Some myths and facts about climate change

Sun City News
January, 2008 Page: 10

Currently Australia gets 80 percent of its electricity from coal and is the world's largest exporter of coal. So it is a fallacy to say the Australian economy will always depend on coal. Major world economies are setting ambitious renewable energy targets to deal responsibly with climate change. With increasing public demand for clean energy, the need for coal will be reduced in the next few decades, both in Australia and overseas. The Australian economy and livelihoods will be at risk if Australia does not phase out this outdated energy source.

The cost of not doing this will be greater according to the Stern Review, the biggest economic evaluation of the effects of climate change. The global cost is $9 trillion. Tourism and agriculture combined employ nine times more people than the entire coal industry. Yet places like the Great Barrier Reef are predicted to be 95 percent destroyed by climate change. Drought is crippling our agricultural industry and climate change will only make it worse.

Australia must make a transition from a coal-based economy to one based on the use, manufacture and export of safe and clean renewable energy. The so called 'clean coal' is not the solution to climate change. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is currently an experimental plan to capture and bury the toxic carbon pollution created by burning coal to make electricity so it doesn't enter the atmosphere.

CCS technology for coal doesn't capture the carbon pollution anywhere in the world and there is no telling if and when it might be operational. CCS cannot capture all emissions from a power station or be applied to all power stations, so even if it were widely used in Australia, greenhouse emissions would actually continue to increase. CCS is not necessarily safe or secure from leakage. Emissions must be kept for centuries, far longer than any of the companies promoting the technology have ever been in business.

Greenpeace Australia maintains that hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer's dollars should not be spent on developing this technology when a range of renewable energy and energy efficiency options are available.

Nuclear energy is not the solution to climate change. Australia needs to cut its emissions by at least 30 percent within about ten years. A report commissioned by the federal government states it would take about 40 years to build 25 nuclear energy stations which would only lower the emissions by 8 to 18 percent. Its too little, too late to tackle climate change. There is no known safe disposal of nuclear waste. nuclear energy plants use a lot of water, this is unsuitable for the many drought stricken or and areas of Australia.

Australia has several natural resources and the technology to create enough renewable clean energy to fuel the entire nation. wind energy could easily generate 20 percent of Australia's electricity by 2040. solar power has an unlimited potential in Australia. Using photovoltaic technology every home in Australia could generate sufficient power to produce the total electricity requirements of Australia. bioenergy from plants and animal waste could supply 25 percent of Australia's electricity by 2040 depending on how drought affects farming and forestry.

A study approved by all Australian governments states that we could slash our energy use by up to 30 percent just by using available energy efficiency technology. Greenpeace energy campaigner, Catherine Fitzpatrick, said: "We have the technology and we have the natural resources to bring about a clean energy revolution. Now we need to get the political will."