Keys to climate control

Courier Mail
Saturday 21/7/2007 Page: 25

THE Australian Government is aware that its principal favoured technology for reducing gas emissions, coal power with carbon capture and sequestration, will not be available for many years. Therefore, to set a greenhouse target and to introduce carbon pricing to achieve it, would benefit renewable energy technologies such as solar hot water, wind energy and bio energy from agricultural and plantation forestry residues.

"These are not favoured technologies, since unlike coal and uranium mining, the renewable energy industry is still small and so cannot in the short term generate large profits and hence large contributions to national revenue via company tax. "Furthermore, the small- and medium-sized companies comprising the renewable energy and efficient use industries cannot afford to make large political donations." These are the words of author Mark Diesendorf. They may also explain why he is a former principal CSIRO research scientist.

So, with the muzzle off, Diesendorf is free to roam and rant. None of it is crazed or delusional either. Rather, it makes perfect and logical sense. Diesendorf believes that "a large reduction in greenhouse gases could be achieved from existing technologies with small improvements". However, he remains bewildered that "macroeconomic models of national economies are much less realistic than climate models, yet politicians and some big businesses have high confidence in the former". This is backed up with some bluntness: "Humans are still completely dependent upon natural processes for air, water and food, but live as if they were independent of them".

Yes, like David Strahan, acclaimed overseas author of The Last Oil Shock, Diesendorf is no fan of neo-liberal economics either. He also reckons a major calamity lies within current macroeconomic models as they "attempt to describe inherently nonlinear phenomena by means of a systems of linear equations". However, Diesendorf is not content with his own observations. He also quotes The Stern Review, the research paper responsible for turning the United Kingdom into a world frontrunner on curtailing the global crisis: "Climate change presents a unique challenge for economics; it is the greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen". With an Australian-centric focus on the climate crisis, Diesendorf's "how-to" manual takes place in three parts.

Part A could be considered an introduction or review of the "human-induced greenhouse effect" and the projected impacts of this on our economy, society, health and of course our environment. He describes the environment as a chair falling backwards. All life on Earth is currently sitting in the chair. At the moment the chair is slowly rocking backwards. As most children realise, this recline cannot go on forever, there is a finite point of travel, a threshold, or a "tipping point". At some time the chair will go past its balance point, out of control, things will accelerate. And so, all life on Earth will be dumped from the chair.

Scientists believe that the inevitable impact may cause total annihilation of both the environment and all the life it supports. It is here, through his own conservative study, A Clean Energy Future for Australia, that Diesendorf takes aim at a solution. He reckons that with slight modifications of current technologies, our country could halve its carbon dioxide emissions from all forms of stationary energy by 2040. Although his focus is not on emissions resulting from transport and despite it being in line with leading European countries, he admits that this plan will fall short. It will not be able to provide a stable and safe environment for fixture generations. However, it easily allows enough time for all current coal-powered stations to be phased out and replaced with cleaner alternative forms of power generation.

Part B is by far the most expansive. It is an in-depth exploration into all the available sustainable technologies. With notable devotion, Diesendorf explodes the myth that wind energy generation is incompatible with mainstream electricity generation.

Part C is a listing of international, national, state and local government policies regarding climate change. From this there is a conclusion that no one policy will provide the solution but that it must come from a mixture of strategies, policies and actions. Although it is no surprise that Diesendorf has little faith in the corridors of power, it is refreshing that he provides a chapter "about facilitating social change to achieve a better society and environment in the face of reluctance and even outright opposition by governments". It is a tome, a little heavy in academic tone, terminology and acronyms. Yet, for the organic learners among us, the coherent format, and sprinkling of creative analogies enables robust levers towards understanding. It should be compulsory reading for every voting Australian in 2007.