the scant carbon budget
left to keep warming from reaching dangerous levels, "every year of
delay is a huge problem", Dr Teske said.
Last year was a remarkable one for the clean energy industry by any standard, and confidence is high as we enter 2019.
Between record levels of clean energy and businesses recognising the
value of low-cost renewables to cut their operating costs, we are
starting to see a whole-of-economy energy transformation taking place.
It’s amazing and inspiring to watch the changes in real time, and
below we’ve captured some of the biggest trends and milestones we saw in
the year that was. 1. Record $20 billion of investment in big wind, solar and energy storage projects
With 14.6GW of new renewable energy projects under construction –
generating four times as much as the Liddell Power Station – it’s no
surprise that 2018 eclipsed the year before.
At the end of 2018, more than 80 wind and solar farms worth over $20
billion were underway, which is about double the investment compared to
the end of 2017. These projects also created around 13,000 direct jobs.
Add in the projects completed during the year and the figures grow by
another $6 billion.
2. Records tumble and 2 million Australian homes now have a solar power system
Aussies lived up to their sun-loving reputation in 2018, achieving a
record-breaking milestone of two million homes with rooftop solar.
Queensland led the nation with almost 600,000 systems installed, a bit
under a third (30 per cent) of the homes in the state. The power of the
sun not only gave homeowners some relief from the cost of energy, but
also helped the power grid cope with demand on hot summer days.
Following on from the record-breaking year for the nation’s solar
homes in 2017, solar PV records went through the roof again. On average
six solar panels were being installed per minute in Australia, with the
commercial sector growing by 45 per cent and the residential sector just
a whisker behind with a 43 per cent rise in 2018.
3. Businesses buy their own clean energy
Power purchasing agreements (PPAs) caused waves, with companies both
on the home front and abroad choosing to invest in and purchase clean
energy as a way to get their operations back in the black. Overseas,
Google and Apple set ambitious clean energy targets which made them the
two biggest buyers of renewable energy on the planet.
Back in Australia, the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project saw 14
organisations join forces with Pacific Hydro to purchase renewable
energy from an 80 MW wind farm in the north-west of the state.
The Clean Energy Council signed on as a founding member of the
nation’s first Business Renewables Centre – an information hub and
membership platform formed to accelerate the corporate purchasing of
large-scale wind, solar energy and storage. And wineries, breweries,
farmers and accommodation providers have installed their own renewables
to help cut costs.
4. British industrial billionaire shows the way for major power users
In 2017 Tesla’s Elon Musk was the man of the moment, but last year
British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta could do no wrong. Mr Gupta’s GFG
Alliance attracted Prime Minister Scott Morrison and South Australian
Premier Steven Marshall to the launch of his “green steel” upgrade
project in the SA town of Whyalla.
The $600 million project includes plans for a new hotel, a
horticulture development and a recycling business as well as a major
energy revamp towards renewables and energy storage. The council has
anticipated a population boom as a result, predicting a jump from 22,000
to 80,000 in the next 10 to 20 years. The pioneering project could pave
the way for other major energy users to use clean energy in the future.
5. It’s the economy, stupid
Over the course of this decade, the power generated by wind and solar
power has gradually become cheaper than new fossil fuel generation.
Research by the Victorian Energy Policy Centre during the year found
that renewable energy pushed down wholesale spot prices to $38 per MWh
in SA, with prices set to see a further decrease due to extra wind and
solar production.
This research is backed up by a report released by the Australian
Industry Group during 2018, which shows renewables are helping to reduce
power prices in a challenging environment for big energy users.
We can add to this forecasts from the Australian Energy Market
Commission at the end of 2018 that residential power bills will fall
between now and 2020/21 – most of which is due to record amounts of
renewable energy and energy storage entering the system.
And at the end of 2018, a joint study by CSIRO and the Australian
Energy Market Operator found that renewables plus energy storage are
cheaper than any new fossil fuel technology.
6. State governments led on clean energy, Turnbull Government dissolved into chaos
In 1974 the last two Japanese soldiers holding out after the end of
World War II were relieved of their duty – almost 30 years after the
official end of the conflict. And there are still some in the Federal
Government holding out for the glory days of coal, even though new coal
plants don’t make economic sense.
In 2018 the Commonwealth failed to secure support for its National
Energy Guarantee from its own MPs and ultimately Malcolm Turnbull was
ousted as Prime Minister.
But Australia’s states and territories have filled the climate and
clean energy policy void with a range of ways to encourage new clean
energy, both large and small. While the industry would prefer an
ambitious and unified national policy, a range of different state
renewable energy targets and programs are very welcome.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth back-benchers continue to fight on in the
energy wars when most of the country just wants them to do something
constructive.
7. World’s biggest battery out-performs expectations
Tesla founder Elon Musk reportedly charged “mate’s rates” to build
the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery in South Australia – and then
claimed bragging rights for delivering the project ahead of schedule and
on budget.
The Hornsdale Power Reserve saved energy users $3.5 million in one
five-hour period on 14 January last year. And overall it saved the
market around $40 million on the cost of services to stabilise the grid
throughout the year.
Not bad for something Scott Morrison compared to the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour in July last year when he was the Treasurer.
8. The grid emerges as the next frontier
With more renewable energy being built across the country than any at
any other time in Australian history, connecting to the power grid is
shaping up as one of the industry’s big challenges in 2019.
A Clean Energy Council survey of senior executives in the industry
last December identified grid connection as their biggest concern,
beating out long-term policy certainty for the first time.
The Australian Energy Market Operator and network businesses are
working closely with the industry to tackle the issues and improve the
process. But the most important thing for clean energy developers is
transparency so that it is clear how long the process will take and how
much it will cost.
There is also a clear need to build new poles and wires efficiently
to connect new clean energy projects to the power system. The Integrated
System Plan (ISP) developed by the Australian Energy Market Operator
and the NSW Transmission Infrastructure Strategy are very good
initiatives which will help to make our power cheaper, cleaner and more
reliable.
9. The wind changed on climate and energy
The Victorian state election helped to resolve internal conflict
within the Coalition on one particular issue – the idea that opposing
action on climate and clean energy is a vote-winner.
The Andrews Government offered ambitious progress on this issue, and
convincingly beat Matthew Guy’s Liberals in November. The clean energy
industry is hopeful that the ripples from the election result will help
to bring the major parties closer together on this issue, and welcomes
the NSW Government’s call for a national policy which reflects science,
engineering and economics.
While many people actively voted against the Gillard Government’s
carbon tax because they didn’t understand it, wind and solar power
enjoys strong public support and is much easier for people to get their
heads around. And progress on climate change becomes more urgent with
each passing year.
10. Hydro pumped for big year ahead
One of Australia’s oldest clean energy technologies was back in the
spotlight in 2018. The Snowy Hydro 2.0 expansion moved a step closer,
with the Federal Government buying out the share held by the Victorian
and New South Wales governments for a cool $6 billion.
The water in the project will be pumped by wind and solar to make it
both cleaner and cheaper. More than a dozen potential sites have also
been identified by Hydro Tasmania for the Battery of the Nation
initiative, which would complement wind and solar projects on the
mainland.
The New South Wales Government announced plans for 24 new pumped
hydro facilities, which it says would produce about half the power the
state needs on the hottest days and about three times the output of
Snowy 2.0. New private projects are attracting attention as well, such
as the one by Genex in North Queensland which will use the pits from an
old gold mine to form a pumped hydro power plant.
*Kane Thornton is the CEO of the Clean Energy Council Links
The study found there is a 66% chance of staying below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels if immediate action is taken.
Photograph: Alamy
Climate change could be kept in check if a phaseout of all fossil fuel infrastructure were to begin immediately, according to research.
It shows that meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of
keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is
still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being
made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting
the goal.
The study found that if all fossil fuel infrastructure – power
plants, factories, vehicles, ships and planes – from now on are replaced
by zero-carbon alternatives at the end of their useful lives, there is a
64% chance of staying under 1.5C.
In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said
the difference between 1.5C of warming and the earlier international
target of 2C was a significantly lower risk of drought, floods,
heatwaves and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
Christopher
Smith, of the University of Leeds, who led the research, said: “It’s
good news from a geophysical point of view. But on the other side of the
coin, the [immediate fossil fuel phaseout] is really at the limit of
what we could we possibly do. We are basically saying we can’t build
anything now that emits fossil fuels.”
Nicholas Stern, of the London School of Economics, who was not part
of the research team, said: “We are rapidly approaching the end of the
age of fossil fuels. This study confirms that all new energy
infrastructure must be sustainable from now on if we are to avoid
locking in commitments to emissions that would lead to the world
exceeding the goals of the Paris agreement.”
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications,
used computer models to estimate by how much global temperatures would
rise if a fossil fuel infrastructure phaseout began immediately. The
lifespan for power plants was set at 40 years, cars an average of 15
years and planes 26 years. The work also assumes a rapid end to beef and
dairy consumption, which is responsible for significant global
emissions.
In this scenario, the models suggest carbon emissions would decline
to zero over the next four decades and there would be a 66% chance of
the global temperature rise remaining below 1.5C. If the phaseout does
not begin until 2030, the chance is 33%.
The analysis did not include the possibility of tipping points such
as the sudden release of huge volumes of methane from permafrost, which
could spark runaway global warming.
The scientists accept their scenario is at the extreme end of
ambition, but said it was important to know that meeting the 1.5C target
was still physically possible and dependent on the choices made now and
in the coming years. “The climate system is not stopping you [hitting
the target], global society is stopping you,” Smith said. Other work,
using a different approach, has also shown that keeping within the 1.5C
limit is possible if radical action is taken immediately. In some
sectors, zero-carbon technology already exists, such as renewable
energy. But in others, such as aviation, it does not. “Maybe the
solution here is flying less,” Smith said.
Prof Dave Reay, of the University of Edinburgh, who also was not part
of the research team, said: “Whether it’s drilling a new gas well,
keeping an old coal power station open, or even buying a diesel car, the
choices we make today will largely determine the climate pathways of
tomorrow. The message of this new study is loud and clear: act now or
see the last chance for a safer climate future ebb away.”
Smith’s
personal belief is that global heating will surpass 1.5C. “We are going
the right way, but I don’t think we will do enough, quickly enough. I
think we are heading for 2C to 2.5C.”
But he added: “If you don’t have a goal, you are not going to get
anywhere. If you have a target that is really hard to achieve and you
miss it slightly, that is better than wandering aimlessly into a future
climate that is no good for anybody.”
