Solar Experiment Lets Neighbours Trade Energy Among Themselves

New York Times - Diane Cardwell

Patrick Schnell, a participant in the Brooklyn Microgrid, with solar panels on his roof in Gowanus. Credit Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

Brooklyn is known the world over for things small-batch and local, like designer clogs, craft bourbon and artisanal sauerkraut.
Now, it is trying to add electricity to the list.
In a promising experiment in an affluent swath of the borough, dozens of solar-panel arrays spread across rowhouse rooftops are wired into a growing network. Called the Brooklyn Microgrid, the project is signing up residents and businesses to a virtual trading platform that will allow solar-energy producers to sell excess-electricity credits from their systems to buyers in the group, who may live as close as next door.
The project is still in its early stages — it has just 50 participants thus far — but its implications could be far reaching. The idea is to create a kind of virtual, peer-to-peer energy trading system built on blockchain, the database technology that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The ability to complete secure transactions and create a business based on energy sharing would allow participants to bypass the electric company energy supply and ultimately build a microgrid with energy generation and storage components that could function on their own, even during broad power failures.
"Community members can work both individually and collectively to help meet demand in an efficient way," said Audrey Zibelman, who recently resigned as chairwoman of the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates the state's utilities.
"It takes a central procurer — in this case, historically, the utility — out of the mix," she continued, "and really sets the market where they're not buying and selling to the utility but they're identifying each other's need and willingness to buy and sell."
The project is but one example of how rapidly spreading technologies like rooftop solar and blockchain are upending the traditional relationships between electric companies and consumers, putting ever more control in the hands of customers.
Across the globe, upstart companies like LO3 Energy, which is designing the Brooklyn experiment with the industrial giant Siemens, are building digital networks that offer the promise of user-driven, decentralized energy systems that can work in tandem with the traditional large-scale grid or, especially in emerging economies, avoid the need for a grid at all.
In Australia, where Ms. Zibelman will soon run the nation's energy markets, a company called Power Ledger announced the start of a residential electricity trading market based in blockchain last year at a housing development in Perth.
In Bangladesh, where an estimated 65 million people lack access to a central grid, ME SOLshare has been developing peer-to-peer trading networks of rural households with and without rooftop solar systems. Producer-consumers there — known as prosumers — can sell excess power into the network, where neighboring homes and businesses can buy it in small increments with a cellphone.

A Transactivegrid meter at Garry Golden's home in Brooklyn. Credit Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

And in Germany, Sonnen, a leading supplier of home batteries and smart energy products and services, has created a web of about 8,000 customers, both with and without solar on their roofs, who are trading their stored energy among one another.
"Peer-to-peer is slowly but surely becoming a reality," said Olaf Lohr, Sonnen's head of United States business development. "This really is a very disruptive technology. The customers are also the owners — they are the producers of the energy. There is no centralized feed-in from one big power plant."
In New York, the Brooklyn microgrid is conceived to work with the conventional grid, which is in the midst of a reboot under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's directives to make it more flexible, resilient and economically efficient while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
That effort, known as Reforming the Energy Vision, or REV, includes encouraging the development of microgrids and more active community participation.
The ideal power system, said Richard L. Kauffman, who as the governor's chairman of energy and finance is leading that effort, is one that combines large power plants and transmission lines with clusters of smaller-scale producer-consumers, "where electrons can flow in more than one direction and supply and demand of electricity is dynamic — and that's different than the grid is today."
Peer-to-peer power sharing is consistent with that vision, he said, though a number of regulatory changes are necessary for it to take off.
The State Public Service Commission has already taken a few of them, including last week approving new ways to determine pricing for electricity from renewable energy projects that more accurately reflect the value to the grid based on geographic location, timing and other factors yet to be determined.
But Lawrence Orsini, LO3's chief executive, said the state still needed to determine how to define his company and its network of participants before it could get its market up and running, a move he anticipates by June.
"There's nothing technically infeasible about what we're doing," he said. "In order for transactive energy to take off as a whole, regulators have to be comfortable that markets can actually work this way and, more importantly, that people want markets like this."
Over the past year, LO3 has been working to find those people, using Google Earth to identify homes with rooftop solar installations and then knocking on doors to enlist participants, with some success throughout Park Slope and Gowanus.
On a block of President Street last year, the company carried out two sales of green electricity credits generated by one homeowner's solar system to a neighbor across the street — tiny transactions, but important in proving the concept's viability.

Mr. Golden on his roof this month. "We need to make energy a product and a service that people can purchase on their own," he said. Credit Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

Those sales involved test versions of renewable-energy credits — numbered certificates that are used to track electricity exported from a renewable system to the grid. Utilities, corporations and other customers can buy the credits to claim green energy use.
In the Brooklyn case, LO3 used the credit sales, conducted over PayPal, to test its approach; it cannot legally buy and sell electricity until regulators determine its market status.
Once that occurs, Mr. Orsini said, the company will be able to facilitate the trading of energy among its participants — though they would still pay the utility, Con Edison, for infrastructure fees and services, as customers now do when they choose to use a green energy supplier through the utility.
Mr. Orsini's team is busy collecting data from meters installed in prosumer homes, measuring production, use and export of the solar electricity to help model the market.
They are also testing a smartphone app that customers will be able to use to manage their electricity purchases, setting parameters to control the source — selecting from a range of conventional, renewable, local and bulk options — as well as how much they are willing to spend.
Mr. Orsini said he expected that most users would want to make their choices and then let the system take over.
"No one wants to day-trade energy," he said. "You're giving something to people that they haven't ever had before, and that's really a way to personalize their energy consumption."
That is the aspect that appeals to a number of the participants, including Garry Golden of Windsor Terrace, a futurist who consults for a variety of businesses, including electric utilities and infrastructure companies.
Mr. Golden installed solar as part of a group purchase that proved so popular with his neighbors that almost a dozen systems are within view of his roof, forming an attractive cluster for the microgrid experiment.
"We need to make energy a product and a service that people can purchase on their own and not rely on a large centralized entity," Mr. Golden said. He added that it was important to build out infrastructure that would be able to better withstand disasters, both natural and man-made.
Other participants echoed that concern.
"The long-term goal is to be at least partially independent of the grid in emergencies, which was a reasonable argument to join," said Patrick Schnell, whose Gowanus basement flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, though he did not lose power. "Hopefully it will expand and more people will join and it will be more worthwhile."
The project includes plans to create a roughly five-square-block area — either around a collection of public housing projects or near a hospital — that could disconnect from the grid and operate independently in case of a power failure.
"It's a recognition of energy needs beyond your own," Mr. Golden said. "There's a microgrid of our community, and that's great, but the hospitals, the clinics, the schools, large housing complexes — you can feed the energy where it needs to go."

Links

• Tesla Gives the California Power Grid a Battery Boost
• A Big Test for Big Batteries
• Power Couple: Tie-Up Shows How Batteries and Solar May Link
• Reforming the Energy Vision

South Australia’s Energy Plan Gives National Regulators Another Headache

The Conversation - Jeffrey Sommerfeld

SA energy minister Tom Koutsantonis (left) and Premier Jay Weatherill have outlined their vision for the state’s electricity. AAP Image/David Mariuz

The keenly awaited new energy policy unveiled by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill features a range of headline-grabbing items, such as a plan to spend A$150 million on a 100-megawatt battery storage facility to help stave off the danger of future blackouts.
On page 7 of the policy document, Weatherill explains part of his underlying rationale:

The national market is now widely considered to be failing and in need of urgent reform. The ability of governments to influence the industry requires cooperation within and across state borders and at a Federal level – cooperation that needs to transcend politics and self-interest.

Noble words, but the new policy doesn’t “transcend politics and self-interest”. Quite the contrary – it is a unilateral move by a state government understandably keen to safeguard itself after suffering vicious criticism at a federal level.
There are rules for how SA and the east coast states that make up the National Electricity Market (NEM) are supposed to behave, yet member states seem to be able to flaunt them, systematically undermining the NEM along the way.
Rightly or wrongly, the NEM does not account for schemes such as renewable energy targets or solar feed-in tariffs. This means that when states pursue them, they can distort the market in the process.
There is conjecture about how much blame the Weatherill government should shoulder for the reliability issues that have beset SA’s electricity network. Either way, the decision has been made to fix it with yet more unilateral state government intervention in what is supposed to be a federated electricity market.
As a result, the new policy is likely to cause major headaches for the NEM and its operators. The announcement includes plans to give the state’s energy minister Tom Koutsantonis the power to override the NEM’s operating rules, allowing him to order generators to supply extra power when he deems it necessary.
This might help avert another South Australian blackout, but it will also undermine the role of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which is responsible for managing the supply of electricity within the NEM. I will be fascinated to see how the SA government deals with the complex issue of what price they will pay for such power.
If the NEM is experiencing a peak in demand and South Australia is facing a shortage, will the South Australian Minister be able to override AEMO and demand private power generators in SA deliver power at a price determined by the minister? Or will the price be the one dictated at that moment by the market?
It is unlikely that the predominantly Labor-run states that now constitute the NEM will allow any adverse action against South Australia. In fact, the SA Parliament is the body through which rules of the NEM are legislated, so it will be nigh-on impossible to toss SA out of the NEM, lest the whole house of cards collapses.

Going it alone
Two other interesting aspects from the South Australian “energy intervention” is the construction of a new A$360 million gas-fired power plant, courtesy of SA taxpayers, and the A$150 million battery bank.
Presumably the SA government would like this new power plant to be able to sell electricity into the NEM, but to reserve the right to commandeer its output when circumstances dictate. It is not at all clear that the NEM rules allow this.
Consider the circumstances during last month’s heatwave, when both SA and New South Wales were facing power shortages. Under SA’s proposed new rules, NSW would be on its own (unless it develops a similar policy of its own). Hardly an example of cooperation.
The same issue will apply to the battery bank. Will it only be on standby for power shortages in SA, or will it be able to discharge into the NEM to take advantages of peak pricing? Could this result in SA finding its batteries empty when the wind stops blowing?
The SA government is correct to point out the deficiencies in the NEM, and even perhaps to claim that it is failing the nation. But an interstate scheme cannot be fixed by the unilateral actions of one state government – in this case, it is likely to be worsened.
The most worrying prospect of all, as far as the NEM is concerned, is the possibility that this will increase investment uncertainty still further, making it even less likely that the interstate grid will attract the new investment it needs.
If that happens, we might well see a few more states deciding to follow SA’s lead and plan sweeping energy reforms of their own.

Links

• Chief Scientist’s report lays a solid foundation for reforming Australia’s electricity network
• Will the latest electricity review bring climate and energy policy together at last?
• The electricity market’s not doing a great job – here’s how to improve it
• South Australia makes a fresh power play in its bid to end the blackouts
• Why the free market hasn’t slashed power prices (and what to do about it)

Gas Companies Make Guarantee They Will Meet Domestic Supply

ABC News - Ashlynne McGhee

Mr Turnbull said gas companies would increase supply to meet domestic and international demand. (ABC News: Nick Haggerty)

The major east coast gas companies have given the Federal Government a guarantee they will make gas available to meet domestic demands.
The promise emerged after an hour-long crisis meeting in Canberra convened by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to find solutions to what he termed a looming crisis.
"They have given us a guarantee that gas will be available to meet demand," Mr Turnbull said.
"We are a massive gas exporter and it is untenable for us to be in a position where domestic gas consumers ... cannot have access to affordable gas."
It comes a day after South Australia announced it would spend more than $500 million to build a new gas-fired power plant and Australia's largest battery in an attempt to secure the state's energy supplies.
South Australia has experienced blackouts and load shedding when demand for power outstripped supply.

SA power milestones and mishaps

SA's power generation and supply security has been under scrutiny in recent times. How did we get here?

Nine gas company bosses were summoned to today's meeting in Canberra.
Mr Turnbull said they would increase supply in order to meet domestic and international demand.
He would not be drawn on how the companies would increase supply, but said they would revise up their domestic gas production forecasts.
"That is a matter for them as to how they manage the balance between domestic and export," Mr Turnbull said.
"But they understand the absolutely critical importance of maintaining their social licence to be doing business in Australia.
"We [Federal Government] have the ability to control exports ... we have that power.
"We want the market to operate, we want their there to be as much freedom in the market to operate, we want there to be as much investment as possible.
"But I stress, we will not shirk from any measures that would be required, if all else fails, to protect Australian businesses, jobs and families."
Two companies, including Asia Pacific LNG, promised to be net domestic gas distributers, meaning they will provide more gas to the Australian market than they will export.

Links

• SA to spend $500m to take control of state's energy market
• 'Worst fears being realised' as residents most likely to bear cost of gas shortage
• Crisis meeting on gas as Malcolm Turnbull warned of winter power crisis
• Malcolm Turnbull to demand gas companies lift supply, states end bans
• PM convinces gas companies to boost supply
• Malcolm Turnbull to tap gas chiefs for solutions in emergency energy talks
• Turnbull to gas industry: give the local market more supply

'They Died Of Thirst': Extreme Conditions Wipe Out Forest Over 1000 Kilometres

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

The death of mangrove forests stretched over 1000 kilometres of Australia's northern coast a year ago has been blamed on extreme conditions including record temperatures.
About 7400 hectares of mangroves strung along the Gulf of Carpentaria died in early 2016 because of the unusual warmth, a prolonged drought and an El Nino that reduced local sea levels by about 20 centimetres, said Norman Duke, head of the Mangrove Research hub at James Cook University.

The death of so much mangrove forest in one hit is "unprecedented", a researcher says. Photo: Norman Duke

"Essentially, they died of thirst," Dr Duke said, adding that the sea-level drop triggered a "highly significant loss of tidal waters".
El Nino events are marked by a stalling or reversal of the easterly equatorial winds that would typically build up waters in the western Pacific. Still, previous El Ninos had not produced the huge death rate of mangroves as seen last year.

Before and after photograph of the massive dieback along the Gulf of Carpentaria. Photo: Norman Duke

Dr Duke said scientists now know that mangroves, much like coral reefs, are vulnerable to a warming climate and extreme weather events. Until now, Australian mangroves were considered to be in relatively good condition, and there had never been such dieback recorded.
The mangrove wipeout could have multiple impacts, including the loss of fisheries worth hundreds of millions of dollars, more coastal erosion because of the loss of forest protection, and poorer water quality given the filtering role the trees play, he said.
Scientists examined the dead trees for signs of a plant pathogen but found the impacts to be widespread across the 20-odd mangrove species. They were also not confined to pockets of plants that might point to a culprit other than extreme weather.
The dieback of trees took four to five months to become apparent, and even then the damage gained little attention given the region's remoteness from population centres. The collapse of the important kelp forests off the Tasmanian coast in recent years is another instance of rapid ecological change largely out of the public view.

The mangrove wipeout could have multiple impacts, including the loss of fisheries worth hundreds of millions of dollars and more coastal erosion because of the loss of forest protection. Photo: Norman Duke

"The Gulf dieback has been a wake-up call for action on shoreline monitoring," Dr Duke said. "We urgently need a national shoreline monitoring program commensurate with our global standing."
Leading specialists and managers will hold a workshop during next week's Australian Mangrove and Saltmarsh Network annual conference in Hobart to press for such monitoring to be set up.

Dr Duke's research in the 2016 dieback is published in the Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research.

Links

• Neglecting the environment is a bad investment
• Remote mangrove ecosystem suffers 7000 hectare dieback
• Humanity mows down grass with high carbon capture potential
• Mangroves: the unsung star of coastal ecosystems
• Why we need to talk about mangroves

South Australia Backs Battery, Gas Plant Under $550 Million Energy Plan

Fairfax - Brian Robins

A new government-owned gas power plant forms the cornerstone of a $550 million plan to provide South Australia with energy security and avoid a repeat of recent blackouts.
The plan also features a large battery storage project, a second gas power station to be built by the private sector backed by a contract to supply the state government and other measures to encourage the development of additional gas resources and an energy security target for the state.


Power plan for the future
SA Premier Jay Weatherill has announced a plan to secure the State's energy future as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prepares to meet gas producers this week. 

"We're taking charge of our energy future," Premier Jay Weatherill​ said of the series of measures outlined Tuesday, which include giving additional ministerial powers to direct the market to operate in the interests of south Australians.
He also promised that the steps would help to reduce power prices, although this would likely occur once all of the measures were in place.
South Australia will be tapping its budget surplus to fund the new power plant, he said, which will cost $360 million.
This plant will be a so-called gas peaker plant which will operate for short periods at times of high demand to help the state avoid power interruptions.
The plant could also help offset the intermittency of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, which critics say has served to exacerbate some of the supply problems in South Australia. However the source of gas for this plant has yet to be clarified.
Obtaining sufficient gas supplies at a competitive price has been a stumbling block for private power generators serving the state.

"This is a plan that puts control of our energy system back in South Australian hands," Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said on Tuesday. Photo: Sean Davey

Battery plant
The battery storage plant is planned to have 100 megawatt capacity, which would make it the largest in Australia. Built and operated by the private sector, the cost has yet to be clarified. A number of groups are vying to win this contract at present.
Details of the state's energy policy have emerged just days after Tesla boss Elon Musk offered to save the state from blackouts by installing large-scale battery storage.

The minister said the plan would also create about 650 jobs, although it stopped short of guaranteeing the new gas plant would be up and running by next summer. Photo: Brendan Esposito

"This is a plan that puts control of our energy system back in South Australian hands," Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said on Tuesday.
"For too long, South Australian households and businesses have been at the mercy of private companies seeking to maximise their profits and a national operator that manages our grid from Melbourne and Sydney."
The new policy comes after a statewide blackout last September when freak storms brought down major transmission lines in the state's north, with further widespread disruptions in early February when local power generators refused to supply to help avert further blackouts.
On one occasion about 90,000 properties were intentionally blacked out when the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) ordered load shedding to deal with a lack of adequate supply. On other occasions it has warned of possible supply cuts as demand soared.

Mr Weatherill said the government's plan would also put downward pressure on electricity prices.
"We'll get reliable, affordable and clean power and ensure more of the state's power is sourced, generated and controlled here in South Australia," he said. "Our state has built its reputation on a clean, green environment and this plan recognises that clean energy is our future."
He indicated that the government owned power plant may not operate at a profit as it will provide some ancillary services to the power market, although by operating it at times of high power prices this could generate income at those times.

'Considered and comprehensive'
The Australian Services Union's SA and NT branch said the plan would bring an end to the employment insecurity its members in the energy sector had been feeling.
"The government has offered pathways for cleaner technologies to develop, whilst giving security to workers in gas-fired generation until that pathway is clearer," branch secretary Joseph Scales said.
AGL Energy, one of the largest power generators in South Australia described the new policy as "considered and comprehensive".
"Increased gas supply is a key way of improving energy competitiveness for South Australian businesses and households," it said in a statement.
"Whilst national reform of the energy market architecture is urgently required, these South Australian reforms will address some key issues required for the more cost-effective integration of increasing renewable energy generation."

Links

• Energy security fears trigger action on power supply
• Power deregulation is a consumer fail
• Power prices surge ahead of Hazelwood closure
• Gas shortages make manufacturing impossible: ACCC

Adani's Planned Carmichael Coal Mine To Shift Millions To Cayman Islands Controlled Company

ABC News - Stephen Long

The shell company's payment rights over the Carmichael coal mine could see it receive about $120 million per annum. (ABC News)

Key points: 'Royalty deed' gives shell company rights to recieve $2-a-tonne payment beyond first 400K tonnes mined for two decades Entitlement owned by company registered in Cayman Islands, controlled by Adani family Carmichael coal mine's production capacity means payment ammounts to about $120 million per year

Up to $3 billion from Adani's planned Carmichael coal mine will be shifted to a subsidiary owned in the Cayman Islands if the controversial project goes ahead, an analysis of company filings shows.
 An "overarching royalty deed" gives a shell company rights to receive a $2-a-tonne payment, rising yearly by the inflation rate, beyond the first 400,000 tonnes mined in each production year for two decades.
The company with this entitlement is ultimately owned by Atulya Resources Limited, a secretive entity registered in the Cayman Islands, and controlled by the Adani family.
"In plain English, the upshot for the Adani family is [that] if the mine goes ahead, they receive a $2-a-tonne payment, so up to $3 billion, via a Cayman Islands company, a company owned in a tax haven," says Adam Walters, principal researcher and Energy Resource Insights.
With a production capacity of 60 million tonnes or more a year, that amounts to about $120 million per annum in payments, increasing each year in line with the CPI, potentially flowing offshore.
"I would describe it as a structure that means that the Adani family enriches themselves if the mine goes ahead but that other shareholders are impoverished," associate professor Thomas Clarke, director of the Centre for Corporate Governance at UTS told the ABC.
"The worry is that this may be just the beginning.

"That the Adani family have the ability to shift cash and assets around at will and in the future they may well do so at the cost of shareholders and the Queensland economy."

He said the billions flowing to the Adani private company would come at the expense of minority shareholders in the company listed on the Bombay stock exchange which ultimately owns the Carmichael mine.


Giant Indian conglomerate Adani has a complex network of companies ultimately owned in the Cayman Islands (ABC News)

How Adani acquired the right to this multi-billion-dollar revenue stream is a tale in itself.
In 2010, Adani Mining Pty Ltd bought the coal tenement that is set to become the Carmichael mine from the now defunct Linc Energy.
Part of the sale involved Adani Mining giving Linc Energy an "overriding royalty deed" which entitled it to receive $2-a-tonne for all coal mined beyond the first 400,000 tonnes in any production year.
Linc Energy informed investors at the time could be worth "over $120 million per annum" and up to $3 billion over the course of the royalty right.
But in August 2014, in dire financial straits, Linc Energy agreed to sell the royalty deed back to Adani at a fire sale price: just $150 million.
The obvious course would have been to extinguish the royalty deed, because it represented a multi-billion-dollar liability for the mine which is ultimately owned by Adani Enterprises Ltd, the Bombay-stock exchange listed company.
Instead, the royalty deed "was assigned by Linc Energy Limited to Carmichael Rail Network Pty Ltd as trustee for Carmichael Rail Network Trust," notes in financial reports of Adani Mining Pty Ltd say.
Carmichael Rail Network is one of a group of companies behind the proposed North Galilee Basin rail line, which Adani is currently seeking a subsidised loan of up to $1 billion from the Federal Government's Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to build.
"What this means is that one of the companies currently seeking up to $1 billion in public subsidy is going to profit to the tune of up to $3 billion if the mine goes ahead," Mr Walters said.

The Queensland Government insists Adani's arrangement is perfectly legal. (AAP)

Adani Mining Pty Ltd, the proponent of the Carmichael mine and the holder of its environmental approvals, appears to have lent Carmichael Rail the funds to buy the royalty deed.
A spokesman for the Adani Group said the subsidiary assigned to the royalty right was an Australian registered and regulated company and "as such it pays all applicable Australian taxes charges".
Last year Resources Minister Matt Canavan dismissed the ABC's investigation into Adani's web of companies leading to tax havens as "fake news".
He rejected concerns about the web of companies and trusts, many owned in tax havens, that Adani had set up for its Australian operations, says resources companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP also had complex company structures.
Dr Clarke said that is nonsense.
"This is a classic third-world pyramid structure, with the Adani family having a controlling interest in all of the different companies, publicly listed, privately listed and the offshore companies which are its private properties," he told the ABC.
"It can freely move cash or assets between the different entities to the benefit of its own family interests."
But according to the Minister, the advice from his department is that it is all perfectly legal.
Adani's spokesman did not respond to a series of questions.

Links

• Adani director appointed to body overseeing mining giant's coal port
• Reef authority warns of widespread coral bleaching again this year
• Indigenous council calls for Adam Bandt not to use Native Title Act in Adani debate
• Agency assessing $1b Adani loan blocks FOI request for board meeting times

'Clean Coal' Is A Con And It's Costing Us Lives

Huffington Post - Helen Szoke

This renewed debate, where scant word has been uttered on the inextricable links between coal, climate change and poverty, is maddening.

There is no such thing as clean coal. Ashley Cooper via Getty Images

There's been a lot of energy invested this year in a debate over so-called "clean coal" and Australia's electricity supplies.
Recently, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took to social media to promise to "keep the lights on" and the power bills paid,scant declaring "all forms of generation" have a role to play in our energy sector. A couple of weeks earlier, Treasurer Scott Morrison was waving around a piece of coal in Parliament before it was passed around like a plaything.

Meanwhile, residents in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland have just sweltered through a summer of unrelenting, record-breaking temperatures.
Further afield in the Pacific, our Fijian neighbours have marked the one-year anniversary of Cyclone Winston unleashing its devastating fury on the island nation.

The biggest cyclone in Fiji's history, Winston left a trail of destruction, from which communities are still recovering today.
Tragically, Winston killed 44 people, wiped out whole villages, destroyed an estimated 32,000 houses and left 50,000 people in need of shelter. In dollar terms, the damage bill amounted to one fifth of Fiji's gross domestic product.

The reality is coal is not some benign plaything to be used as a prop for a headline-grabbing stunt in our Federal Parliament.

This is what's missing from the current energy debate. The devastation that climate change is causing, and will continue to cause, if we do not curb the use of coal -- the burning of which is the single greatest contributor to climate change.
The reality is coal is not some benign plaything to be used as a prop for a headline-grabbing stunt in our Federal Parliament. It is also no longer the cheapest way to ensure our power bills can be paid.
In Oxfam's work around the world, we know that climate change is not only a driver of record temperatures and increasingly ferocious cyclones, but is also pushing more and more people into deeper poverty. The increasing risk of droughts, floods, hunger and disease caused by climate change is most heavily weighing on the world's most vulnerable communities.
Climate change could drive a staggering 122 million more people into extreme poverty by 2030.
It is already undermining people's ability to feed themselves. Globally, crop yields are likely to decline by 2 percent a decade from the 2030s. Compared to a world without climate change, there could be 25 million more malnourished children under the age of five by 2050 -- 20 times the number of children aged under five in Australia.

Instead of setting about building a smart, clean, reliable and low-cost electricity system, the Australian Government has misled the public about the causes of blackouts and electricity price rises, moved away from renewable energy, and promoted the false promise of "clean coal".

But instead of setting about building a smart, clean, reliable and low-cost electricity system, the Australian Government has misled the public about the causes of blackouts and electricity price rises, moved away from renewable energy, and promoted the false promise of "clean coal". Labor leader Bill Shorten has re-affirmed Labor's commitment to 50 percent renewables by 2030 -- which is certainly a welcome step in the right direction, but it's still short of what is needed.
There is no such thing as clean coal. Limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C, as we and all nations committed to strive towards under the Paris Agreement, means there is simply no room for new coal.
The solution is clear -- to help limit warming to 1.5°C, Australia must move towards 100 percent renewable energy. We must reach zero carbon pollution well before mid-century.
While Australia engages in a time-wasting debate, other nations across the globe -- including our closest neighbours -- grapple with the devastating impacts of climate change and move towards renewable energy at a pace that is leaving our country far behind.
Renewable energy sources are now cheaper than coal, even before we take into account coal's cost in terms of carbon pollution. What's more, renewable energy sources are far better placed to help bring electricity to those in poor countries who currently live without it. Even one of the country's major energy generators has questioned the viability of any more "efficient" coal power stations being built in Australia.

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison brings a lump of coal to Question Time. Fairfax

Developing countries, often the least responsible for climate change and those left to deal with the consequences, are leading the charge against coal and fossil fuels.
At the Marrakech Climate Change Conference last year, the 48 members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum -- the body for the most vulnerable countries to climate change -- committed to strive for 100 percent renewable energy as soon as possible, and at the latest by 2030 to 2050.
In 2011, global investment in renewable energy surpassed investment in fossil fuels. In 2013, the world began adding more new power from renewable energy sources than from coal, oil and gas combined. And as of 2015, the world has more installed capacity to generate electricity from renewables than from coal.
Pacific island governments, including Fiji -- which will chair the next round of international climate negotiations -- have repeatedly called for a moratorium on the development of new coalmines and are leading by example with ambitious renewable energy plans. But here in Australia -- a country fortunate to have some of the world's most promising renewable energy potential -- the frustrating debate over coal continues.
This renewed debate, where scant word has been uttered on the inextricable links between coal, climate change and poverty, is maddedevelning.

Developing countries, often the least responsible for climate change and those left to deal with the consequences, are leading the charge against coal and fossil fuels.

I have visited some of our neighbouring countries in the Pacific, where communities are being hit hardest by climate change. Where the people who can least afford it are being forced to adapt as their land is swallowed up and to rebuild in the face of extreme weather events.
In the wake of Cyclone Winston, Oxfam worked with our team in Fiji to deliver vital clean drinking water, sanitation supplies and shelter to those who had been left in dire need. The sobering reality is that if climate change is not addressed, Australia will be called on to respond to more devastating emergencies caused by extreme weather, both here in Australia and abroad.
Fijian leaders used the recent anniversary of Winston's destruction to make an impassioned plea for global action on climate change. It's time for Australia to heed this call and make a radical shift in its utterly out-of-step stance -- a position that is against our own interests and at odds with our commitments under the Paris Agreement.
We must reject the "clean coal" con; lives are at stake.

Links

• Climate Institute To Shut Down, But Not Without One Hell Of A Parting Shot
• Turnbull and Tesla's Elon Musk Discuss Energy Storage Solutions
• The Greens Leader Held Up Bleached Coral In Estimates Because That's What Happens Now
• Conclusive Proof That Australians Don't Buy Negative Spin On Climate, Renewables