Age
Tuesday 20/3/2007 Page: 8
ENERGY giant AGL, has announced it will become the first big Australian company to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, a move that may embarrass the Federal Government as it procrastinates over climate change.
It will allow the company to agree to the big investment needed for the Macarthur wind farm. It has also just bought three "bio-mass" power stations in Queensland fired by, among other things, macadamia nuts.
By joining the Chicago Climate Exchange, AGL can market the cuts it makes to its emissions in Australia to less-efficient companies around the world.
Meanwhile, a report on the profit from its efforts to cut greenhouse gas pollution in Australia, something it cannot do at home. The move will help AGL expand its renewable energy operations, including plans to build the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere, at Macarthur in Victoria, which will power about 190,000 homes.
AGL managing, director Paul Anthony said the company had invested almost $2 billion in renewable energy over the past year and hoped the board would future of coal has urged US President George Bush to impose a "significant" charge on carbon dioxide emissions to encourage the development of "clean" coal technology and pressure India and China to slash pollution.
A new study by the respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America concludes that the risks of global warming are real. It urges US policymakers to take action to restrict carbon dioxide emissions. The study concludes that coal use is likely to increase and says governments need to develop commercial-scale clean coal technology as a priority.
For the past decade, the Howard Government has stalled on setting up a carbon trading scheme or ratifying the Kyoto agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, which would allow Australian companies to trade in the European carbon market.
The result is that Australian companies have no real way to measure the cost of greenhouse gas pollution, caused by- carbon intensive energy sources such as coal, oil and gas, except for the Chicago Climate Exchange, which puts the price at $US5 ($A6.25) a tonne.
If Australian companies make big cuts in emissions and invest in renewable energy, they can find it difficult to reap an immediate reward, while heavily polluting competitors are not penalised, Late last year, Prime Minister John Howard announced he was setting up a special task force to examine a carbon emissions trading scheme here. But a fully operational scheme is likely to be years away.
For AGL, the largest investor in renewable energy in Australasia, Canberra is moving too slowly. When Mr Anthony joined AGL last year from Britain, he was surprised at how far behind Australia was in putting a cost on greenhouse gas pollution. But he believes the rest of the world will soon force Australia to recognise that cost.
While AGL's move won't have an impact on the cost of gas and electricity for its 4 million consumers, ultimately, world markets and the European carbon trading schemes are likely to push up the price of fossil fuel energy.
Mr Anthony believes the Federal Government needs to set a strong national target for renewable energy as an immediate priority. "That's usually the first building block in trying to reduce emissions," he said. Currently, Canberra's renewable energy target sits at just 2 per cent.
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