Climate Change eBulletin from the AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS
Climate, Land & Water
AN eBULLETIN FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS
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April 2008 |
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In this Issue
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Welcome to the Climate Change e-Bulletin
As the 30th June 2008 looms as the day on which I and my Democrats colleagues depart the Senate, I am putting a lot of effort into global warming and water, hoping to push the government into action. Ratifying Kyoto, extending MRET and starting an ETS by 2010 was a good beginning but is a very inadequate response to the growing evidence that there is no time to waste in cutting emissions or the crisis in water.
I hope I am wrong but I see more of the same from the Rudd Government; a lack of short term action, no mid term targets and a disturbing and irrational insistence on propping up coal. With greenhouse emissions still growing strongly, the signals from government lately are worrying:
- the resources minister seemed more interested in the oil discovery prospects of our newly expanded underwater territory than exploring alternative or renewable fuels,
- the legislation setting up Infrastructure Australia gave it no capacity to advise on greenhouse
- Minister Wong refused to include any mention of renewable energy in the 2020 Summit communiqué
Link to Sustainability Charter Question on Notice, Senator Lyn Allison, 11 March 2008
Address-in-Reply Tuesday, 11 March 2008, Senator Lyn Allison, 11 March 2008
Over the next two months I will introduce bills that:
- set emissions standards for coal fired power stations (effectively prohibiting any new ones that don’t fully sequester their carbon)
- put a trigger into Federal environment laws for new and big greenhouse emitting projects, including power stations.
My other bills to bring forward the government’s MRET expansion and to introduce an energy efficiency trading system are currently under consideration by committee.
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Lyn Allison
Leader of the Australian Democrats |
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Energy Efficiency! What are we waiting for?
The government has allocated only $0.9 million to investigate energy efficiency policy and requires only the top 250 energy consuming companies to undertake voluntary action on energy efficiency.
The Democrats showed the Rudd government how to implement an energy efficiency target through white certificate trading in our private members bill. The bill would address the failure of the energy market to deliver cost effective energy efficiency by creating incentives and a market for energy efficiency and innovation.
The Bill has been referred to Senate committee for further investigation. The committee is to report by 30 May. For more information on making a submission refer to the Senate Committee website.
Questions on Notice Energy Efficiency - Senator Lyn Allison, 17 March 2008
Senate Inquiry into Energy Efficiency |
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Tracking Australia’s Kyoto Target, the Kyoto Shortfall and Beyond
The Democrats flushed out the report which models Australia’s growing greenhouse emissions after quizzing the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong in Senate estimates. The Tracking Kyoto Report which is usually published in December of each year was finally released on 25 February 2008.
Shockingly, the report reveals that while Australia may meet its Kyoto Target, our greenhouse emissions will rise dramatically, up 120% on 1990 levels by 2020, down from 127% under the Howard Government mainly due to the MRET target of 20% by 2020.
Australia Not on track on Kyoto, No Action in Sight - Senator Lyn Allison, 6 Feb 2007
Question without Notice - Tracking Kyoto Target - Senator Lyn Allison, 6 Feb 2007 |
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Campaign for Increased Renewable Energy
Under questioning in Senate estimates the government admitted that the MRET target would not be expanded before 2010-11. There is no reason why the target can not be increased immediately and we have introduced a private members bill to do just that.
Bringing forward the target would bring direct investment by Australian-based manufacturers and service companies of more than $1 billion, with flow-on stimulus of over $2 billion, more than 3,300 construction jobs, 7,500 flow-on jobs and greenhouse gas abatement of 60 million tonnes.
The Bill has been referred to Senate committee for further investigation. The committee is to report by 30 May. For more information on making a submission refer to the Senate Committee website.
Question of Notice on MRET - Senator Lyn Allison, 17 March 2008
Second Reading Speech - Senator Lyn Allison, 14 February 2008 |
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The Rudd government has an election commitment to cut emissions by 60% from 2000 levels by 2050 but will not set short and mid term targets until Ross Garnaut’s final report is out later this year.
Meanwhile, the only serious policy currently being considered is an Emissions Trading Scheme that will only apply to stationary energy and industrial processes - just 56% of the Australia’s emissions.
In 2006 the economic modelling commissioned by the Inter-jurisdictional National Emissions Trading Task Force showed that abatement would be zero in the first 5 years and only modest abatement would occur before 2020 although electricity prices would be up by 10 to 25 per cent.
The ETS and increasing MRET to 20% will not deliver our the Kyoto Target and we fear that lobbying by the coal sector will result in grandfathering of permits or some other mechanism to accommodate the ‘clean coal’ development timeframe of up to 20 years.
The key strategic and low cost approach lies in aggressive energy efficiency, big scale renewable energy, major changes to transport and land use systems and the strategic use of fossil fuel.
Link to QoN_ETS_MRET_EET - Senator Lyn Allison, 17 March 2008
Estimates Questions - Senator Lyn Allison, 22 Feb 2008 |
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Government Support of Carbon Capture and Storage
NASA chief climate scientist James Hansen has written to the Prime Minister urging him to end the mining and export of coal in Australia, backed by the latest in climate change science.
Meanwhile, this month the coal sector, the CFMEU, WWF and the Climate Institute asked the Government to set up a taskforce to ‘accelerate CCS’ for 10,000 GWh of electricity produced by coal fired power stations every year to 2020. It would identify large volume storage sites, on and offshore, and plan injection point infrastructure and pipelines. They want $2 billion spent on flagship projects and revenue generated from auctioning permits under the ETS with liabilities underwritten by Government. They also want a CCS Target Scheme or a feed in tariff, tax incentives and accelerated depreciation.
Their proposal would effectively remove coal fired power from the ETS which they admit would not make CCS competitive with renewable energy by 2020.
The Rudd Government has already committed $500m for CCS but there is as yet no estimate of the ultimate cost of making this technology commercially viable or the time it will take. In any case it cannot be retrofitted to our current stock of coal fired power stations so the question is, why would any government fund this technology when there are proven alternatives. South Australia’s wind power will soon reach 20% of their total generation, solar thermal power has hardly been tapped and geothermal power generation is showing great promise.
We say the coal industry should fund its own CCS efforts from the $22 billion dollars in export revenues each year, rather than looking to taxpayers for a solution that may or may not work.
The government provides a pitiful $900,000 for energy efficiency despite the fact that a mere one percent improvement on energy waste would reduce the need for 8 coal fired power stations and experts say a 30% efficiency dividend is possible with expenditure that would have a relatively short payback period.
In response Democrats will introduce a Bill in budget week to set the threshold for new coal fired power stations at 0.55 T CO2 / MWh - at this level all coal fired power stations without CCS will be excluded.
Link to QoN_CCSience_17MAR08 - Senator Lyn Allison, 17 March 2008
Link to Question on Notice QoN_CoalCCS_17MAR08 - Senator Lyn Allison, 17 March 2008 |
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Greenhouse Trigger and EPBC Act
Unfinished business for the Australian Democrats is the inclusion of a greenhouse trigger in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC Act) and we will introduce a Bill in May to do this requiring any project with a significant greenhouse foot print to be approved by the Minister.
Howard government undertook to consult with the States and include a trigger in the EPBC Act 1999 but did not. In Aug 2003 when Labor was in opposition it proposed a trigger, with a threshold of 500,000 tonnes CO2-eq. The Australian Democrats say a threshold of 100,000 tonnes, which would be the same as adding 25,000 cars on the road, is needed.
Link to EPBC Act Amendments |
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Offsets, Who is Checking This Stuff?
As a result of increased awareness of greenhouse impacts and proactive individuals wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, the sales of GreenPower and carbon Offsets are increasing.
However the industry for offsets is unregulated and there are no consumers protection. Also the ETS may mean that buying GreenPower results in individuals subsidising the big polluters.
We asked the Rudd Government and the ACCC to outline how they will address these policy gaps. The ACCC is undertaking its first prosecution on false claims of carbon offsets but unfortunately it is not on the radar of the Minister for Climate Change and Water.
Questions on Notice – Carbon Offsets - Senator Lyn Allison, 4 March 2008 |
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Infrastructure Australia
The Rudd government failed its first test on climate change with the startling omission of climate change considerations in infrastructure planning.
Infrastructure Australia is being established to coordinate national infrastructure development, however greenhouse reduction is not included as an objective in the enabling legislation and IA may only advise government on ‘the implications of climate change’ if requested to do so by the minister. We say assessing infrastructure against greenhouse emission criteria will be essential for this body.
Our amendments to the Bill were defeated, however, while the need for greenhouse reduction is not spelled out in the legislation, we did extract the minister’s assurances that greenhouse reduction will be a consideration for planning. At least it’s on the record in Hansard!
Link to Infrastructure Australia Bill Reply Speech - Senator Lyn Allison, 19 and 20 March 2008 |
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Where is the Rudd Government on Nuclear Energy?
The Howard government was committed to Australia becoming the nuclear full-fuel cycle merchant and open to Australia selling uranium to India, despite India’s nuclear weapons and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
Brendan Nelson says nuclear power is no longer Liberal Party policy but the Rudd Government is yet to make this commitment.
The ALP opposes uranium sales directly to India but will not vote against the US/India agreement at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting later this year. This means the US will effectively be the conduit for uranium exports between India and Australia making a mockery of their policy.
Unfortunately Minister Ferguson is providing the impetus for all nuclear policy decisions within the government. Who knows how far Labor will go now that their 3 mines policy has been overturned.
The Democrats say NO to nuclear energy and have submitted Questions on Notice in an attempt to uncover the Government’s agenda.
Questions on Notice 2008 - Senator Lyn Allison, 30 March 2007 |
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Murray-Darling Basin Agreement
With Victoria signing up to the Murray Darling Basin agreement the government will now spend $10 billion on irrigation and farming efficiency projects as well buying back water for the river and the environment.
The Democrats are still concerned that the current water market remains unregulated and there is no national strategy for water.
A disturbing trend is arising where water is being ripped out of the agriculture for use in a wasteful urban environment and expensive desalination plants have been commissioned before addressing cheaper and more secure actions like water harvesting and water efficient appliances and practices.
The Australian Democrats wrote to the Minister for Water and Climate Change urging action on these.
Letter to Penny Wong, 4 December 2007 |
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Port Phillip Bay Channel Deepening Project
Senator Allison called on the Victorian Government to update its environmental legislation and give people the right to challenge environmentally-damaging projects.
Dredging Port Philip Bay is a mistake. It damages a critical ecosystem and will apparently not be deep enough to allow the largest ships to pass, committing Melbourne to an outdated river-mouth port and heavy inner city road congestion.
The Blue Wedges Coalition’s legal challenge was made under federal law as, under Victorian law, the minister’s decision is final and cannot be appealed in the courts.
Link to Channel Deepening Question on Notice - Senator Lyn Allison, 11 March 2008 |
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