Heat is on for serious greenhouse reduction

Newcastle Herald
Wednesday 12/12/2007 Page: 9

Australia needs to make a major commitment on emissions targets for the post-Kyoto framework, argues Glenn Albrecht.

THE time for delay in reversing global warming is over. There must be action at every level, from the personal and the local, to the international discussions under way in Bali on a post-Kyoto framework for emissions reductions. The sceptics must now admit that they were wrong. They must also admit that their scepticism has contributed significantly to the delay in action to tackle rising carbon dioxide emissions. If we had started a collective effort (globally, nationally, regionally and personally) to reduce greenhouse gas pollution a decade ago, the urgency of the problem we face right now would have been avoided.

The latest climate science is now telling us that even the IPCC's Fourth Report published only this year is out of date. The world is warming faster than anticipated and the primary cause, greenhouse gas emissions, are escalating faster than all had thought possible. The net result is that our world is rapidly changing right now and is at foreseeable risk of irreversible and dangerous change to all life and life support systems. The simple reason for this risk is that science is saying that global warming beyond an extra two degrees (Celsius) above the pre industrial level is likely to trigger catastrophic changes to the world's climate.

To keep this risk under control scientists say that we need the global CO2 concentration in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million. It is now (2006 data) at a record high of 381.2 ppm and is rising at about 2 per cent per annum on business-as-usual and economic growth scenarios. The global mean temperature is rising at about 0.2 degrees per decade on top of the 0.8 degrees of warming already delivered in the past 100 years.

It is for this reason that in Bali the Rudd Government must commit Australia to a tougher and more short-term target for reducing CO2 emissions than the pre-election proposed 60 per cent reduction by 2050. Economic imperatives should not be driving our new greenhouse targets. It is science that should determine the speed and depth of the cuts and the latest advice is that no matter what the cost in the short term, the developed world must cut emissions by at least 85 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050.

In the Hunter Region, given our coal-based power generation and exports, a positive response to the reality of global warming must be particularly strong. For at least a decade a growing number of citizens have been engaging in the vital task of warning people about the risks of a coal-based economy in the face of climate chaos.

It has been groups like Rising Tide, Climate Action Newcastle, Climate Change Coalition and The Greens that have had their positions vindicated. It is now time for all of us, all generations, to join forces with them and co-operate in a change process to build a genuinely sustainable future. What kind of future can the Hunter have in the face of such imperatives to change? A future based on clean, safe, renewable energy is technologically possible and it is now urgent that we create such a future.

The coal industry does not have a long-term future in the valley anyway, so we may as well start its phased withdrawal now. Such a conclusion means there can be no new coalmines, no extensions of existing mines, no new coal transport infrastructure and definitely no new coal-fired power plants. A single new coal-fired power station will wipe out the benefits from all past energy saving and greenhouse gas emission reductions undertaken by people of goodwill.

Our region is in a great position to harness all forms of solar energy (sun and wind in particular) and is already a world leader in new technologies that take us away from coal and oil dependency. I can see it now: hundreds of solar arrays and grid-connected wind turbines in the valley. Most could be located on the 500 square kilometres that have already been degraded by coalmines. solar power stations would hunt under the sun as would the solar chimneys as they generated base-load power around the clock.

Every house in the Hunter could be a net power generator with photovoltaic panels. There are jobs, jobs, jobs in such a future as the workforce retrains for the solar economy. And we would all live in a valley and on a planet that was no longer at risk of meltdown.

Dr Glenn Albrecht is an associate professor in environmental studies at the University of Newcastle.