The threat of climate change

Waste Management & Environment
November, 2006 Page: 17

Australia is not known as the sunburnt country for nothing. Climate change will dry us out completely if we don't take systematic action. Climate change and water are the two sides of the same coin, and Australia desperately needs a strategy for both. Increasing temperatures and water shortages mean the harsh reality of climate change is here.

Everyone knows it's happening and that the science about climate change is right. Carbon pollution is making the greenhouse blanket around the Earth way too thick, trapping heat and distorting our climate and drying up our water supplies. The 10 hottest years ever have occurred in the past 14, and 2005 was the hottest year on record. The Murray River is at its lowest level for over 100 years.

Saying the drought is linked to climate change is as obvious as linking speeding to car accidents. If we don't take action, we are headed for an economic and environmental crash. For example, the 2006 grain harvest was cut by 36 per cent due to reduced rainfall and ongoing drought, cutting Australia's export income by $2 billion.

The Stern Report has focused the world's attention on the potentially dire economic impacts of climate change. It has reported that taking action to avoid dangerous climate change will be significantly less costly than the cost of inaction.

Taking action is an environmental and economic imperative for Australia.

The report is a sharp repudiation of the climate change sceptics in the Howard Government who are frozen in time while the globe ,varms around them. According to the report, climate change could cost the global economy more than both World Wars and the Great Depression combined. Unless the world begins to act now to reduce the level of carbon in the atmosphere, global economic output could be cut by up to 20 per cent.

Time to harness our natural advantages

While greenhouse emissions are causing the problem, Australia's natural advantage with solar and wind energy places us well to exploit clean renewable energy.

The Howard Government has rejected expanding its renewable energy target, yet Solar Systems' project in Mallee, Victoria was only possible because the Victorian Labor Government adopted such a target. The Victorian target of 10 per cent power from renewables by 2016 made the project viable, but the Howard Government has rejected expanding the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) beyond its pathetic two per cent.

Renewable energy projects are going ahead in Australia despite, not because of, Howard Government policies. In fact, Australia is the only country where renewable energy projects are being closed.

While Labor welcomes one-off announcements, what we need is a systematic response to climate change. Australia needs to significantly increase its renewable energy target and develop economic incentives to encourage long-term investment in renewables and clean coal technology.

We need decisive national leadership to ensure we get a decent share of a global market in renewables, estimated to grow into a trillion dollar industry in coming years. The recent renewables manufacturing plant closed by Vestas Nacelle in Tasmania cost 100 jobs, and Roaring 40s' decision not to proceed with two renewable energy projects cost regional Australia $550 million and 200 full-time construction jobs. Both companies said it was because of a lack of Federal Government support.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, additional investment in clean and renewable energy projects in developing countries, such as China, will be $133 billion by 2012. Currently, the only way Australian companies can access investment under Kyoto is by setting up offices in countries that have ratified Kyoto, such as Fiji or New Zealand, or by being minority joint venture partners. This is shameful.

The business sector needs clear targets that encourage investment certainty for the transformation to a carbon constrained economy. Only with a comprehensive plan will we he able to take up opportunities that are available, whilst avoiding dangerous climate change.

Pricing of our natural resources is one of the most pressing reform agendas facing Australia, and no more so than in the case of climate change. Labor supports not only the development of renewables, clean coal and other low emission technologies, but also the market mechanisms to ensure their widespread deployment to drive greenhouse emission reductions. The push of technology combined with the pull of the market.

Projects such as Solar Systems' highlight the fact that clean technology is available right now. The real challenge is to ensure the technology is commercialised and widely applied, and not just a one-off announcement