Make ETS permits free for farmers, says NFF

Age
Monday 22/9/2008 Page: 3

MOST permits under the Federal Government's proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS) should be allocated free, especially for agriculture, says Australia's peak farming body. The National Farmers' Federation said free permits for agriculture would be justified as action by farmers had cut greenhouse emissions from agriculture, forestry and fishing by 41.7% between 1990 and 2005. More than 90% of carbon permits should be free.

"Free allocation with an efficiently working secondary market will deliver the same outcome and efficient price discovery as an auction system," the NFF said in its submission on the Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) green paper. This would minimise the revenue shock from implementing the CPRS. "This process has been adopted in Europe and New Zealand," the NFF said. The green paper ruled out bringing agriculture into the CPRS until at least 2015, with a decision likely to be made in 2013.

The NFF disagreed with the green paper's assertion that companies could pass on the cost of carbon. "Agriculture's capacity to pass on costs is notoriously poor, meaning that many farmers will be forced to absorb the vast majority of the cost of these permits," the NFF said. The sector would also be hit by other price increases caused by the CPRS, such as fuel and energy, which would hurt farmers' global competitiveness from 2010.

"It would be perverse if agriculture was more adversely treated in the Australian CPRS than in any other ETS in the world," the federation said. The NFF said forestry could make a valuable contribution, but had the potential for perverse outcomes. These included less water run-off, affecting ground-water hydrology on neighbouring farms, biodiversity losses and reductions in land available for food.

The CPRS should also not bolster managed investment schemes, which "do not promote sound investment decisions in rural Australia". The NFF said it supported small-scale, on-farm forestry as a complement to agriculture while helping to sequester carbon. But the provision requiring trees on continuous land of 0.2 hectares or more should be abolished.

$40bn costing

Adelaide Advertiser
Monday 22/9/2008 Page: 2

AN EMISSIONS trading scheme introduced without energy efficiency measures or renewable energy targets would cost the electricity sector more than $40 billion, new modelling will show today. The modelling, commissioned by the Climate Institute Australia, says energy efficiency improvements ... will reduce the longterm cost of reducing emissions. Chief executive John Connor said: "The modelling shows that the most cost effective way to clean up Australia's electricity generating sector is by tapping into huge energy efficiency opportunities."

Rudd promises $100m for clean coal

Canberra Times
Saturday 20/9/2008 Page: 2

The Federal Government hopes to seize the lead on the world stage over the contentious issue of clean-coal technology, pledging $100 million to establish a global institute on carbon capture. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the funding yesterday with Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who said Australia, as a resources "superpower", was perfectly placed to be the frontrunner among 20 nations working in the area. Mr Rudd said that all major models of how the world could achieve lower greenhouse gas emissions expected a significant part of the reduction to be achieved through the use of carbon dioxide capture and storage, known as CCS.

However, only small-scale trials of the technology had been conducted, with no industrial-scale integrated CCS power stations yet built. Government funding was critical to achieve this breakthrough and Mr Rudd said it would be good for Australia to "get some skin into the game". "The clarion call from industry has been] let's get this going," he said. The institute was needed to "close the information gap, identify projects and organise finance - and to turn all these aspirational statements into reality", putting an end to the "litany of good intentions".

The Opposition attacked the announcement as the latest of Mr Rudd's "desperate attempts to make a splash on the global stage". Mr Rudd, a former diplomat and for five years Labor's foreign-affairs spokesman in opposition, is to address the United Nations next week. Shadow climate minister Greg Hunt and shadow resources minister David Johnston said Mr Rudd had only rebadged various Howard government initiatives, some of them seven years old.

The previous government committed $400 million to help develop clean-coal technology, including $100 million for a $750 million, 400 megawatt power plant in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Senator Johnston said "with Australia's reliance on coal for 80 to 90 per cent of our base load power, we need to be concentrating our efforts on clean coal carbon capture and sequestration at home - not junketing around the globe lecturing other nations on their responsibilities".

Coal is Australia's largest source of export earnings, bringing in an estimated $43 billion in 2008-09. Industry and training unions welcomed the Government move to establish the institute. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's national president, Tony Maher, said that the institute would put Australia in "the driving seat". "Today's announcement ... is good news for Australia's environment and good news for the future of Australian jobs," he said. The Greens called on the Government to fund each major renewable energy technology by at least as much as it assisted the coal industry.

Senator Christine Milne asked: "Where is the $100 trillion fund to make Australia's world-leading solar researchers a global knowledge hub? "Where are the half-a-billion dollar funds to roll out solar thermal power stations, ocean power stations and geothermal demonstration plants? "All of these are ready and able to provide vast quantities of base-load power well before a single coal power plant using geosequestration [carbon capture] can be built."

Blow-ins leave mark as old country turns land of the giants

Canberra Times
Saturday 20/9/2008 Page: 1

On farms that were settled more than 100 years ago, massive 21st century technology is rising tip alongside the stockyards, rusted gates and old cottages. Just north of Bungendore, the $370 million Capital Wind Farm is taking shape in a huge logistical and engineering exercise. Twelve half-towers have so far been installed on a ridge overlooking Lake George, all of them to be eventually twice their current height. But that's just the start.

There will eventually be 67 turbines across the landscape. The towers will be 80m tall, each blade 44m across. The half-towers are already visible across Lake George from the Federal Highway. Once the wind turbines are completed, the top of the blade sweep will be about 124m above the ground. Even the nose cones and hubs which will sit in the centre of the blades are huge, construction workers scurrying through them in a surreal sight above Lake George.

The project also includes an electrical substation and 45km of underground cables. Escorted trucks arrive almost daily to the wind farm site, about 10km north of Bungendore, carrying the fibreglass blades from Port Kembla (via India) and the steel tower sections from Dalby in Queensland and Portland in Victoria. There are 102 workers on the site. Construction started in March and won't finish until next July or August.

NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor approved the Capital Wind Farm in November 2006, with 80 conditions of consent. Renewable Power Ventures, a subsidiary of Babcock and Brown Wind Partners, is the proponent. The NSW Planning Department says the wind farm will generate more than 400,000 megawatt hours of electricity each year, "which is equivalent to the electricity consumed by approximately 52,000 homes each year". The wind farm will supply the national grid.

The NSW Government will power the Kurnell desalination plant from the Capital Wind Farm. Company spokesman David Griffin said the Bungendore site was chosen because it had predictable winds at times of high demand for electricity, was close to a transmission line with spare capacity and had vast tracts of cleared land. "Without doubt, it's the best wind resource in NSW," he said.

Seven properties are being leased by the company to accommodate the wind farm, including three historic Bungendore holdings owned by the Osborne family which has been farming in the area since 1886. The farms are running as usual while the wind farm is under construction and the Osbornes expect the properties to continue working when it operates. Brian Osborne, who has 5000 sheep on his property, said his lease with the wind farm was for 25 years. It was a more palatable option than carving up and selling off the family holdings as farming became more difficult.

Mr Osborne said he would be able to live with the wind farm. "I think I could live with that rather than live without it, otherwise we'd have to be gone," he said. The consent conditions included noise limits, a requirement for the company to identify and monitor at risk bird and bat groups and once decommissioned, the site must be "returned, as far as practicable, to its condition prior to the commencement of construction". If any turbine is not used for 12 months "it must be decommissioned unless otherwise agreed to by the director-general" of NSW Planning.

The company is to give $2.6 million to Palerang Council to seal and realign Taylors Creek Road. Mr Griffin said fewer than nine megalitres of water would be used on the site over the 18-month construction period. Bungendore Motel owner Greg Nye supports the wind farm, saying it could even be a tourist attraction. "They're like beautiful, big rural sculptures and it's part of the worldwide trend for more green energy, so it's a win-win really," he said but Dianne Douch, whose horse stud backs the wind farm, said the project was a scar on the landscape. "We never wanted them, but we've got them. From memory, I think we're going to see 27 of them from our place," she said.

Coming clean on coal scheme

Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 21/9/2008 Page: 24

STATE Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson admits a propaganda campaign being put together to boost support for clean coal technology is deceptive. The Clean Coal Council has developed a communications strategy to target key groups, starting with secondary school children, with the message that clean coal technologies are vital to the state's long-term economic stability and climate change response.

The council is made up of government and industry representatives and chaired by Premier Anna Bligh. A confidential government document, obtained by The Sunday Mail, says renewable energies such as wind, wave, geothermal and solar are also being explored but claims they are efficient only in "certain niche markets" and are still in the "development stages".

Simon Roz, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace, says that is untrue. Renewables were an important and proven source of power in many countries, he said. "The Queensland Government is spending taxpayer money to fund a campaign to deceive the next generation of voters," he said. The Sunday Mail in July revealed that the Government received a CSIRO report last year that said renewable sources could provide all of the state's electricity needs.

Mr Wilson said the communications strategy was "only a draft at this stage" and "there are differing opinions about some of the content". "For instance, f don't agree with the description of renewable energy," he said. "To me, renewable energy is absolutely vital in tackling climate change. I've got to say I agree with Greenpeace on that score." The Government has committed $300 million for clean coal technology. The secret document says clean coal technology is seen as being in competition with renewables.

Windy sites sought

Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 21/9/2008 Page: 22

THE State Government is searching for the windiest places in Queensland. In a bid to encourage alternative energy generation, the Environmental Protection Agency is working on a map showing the most promising locations to set up wind farms. "This initiative will provide useful research information free to anyone interested in developing wind energy," Climate Change Minister Andrew McNamara said. The EPA will produce the maps using its own data and information from the CSIRO.

Within a week or so, it will have information on winds at a height of 3000m. Data on wind at ground level should be available by the end of November. Early indications are that areas of north Queensland are promising, as well as an arc stretching from Kingaroy to Toowoomba in the southeast. The State Government recently called for expressions of interest from companies to develop a wind farm on state owned land at Archer Point, near Cooktown. The Federal Government is expected to order that 20 per cent of the country's electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.

Wind farms a stormy issue in the shire

Sunday Canberra Times
Sunday 21/9/2008 Page: 29

A TURBULENT issue is buffeting the Upper Lachlan Shire. It's dividing once tight communities and setting neighbour against neighbour. When it comes to the stormy subject of wind farms, Shire residents aren't content to blithely shoot the breeze. Last Saturday's election gave the local council the opportunity to definitively canvass public opinion. A poll asked whether voters supported "the continuing development and construction of wind farm turbines in the Upper Lachlan Council area".

An overwhelming majority of the Shire's 5468 voters - 70 per cent - said yes. Every polling place came out in favour of turbines, which surprised Mayor John Shaw. The anti-wind farm lobby had mounted a strong and vocal campaign. Asked if it was just another case of Not In My Back Yard, Mr Shaw begged to differ.

"People aren't against the introduction of wind farms because they know we have to do something about not expanding out coal use ... We're quite happy to share the burden if the rest of NSW does," he said. "My argument is you try to put them on North Head or South Head in Sydney, and you can imagine the outcry. Maybe Newcastle and Sydney are the NIMBY areas of our state." The Upper Lachlan Shire already has one small wind farm at Cullerin, near Gunning. Four more have been approved and another is being assessed by the NSW Department of Planning.

The anti-wind farm folks say the turbines intrude on otherwise serene vistas, that the blades can kill hapless birds, that they don't generate employment and that they may bring down the value of adjacent properties. Supporters of wind farms cite the considerable ethical and practical benefits of sustainable energy and the income landowners can generate for every turbine they host. The anti-turbine lobby insists the poll result will not take the wind out of their sails.

Watchdog rates the greenies

Daily Telegraph
Friday 19/9/2008 Page: 91

THE Macquarie Bank-funded carbon offset group, Climate Friendly, has been named the best provider of offset products by a new watchdog for the $44 million sector. Climate Friendly's market is the small to medium-sized business sector. More than 50 companies were invited by the Total Environment Centre (TEC) to let its Carbon Offset Watch team scrutinise and compare their greenhouse gas abatement schemes, but fewer than half agreed.

Melbourne-based Climate Positive was ranked the most impressive provider from the not-for-profit groups in the survey, which was jointly conducted with consumer group Choice and the Institute of Sustainable Futures, at the University of Technology Sydney. The ranking system outlines the best carbon offsets available and will increase consumer confidence about whether the offsets they buy will be effective for reducing emissions, TEC spokeswoman Jane Castle said.

The offsets are created through the financing of projects that reduce greenhouse emissions, thus producing credits that are sold on for between $6 and $52 a carbon tonne to businesses and individuals. TEC examined the quality of the available products with those selling credits generated by the Kyoto Protocol compatible Clean Development Mechanism judged to have the highest standards, and the original Mandatory Renewable Energy Target the lowest.

Among those that declined to be surveyed were Greenfleet, ANZ and Bendigo Bank, Easy Being Green, Hydro Tasmania and Veolia Environmental Services. TEC said it was reasonable to expect that companies selling carbon offsets in the voluntary market should be willing to have their products assessed. This was particularly the case given the absence of specific legislation standards for the market, the group said. Cleaner Climate and the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council offsets scored outstanding ratings.

Power companies AGL and Origin Energy achieved good results, but missed the top ranking because some of the offsets they sold were accredited under lower scoring schemes than those offered by higher-ranked companies. Climate Positive chairman Brendan Condon said the Carbon Offset Watch site provided a transparent guide to quality offsets. "We are thrilled to be in the top band of offsetters," Mr Condon said. Choice policy officer Kate Norris said the new offset watchdog would put on notice those organisations that exploit consumers' environmental concerns. Until emissions trading is introduced, buying offsets is voluntary, via one of the 50 retailers selling carbon credits.

Green spells growth in WA market

West Australian
Thursday 18/9/2008 Page: 46

Almost half of WA's fastest-growing companies are in the green sector, cashing in on consumer demand for clean technology in areas such as waste water treatment, wind energy and aquaculture, according to a new report. The Ernst & Young report on the State's 10 fastest-growing small-to-medium industrial companies found that four focused on environmental areas, including green cleaning technologies and alternative waste management.

"People are getting more environmentally friendly," E&Y partner Peter McIver said. "People are concerned about the environment and companies are starting to focus on that as an area of opportunity." He said investors could also be turning to the environmental sector to spread the risk in their portfolio in uncertain times. The E&Y report, published yesterday, identified the 10 fastest moving small-to-medium capitalisation industrials in the WA market. The companies all achieved growth of more than 20 per cent in the June quarter.

Mr McIver said the 10 leaders relied on common growth strategies including retaining key talent, collaborating with blue chips and technology partners, sustaining research and development momentum, as well as building a brand by delivering beyond client expectations. He said the fast movers also operated in a global market and reduced risk through diversifying their products and clients.

All of the 10 chief executives interviewed for the report said the skills shortage was a considerable barrier to growth. "Many were focused on succession planning, with strategies to retain key people and develop their skills," Mr McIver said. Environmental companies said the cost of materials and fuel in WA was an additional obstacle to growth, while mining services suppliers said they were concerned about a lack of social and physical infrastructure in regional towns.

Riots and a ruined China inspire green revolution

West Australian
Thursday 18/9/2008 Page: 32

China is about to become the biggest investor in green energy to try to reverse the catastrophic effects of its industry on the environment. Last year, it spent $13.5 billion on renewable energy projects, slightly less than world leader Germany, and the Communist Party vowed to double it this year. Energy expert Li Junfeng, of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China already led in "overall scale of renewable energy development".

"The task is tough and our time is limited," Chinese President Hu Jintao said this year. "Government at all levels must give priority to emission reduction and bring the idea deep into people's hearts." Wu Changhua, from pro-business environmental organisation the Climate Group, said Beijing suddenly realised China needed a "new path" to prevent environmental disaster.

When she began lobbying 18 months ago, people asked what it was about but now there was "intense mainstream attention". "There are daily articles in the state media," she said. China's economic rise has blackened its cities, poisoned its water and ravaged the countryside. Last year, it overtook the US for carbon dioxide emissions and it has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities.

Tens of thousands of pollution inspired riots every year drill home the message and the Ministry of Public Security listed pollution among the top five threats to China's peace and stability. Its solution combines tough environmental laws, severe penalties for provincial governors who fail to clean up the mess and a thriving renewable energy market.

Its Goldwind wind turbine maker, the world's biggest, has had 100 per cent growth in each of the past eight years. China makes more solar panels that any other country and has pioneered a solar hot-water system used nationwide. Mr Li expects wind energy to compete with coal as early as 2015 for energy production. Presently, coal supplies 70 per cent of China's power but the target for wind energy was raised to 10GW by 2010 when the 5GW target was met three years early.

However, critics say China is not likely to produce more than 3 per cent of its power from wind in that time. Still, the Government has pledged that 15 per cent of its energy will be from renewable sources by 2020 with dire threats for state corporations chiefs who will be judged 60 per cent on environmental goals instead of growth.

Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian also warned 21 governors they would be accountable if major lakes and rivers were not cleaned up. In rural areas, surveyors measure precisely fertilisers, pesticides, animal excrement and sewage while more than 1000 "clean" villages are being developed which dispose of 90 per cent of waste sustainably. Critics say the initiatives fall well behind China's booming, power hungry industries.

Emissions trading handouts cost earth

Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday 18/9/2008 Page: 5

INDUSTRY handouts to help cope with the introduction of an emissions trading scheme would cost half the Federal Government budget for infrastructure and transport, modelling submitted to Canberra shows. In a submission to be published today the Climate Institute Australia criticises work done by the Business Council of Australia warning that companies would move overseas because of a trading system.

"We need a laser-like focus on driving clean investment and opportunities in the low-carbon economy, not 'loser-lite' strategies that shield polluters with unjustified claims and inaction," the chief executive of the Climate Institute Australia, John Connor, said. A report by McLennan Magasanik Associates on behalf of the institute found the number of free permits the Government was proposing to give away would deprive it of between $3 billion and $6 billion in revenue.

That is roughly half the amount the Government spends on big ticket areas such as transport and about a third of what it spends on education. The Government has said it wants to use the money it earns from the sale of carbon permits to help householders cope with higher power prices. The institute wants the Government to commit to a 2020 target for reducing greenhouse gas pollution and argues it must be at least 25 per cent if Australia is to play a leading role in international negotiations.

Its modelling, done with the help of a former climate change adviser to the Government, shows Australia would be better off including petrol in the trading scheme and investing money raised in public transport or subsidies for more efficient cars. Last month the business council published modelling that predicted heavy polluting companies in such industries as minerals processing, manufacturing, oil refining, coalmining and sugar milling would shut down or move overseas as a result of emissions trading.

Moving overseas to escape the trading system is referred to as "carbon leakage" because it effectively moves the emissions created by those companies from Australia to another country. Lobbying on the emissions trading system has been hard and fast since the Government launched its green paper in July. Environmentalists argue the scheme as it has been foreshadowed does not go far enough but business is largely claiming it will be badly affected.

The institute's modelling is the latest in a string of submissions to the Federal Government. It follows a public campaign waged by the liquified natural gas industry over the past two months. Woodside Petroleum is arguing for more Government assistance and says every tonne of gas it exports to China and elsewhere results in less coal being burnt. It wants recognition for the work it does to lower greenhouse pollution overseas. The Government is more concerned about lowering Australia's high rate of greenhouse pollution.

The Australian Conservation Foundation criticised Woodside's argument, saying the company was ignoring the dangers of unchecked climate change. "Woodside is trying to make a molehill into a mountain," a foundation campaigner, Tony Mohr, said. "The stronger Aussie dollar last financial year had three times the impact that a carbon price would. This grab for cash from the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme makes Woodside look like an irresponsible climate cowboy."

$2m grant for energy research

Canberra Times
Thursday 18/9/2008 Page: 9

The Federal Government has announced more than $2 million in funding for research into climate change and alternative energy. Science Minister Kim Carr announced the funding yesterday as part of the $5.37 million international science linkages competitive grants scheme. A total of $2.1 million will go towards international research projects into alternative energy sources such as biofuels, solar energy, fuel-cell technology and nuclear fusion.

Other climate change-related projects include several international collaborations with the European Union and the United States to improve the way climate data is collected worldwide. Senator Carr said the projects would enhance Australia's high standing in the scientific community. "I look forward to the positive contribution that our investment in them will bring to our continued ... wellbeing," he said. Also included in the scheme was more than $1.8 million for medical research, including research into gene therapy, new cancer treatments and new diagnostic equipment.

ACTU urges `tough love' stand on greenhouse gas industries

Age
Thursday 18/9/2008 Page: 10

THE ACTU is challenging plans to compensate coal-fired power stations under emissions trading and urging a "tough love" approach to industries that say they will move offshore. It says while some help is justified for businesses that cannot pass on higher costs, the assistance trust depend on them taking steps to cut emissions and protect jobs.

The ACTU stance on electricity generators puts it in line with the nation's biggest investment funds, which this week damned the Government's compensation plans because coal-fired power operators have had plenty of time to adapt - they knew a carbon price was likely since global climate talks began in the early 1990s. The ACTU supports the Federal Government's carbon trading blueprint for its plan to cut greenhouse pollution, but wants some changes.

These include only compensating businesses that say the higher price of electricity might force them offshore - a phenomena known as "carbon leakage" - if they boost efficiency to world's best standards. ACTU president Sharan Burrow called for an end to the "special pleading" that has dominated the emissions trading debate.

"What is required for business with a genuine case is tough love," Ms Burrow said. "Everybody must do their bit ... We want to hear more voices from responsible businesses who know they will reap huge returns from growth in a green economy." This position - and a call for Australia to set world-leading greenhouse targets before the end of the year- is shared by think tank the Climate Institute Australia, which will today release modelling that has found the cost of emissions trading for the wider community will blow out if the Government yields to business demands.

An analysis by consultants McLennan Magasanik and Associates found hand-outs proposed under the Government's model would cost $3 billion a year if carbon permits cost $20 a tonne - the starting price proposed by climate adviser Ross Garnaut. The new modelling is a response to an alarming report on behalf of the Business Council of Australia. which found emissions trading in its current form would devastate the economy and force some industries to shut down.

It also follows a warning from Woodside Petroleum that emissions trading would threaten Australia's multibillion - dollar liquefied natural gas industry, with profits expected to fall by 30%. The Climate Institute Australia modelling found claims that the natural gas industry would flee offshore were wildly exaggerated, given the lack of opportunities to develop the industry elsewhere.

Climate Institute Australia chief executive John Connor called for a broader study into the likelihood of carbon leakage before compensation was handed out. If limited one-off assistance is given to selected generators, it should be on the condition of achieving clean energy outcomes," he said. Mr Connor called for some emissions trading revenue to be spent helping developing countries become cleaner and adapt to climate change. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is due to release the Government's final emissions trading model in December.

Waste fuels no threat to food

Adelaide Advertiser
Thursday 18/9/2008 Page: 19

Second-generation biofuels can ease climate change without reducing food production, writes Dr Glenn Tong.

SOUTH Australia's longest serving Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, recounted a meeting he had as a young man with famed Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in London after World War I. Without having met him before, Conan Doyle correctly told Playford a number of things about him, including the fact that he was the oldest child in his family. Doyle said he could divine his sibling ranking from the way Playford spoke; he was used to being listened to, which, the author said, was the mark of the first born.

What would Doyle's creation, Holmes, say was the explanation for the opposition to biofuels globally? Because, sadly, it would seem that biofuels now are opposed in many quarters, despite their potential benefits. biofuels are produced from plants which pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, whereas fossil fuels bring no such benefits. So, biofuels have far less impact on global warming.

Opponents of biofuels say that, just like fossil fuels, arable land is a finite resource and competition between growing crops for food and for fuel presents obvious ethical questions. Developing countries assert that rich countries, in their hurry to respond to global warming, are driving up food prices by encouraging the use of crops to produce biofuels rather than feed people.

The World Bank's 2008 World Development Report states that about a quarter of a tonne of corn - enough to feed one person for a year - is needed to produce 100 litres of ethanol, enough to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle. Last month, the head of BHP Billiton, Marius Kloppers, was reported as saying, "we are making hundreds of millions of people worse off with biofuels because it's pushing up food prices". Other international figures see biofuels in no better a light. The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, says biofuel production could amount to a "crime against humanity" because it will bring more hunger.

Mr Kloppers and Mr Ziegler's remarks may be relevant to first generation biofuels where there is a conversion of starch sourced from crops such as maize and sugar cane into ethanol. This ignores the benefits of second-generation biofuels. This is where cellulosic biomass, like wheat straw and sugar cane bagasse, is converted into ethanol, offering a means to convert low value agricultural residues - in effect waste products - into high value fuel, without any competition between food and fuel. Therefore, the best of both worlds can be achieved.

There are, of course, myriad advantages in using biofuels. Transport fuels account for about 40 per cent of Australia's energy use. All of this is hydrocarbon-based and most is imported and subject to the uncertainty of international developments. Critics who still perpetuate the food-versus-fuel argument do not appreciate the fundamental difference between first and second-generation biofuels. In Australia, more than 38 million tonnes of wheat straw, essentially a waste product, is produced each year. This represents a tremendous potential feedstock with which to produce second-generation biofuels and, in turn, help combat climate change.

What was once waste can be turned into a valuable resource of renewable fuel without competition against food supplies or increasing the demand for arable land. The potential exists for us to make a real impact on climate change through using biofuels as renewable energy sources. Second-generation biofuels offer a win for both food and renewable energy. Holmes, on the basis of these facts, could only agree.

Or Glen Tong is CEO of Molecular Plant Breeding Co-operative Research Centres formed in 2003 under a program funded by the Commonwealth Government. The MPBCRC has a large research unit within the Waite campus of the University of Adelaide.

Australian bioenergy sector talks investment potential

Clean Energy Council
25 September 2008

CANBERRA: The Australian bioenergy industry is meeting today to discuss opportunities for converting the nation's rich renewable biomass resource into electricity - set to unlock billions of dollars worth of renewable investments and significantly reduce Australia's carbon footprint.

Delegates from around the country attending the bioenergy Australia quarterly will also officially launch the Australian bioenergy Roadmap. The Roadmap was developed with input from the entire, diverse bioenergy industry and has a vital role in ensuring bioenergy plays its part in Australia's low-carbon energy transition.


The Australian bioenergy Roadmap outlines a clear strategy to achieve:

• A growing, sustainable Australian bioenergy industry;

• Increased community awareness of bioenergy;
• A consistent national policy to support the industry's development; and 

• Long-term investor certainty.


Known as man's oldest energy source, bioenergy has been quietly providing renewable energy in Australia and around the world for decades. It is a form of zero-net-emission electricity or thermal energy that can be generated from biomass or organic matter, such as landfill, sugarcane or sewage. 
"Bioenergy represents one of the few untapped energy sources left in Australia. We have a range of proven conversion technologies and an abundance of biomass resource so the industry is well placed to push bioenergy to the forefront" said Rob Jackson, GM Policy Clean Energy Council.


Currently less than 1% of Australia's electricity generation comes from bioenergy, well below the 14% benchmark already achieved in leading OECD countries. bioenergy has the potential to provide 73 terawatt hours of electricity generation per year to 2050 – that's enough to power 10 million homes.


50% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the stationary energy sector, so any solution to climate change must first target the energy sector specifically. With the global shift to a carbon costed economy upon us, the commercial incentive to invest in proven alternatives such as bioenergy is now obvious. 
"Armed with viable renewable energy technologies, like bioenergy, we have the tools to reduce emissions, displace fossil fuels and combat climate change," Mr Jackson said.


For a full copy of the Australian bioenergy Roadmap visit www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/bioenergy

Insurers may face $18 billion bill for Hurricane Ike

www.environmental-finance.com/
London, 18 September:

Insured losses from Hurricane Ike could reach $18 billion in the US alone, according to some estimates. The hurricane made landfall in Galveston, Texas in the early hours of 13 September, as a strong Category 2 storm, after devastating Haiti and Cuba. At least 145 fatalities were caused by the hurricane. Haiti, which has been hit by four storms in as many weeks, leaving at least 550 people dead and up to 1 million homeless, according to the BBC, accounted for the largest number of fatalities.

Catastrophe modelling companies are still in the process of calculating the likely financial losses from the hurricane, but estimates for onshore, insured losses in the US range from $6-18 billion. An early estimate by Risk Management Solutions (RMS) put losses in the Caribbean at between $50-200 million.

But RMS, the risk modelling firm which has published the most up-to-date figures, has reduced its initial estimate for insured losses in the US, from $6-16 billion to $7-12 billion. This figure includes onshore and offshore insured losses, but excludes some bill items – including work stoppages at oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Christine Ziehmann, director of model management at RMS, said: "Our reconnaissance teams have focused on evaluating wind and storm surge damage in the landfall region, and they have found that despite some severely affected coastal areas, Ike wasn't as damaging as initially feared."

This was largely because of the financial impact on the city of Houston was not as bad as originally feared. She added: "While the 75-storey JPMorgan Chase tower was extensively damaged, the majority of downtown Houston had minimal damage. They also found that most of the large industrial facilities, including the oil refineries, escaped significant flooding or other damage, though they are dependent on power being restored to regain operations." Peter Dailey, director of atmospheric science at AIR Worldwide, said on the day the hurricane struck land in the US that mobile homes and warehouses were particularly likely to suffer damage. Its initial estimate put insured, onshore losses at $8-12 billion.

Oakland-based Eqecat gave the highest estimate for onshore insured losses, at $8-18 billion, excluding insured losses relating to flooding and vehicles. The risk modelling firms are yet to produce estimates for damage to oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Platts, 28 oil and natural gas platforms were destroyed during the hurricane, accounting for around 11,000 barrels a day of oil output.

New report confirms energy efficiency and clean energy targets will save carbon reduction scheme $40 billion

Clean Energy Council
22 September 2008

NATIONAL: The Clean Energy Council, Australia's peak body for clean energy and energy efficiency, confirmed that energy efficiency and renewable energy targets are the key to keeping costs down in Australia's transition to a low carbon economy; inline with findings released by the Climate Institute Australia today.


An independent study commissioned by the Climate Institute Australia found that $40 billion in savings will become available when these essential complementary measures are included in the policy framework alongside emissions trading. Rob Jackson, GM Policy said: "Increasing our energy efficiency and renewable energy generation will not only save the economy $40 billion, but they will also ensure at least $20 billion worth of new investment and over 50,000 jobs by 2020, primarily in regional Australia."


"The Council has long advocated that emissions trading alone will not be enough to stimulate investment and activity in these crucial areas," he said. "Only a broad approach including emissions trading, targets for renewable energy and efficiency operating alongside significant R&D funding, will deliver large-scale growth and stability for Australia's low carbon economy," he concluded.


Complementary policies that embed energy efficiency and increase renewable energy generation have been shown internationally to lower retail energy prices; the Climate Institute Australia study found a comparable reduction would occur in Australia. The Council will be releasing independent modelling on the impact of emissions trading on the retail electricity price shortly. Climate change policies are due for discussion at the upcoming Council of Australian Governments meeting in Perth on 2nd October 2008. The expanded Renewable Energy Target and nationally consistent feed-in tariff for small scale renewable energy are both on the agenda.

Carbon credits cashed in for tourism

Northern Territory News
Wednesday 17/9/2008 Page: 8

THE Territory Government has purchased 5000 tonnes of carbon credits to help make NT tourism carbon neutral. Tourism Minister Kon Vatskalis said the $150,000 "Outback Offsets" program would attract environmentally conscious travellers from the UK and Europe. The carbon credits were bought from the Shoal Bay Landfill - which generates electricity from methane harvested from waste. The pilot program would apply to Adventure Tours Australia, Connections and Wayoutback Desert Safaris - who collectively snake up 40 per cent of tours in Central Australia.

Mr Vatskalis said the tours have a greater carbon footprint than the flight to the Territory. "What is significant is when people get off the plane, get in a taxi, get in a four-wheel-drive, go out bush, go camping or go to a hotel." he said. The program was endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund. WWF Territory campaigner Stuart Blanch said the entire tourism industry should aim to be carbon neutral. "Our tourism sector is based on travel to remote areas. We can greatly reduce the energy we use to get there and offset the rest." Mr Blanch said.

Solar power use doubles in a year

Adelaide Advertiser
Wednesday 17/9/2008 Page: 29

THE number of South Australians who have solar panel systems in their homes has more than doubled in the past year, figures show. ETSA Utilities figures provided to The Advertiser show 3700 homes have a solar system and are generating power for the electricity grid. This is 2000 more systems than at the same time last year. ETSA is receiving an average of 300 applications a month for systems to be connected to the grid, compared with 30 applications a month last year.

Connecting to the electricity grid enables solar panel owners to supply excess electricity, which is not used by the household, to the grid and be paid for the energy. The increased federal government rebate for households, which was doubled from $4000 to $8000 in May last year, has made it more attractive for householders to install panels and generate emission-free electricity.

Solar SA general manager Rob Jung said business had boomed in the past year because of the rebate. But he said the Federal Government move to means-test the rebate - which prevented households with incomes above $100,000 from receiving the rebate - had led to a decrease in the number of large systems being sold. "The average size (of the system) has gone down now, so there are more jobs - but the volume (of electricity) hasn't changed a great deal," Mr Jung said.

"The majority of the larger sized systems don't exist any more because the households that could afford them are the ones which earn over the $100,000 mark. More and more people are looking at ways they can reduce their ongoing costs - and with solar, they will definitely do that." Greens MLC Mark Parnell said it was great news that the number of solar panel systems had increased substantially.

"It shows that given appropriate incentives and support from government, people are really keen to do their bit for climate change," he said. "But there's still work to do to bring the two big retailers (AGL and Origin Energy) into line to make sure they pay for the electricity that's being produced and don't just pass on the Government's feed-in tariff."

We must rise to the challenge

Hobart Mercury
Tuesday 16/9/2008 Page: 25

IT'S reasonable to attack Professor Ross Garnaut's proposal for a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 10 per cent by 2020. But it's unreasonable to attack the man himself, because years of political deception and complacency have put him in an impossible position. We have cause to be disappointed.

The reduction target is based on stabilising greenhouse gas levels at 550 parts per million, which scientists estimate would condemn the planet to a temperature rise above pre-industrial levels of well over 2C and possibly as high as 5C. That level of warming makes for a very depressing outcome: dwindling food and water resources, more extreme weather conditions and massive geo-political upheaval in many parts of the world.

Prof Garnaut's low target allows politicians to put off facing the issues head-on. But deeper analysis reveals he is up against a chronic failure of government in this country to deal honestly with greenhouse gas emission data, and for that he has my sympathy. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the result of diplomatic maneuvering to reach political consensus, is an inevitably flawed agreement that's been exploited by past and present Australian governments to mask their complete failure to achieve physical results.

The Howard government assured us we were on track to meet Kyoto Protocol targets, as if this was in itself a desirable outcome. It disingenuously presented our Kyoto data as objective truth, a sort of climate-change bible. But what's really disturbing is that the present government has continued this sleight of hand.

Some nifty diplomatic footwork at Kyoto which gave Australia a 108 per cent "reduction" target, led to official government data that skews reality. Australian politicians, bureaucrats and special interests have cited this data to "prove" that all's well, when that is patently untrue. In fact, if you remove some questionable data on agriculture. forestry and land use, Australia's emissions have increased since 1990 by about 25 per cent. It's against that backdrop that Prof Garnaut's interim targets should be assessed.

Stuck with a public misconception about our emissions fed by faulty government data. Prof Garnaut's task is to turn a disturbing upward emissions trajectory into a cut. His belief that a global agreement is an essential element is beyond dispute, but his counsel against Australia taking on an ambitious unilateral target in the absence of an adequate global agreement is more contentious. If the whole world took such a view, we'd get nowhere.

To his credit, Pr of Garnaut said he'd prefer that Australia commit to a 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target of 25 per cent while urgently seeking a global deal to stabilise levels at 450 parts per million. That is still higher than the 350 parts per million that scientists say we need, but it's much better than where we're now headed.

Prof Garnaut knows that the nine federal, state and territory governments that he serves will fear electoral retribution if the bar is set higher than their realpolitik allows - or if dodgy data on emissions is revealed for what it is. They must put such fears aside. Australians are tired of politicians and economists dictating what can and can't be achieved. In tines past, when the chips have been down, Australians have risen to the challenge. There's every reason to believe that with strong, honest leadership we can do it again.

Peter Boyer is a Hobart-based science writer and a presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project.

peterboyer@southwind.com.au

A big part for smallest technologies

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Monday 15/9/2008 Page: 63

World energy demand is rising and presents three key concerns: the security and sustainability of energy supply; the link between the use of fossil fuels and climate change; and the availability of technological innovation in energy conversion, transmission and use. A recent study by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering has identified four key opportunities for nanotechnologies to be applied to energy systems in Australia.

The areas of opportunity include applying nanotechnologies to existing processes, improvement of photovoltaic systems based on nanomaterials and converting natural gas or coal to liquids for transport fuels. Professor Greg Tegart, lead author of Energy and Nanotechnologies: Strategy for Australia's Future has called for a strong effort in nanotechnologies applied to energy systems which he believes will make a significant contribution to Australia's energy security and sustainability.

Guide names best offset providers

Age
Tuesday 16/9/2008 Page: 2

AUSTRALIA'S first independent guide ranking carbon offset providers will be launched today to protect consumers and businesses from "carbon cowboys". The guide is a partnership between the Total Environment Centre, Choice and the Institute of Sustainable Futures.

It comes after a BusinessDay investigation in February exposed several offset providers that had been misleading consumers through vague promises and questionable offsets. One was forced to take down its website after the investigation found its forestry offsets did not exist.

TEC director Jeff Angel said the voluntary carbon market was riddled with confusing claims, products and carbon calculators. "The Australian carbon offset industry is worth over $44 million a year and its credibility has been in question," he said. "But Carbon Offset Watch will force the industry to grow up by naming the best and most reliable.

"Consumers who are actively trying to reduce their carbon footprint are making an important contribution but need to be assured, not duped into buying offsets that provide little environmental benefit." There are about 50 offset providers in Australia and the guide ranks 20 of the largest from "outstanding" to "adequate". It has named Climate Friendly, Cleaner Climate, Climate Positive, SMRC (Southern Metropolitan Regional Council) and the Carbon Reduction Institute as those that scored top marks.

None of the 20 offset providers scored less than 60%, which would have put them in the "not recommended" category. CO2 Australia, CO2 zero and Global Carbon Exchange scored the lowest, or an "adequate", result. Other providers were invited to take part but chose not to.

Offset providers are marked on how they encourage customers to reduce carbon emissions before offsetting (19.5% of the total score), the quality and reliability of the offset (73% of score) and the desirability of the underlying projects used to generate the offset (7.5% of score). Mr Angel called on the Federal Government to release its national standard for carbon offsets, which it committed to in last year's election and promised to deliver by the end of the year.

State acts to reduce emissions

Hobart Mercury
Saturday 13/9/2008 Page: 8

TASMANIA has 40 per cent lower carbon dioxide emissions, per capita, compared to the rest of Australia, but that's nowhere near low enough, says Premier David Bartlett. Mr Bartlett said for Tasmania to become a successful low carbon economy, emissions from all parts of the economy had to be identified and slashed. To that end, he said, the Government was calling for tenders to conduct a "wedge analysis", the first state to do so. with carbon pollution reduction and renewable energy targets in mind.

Mr Bartlett said the analysis was a major component of the Government's Tasmanian Framework for Action on Climate Change launched in July. It commits the Government to setting interim and sector-based emissions reduction targets by the end of next year. "Tasmania is also the first state to clearly spell out in legislation the path for reducing our emissions over tine." Mr Bartlett said.

The Climate Change (State Action) Bill 2008 before Parliament, sets a 2050 target of 60 per cent below 1990 levels, and provides for the establishment of interim and sector-based targets through regulation. "The new high level, independent Tasmanian Climate Action Council will play an important role in advising on the establishment and review of the targets," he said.

• Other framework components already announced include:
• Subsidies for low income earners to audit their energy use and insulation.
• Partnership agreements with local government to tackle climate change.
• New climate change considerations in the Regional Planning Initiative.
• Commissioning research into how the agricultural sector can work cleaner.
• A major study on how to "sex up" public transport.

Sun shines on energy project

Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 14/9/2008 Page: 25

FEDERAL Environment Minister Peter Garrett has launched what he hopes will be the catalyst for the country's first fully integrated solar city at Magnetic Island off Townsville. The Smart Lifestyle Centre is part of the $32 million Townsville Solar City program and is a major education tool for the community. Mr Garrett said north Queensland was an obvious place to promote solar energy to feed back into the main power grid, particularly Townsville where there's an average of 300 days of sunshine each year.

The Magnetic Island project is the only one of its type in Queensland and one of seven nationally which it's estimated will reduce carbon pollution by 76,000 tonnes annually. It's the first of several projects to be rolled out across Townsville's suburbs during the next three years. Ian Cruickshank, manager of the Solar Cities project, said Magnetic Island residents had embraced the project and already there had been 100 energy audits of homes on the island and 31 photovoltaic systems installed on the roofs of homes.

"We're starting to get some traction," Mr Cruickshank said. "It's early days yet, but we are getting feedback that people are saving money on their electricity and on days like this we are generating a lot of solar energy. "We've already taken the equivalent of 22 houses off the grid with the solar energy and efficient light globes."

LNG firms seek ETS break until rivals pay

West Australian
Tuesday 16/9/2008 Page: 11

The LNG industry wants free carbon permits under the Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme that would cover its entire greenhouse pollution without any obligation to cut emissions until competitors in developing nations also acted.

In a submission to the Government's Green Paper on the ETS, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said the LNG industry was unique and should be given its own special treatment as part of a national effort to curb greenhouse emissions.

Main LNG producers including Woodside Petroleum have warned that, under the ETS, up to $100 billion in projects could be dumped because of the extra costs imposed to curb their greenhouse pollution. Under the ETS, firms that produce more than 1500 tonnes of carbon per $1 million of revenue would get free permits. The biggest emitters would get up to 90 per cent of their permits free. However, the cut-off is too high for LNG to qualify.

The association proposes a new category of export industries called "clean global contributors" which would get all of their emissions covered by free permits. It appears that LNG, which produces a lot less emissions than coal, would be the only industry recognised immediately as a "clean global contributor". A special threshold of emissions would be set - most likely in line with average LNG emissions.

Companies given the permits could sell them on the secondary carbon permit market, potentially another income stream. The Australian Food and Grocery Council wants either a tax on food imports from countries that do not put a price on carbon emissions or a low price - $5 to $10 a tonne - on carbon under the proposed ETS. Council chief executive Kate Carnell said that Australians should prepare for a big rise in food prices when the ETS began.

Bank breaks ranks on emissions

Sydney Morning Herald
Monday 15/9/2008 Page: 3

AUSTRALIA'S second biggest bank, Westpac, has spoken out against the business community to urge the Federal Government to pursue a strict emissions trading scheme with tougher reporting standards for business. In a submission to the Government, obtained by the Herald, Westpac warns against handouts for companies seeking to shelter themselves from the full force of the scheme.

"Utmost care must be exercised that compensation measures do not undermine the integrity of the scheme or alleviate the impact of the introduction of a carbon market," says the submission, one of hundreds received by the Government in response to its green paper on the design of the scheme.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council will today release its submission calling for bigger concessions for energy intense, trade-exposed industries, including tariffs on imports from countries with less stringent environmental regimes. Amid the clamour for relief, Westpac has urged the Government to stick to its guns.

"The market must be allowed to function effectively, without overt interference from buffering policy mechanisms or overly generous compensation allocations which distort the market ... [or] provide market participants with the means of avoiding the medium to long-term behavioural change intended by the introduction of a price on carbon." The position is in stark contrast to the Business Council of Australia, which represents the country's top 100 companies. It has issued dire warnings of multiple bankruptcies under the scheme because proposed levels of compensation are "not sufficient".

Westpac is a member of the council but has fallen out in the past over the council's reluctance under the former mining boss Hugh Morgan to state an early position on climate change. Westpac's former chief executive David Morgan, who is married to the former Labor environment minister Ros Kelly, was a driving force in establishing the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change in 2004 after frustration with the council over policy.

Westpac's submission offers strong support for an emissions trading scheme. "Doing nothing is not an option. Failure to implement an effective response to the challenges posed by climate change will endanger Australia's future economic prosperity," it says. In an attempt to limit special case pleading by industry, Westpac proposes the process by which a company is deemed "energy-intense and trade exposed" - and therefore forced to participate in the scheme - be subject to regular review and determined five years in advance.

To avoid political interference, Westpac also supports an independent body such as the Reserve Bank to administer the scheme to ensure it is run "as independently as possible, free from political sensitivities or representations from impacted industry sectors".

Other measures advocated include: no cap on the price of permits; quarterly rather than annual reporting on emissions; more regular auctioning of permits; broad industry sector coverage; encouragement of businesses not covered by the scheme to participate by qualifying for and selling "offset credits"; permits not to be labelled "financial products" because of the regulatory hassle involved; and transactions to be GST-free.

"Westpac has sought to propose measures aimed at ensuring an efficient, liquid and transparent carbon market with a smooth process of price discovery and avoiding the sudden market shocks which beset the early stages of the European Union emissions trading scheme," the submission says.

Westpac, like all other banks, stands to benefit from the establishment of a new market for emissions permits, by advising clients on how to cope with the scheme, performing trades for them, and more directly, by trading the permits to make money, as with trading in other commodities.

Eco-friendly car rebates

Herald Sun
Monday 15/9/2008 Page: 9

BUYERS of environmentally friendly cars would get cash rebates while those buying gas guzzlers would have to pay more, under a proposal to be considered by state and federal governments. A government-commissioned discussion paper also suggests cutting registration and stamp duty charges for new light vehicles, based on their emission levels.

The discussion paper, prepared by the Australian Transport Council and the Environment Protection and Heritage Working Group, also suggests the inclusion of fuel consumption and CO2 data in new-vehicle advertisements and new environmental standards for vehicle manufacturing.

The transport sector is the nation's third-largest source of carbon pollution. There were claims yesterday that thousands of food manufacturing and processing jobs could be lost when carbon emissions trading begins. In a submission to the Department of Climate Change, the Australian Food and Grocery Council said sections of the industry might be unable to compete with imports.

In the absence of a global approach, any domestic emissions trading scheme that imposes costs will make domestic companies less globally competitive, and may well contribute to the relocation of the manufacturing base offshore, taking the emissions with it," it said.

Food processing is the nation's largest manufacturing industry, employing almost 200,000 people. An industry source said some companies had already begun considering moving overseas. The council wants a carbon price cap of $5 or $10 a tonne and consideration of a "border tax" on imports from countries without adequate greenhouse gas reduction policies.

Power switch: it's time to put our uranium to work

Canberra Times
Monday 15/9/2008 Page: 15

The Australian Government should heed the call to informed realism made recently at a conference of the Australian Industry Group in Canberra. Here, Don Argus, chairman of BHP Billiton, exhorted delegates to "start talking seriously about using the country's vast uranium resources for domestic use" and " to engage in a debate about nuclear energy". Without nuclear energy Australia would face a century of environmental, economic and geopolitical disadvantage and would miss out on the optimal technology for electricity, water and hydrogen production.

Argus is not the first head of a major Australian coal mining company to signal an interest in the promotion of nuclear fission as apposed to chemical combustion for Australia's baseload energy supply. Last month, the head of Macarthur Coal, Nicole Hollows, strongly endorsed the establishment of a domestic nuclear energy industry. She hoped Australia's first nuclear stations would be built and commissioned over the next decade.

At the present time on planet Earth about 27 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere per annum. Were it not for nuclear energy this figure would be closer to 30 billion tonnes. The ever increasing contribution of this greenhouse gas from the developing economies - especially the giants China and India - is driven by their enormous coal-based demand for energy and their population increase, This will ensure energy resources consumed over the next two decades will be greater than those consumed over the past 100 years.

If Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut really want to demonstrate to the United Nations that Australia is a world leader in greenhouse gas abatement, they have one clear responsibility. They need to commend and endorse nuclear energy technology as the pivotal component of an Australian energy policy. Without such a commitment even the modest Garnaut target of a 10 per cent reduction by 2020 will be difficult to achieve.

Today the new paradigm in clean energy technology is nuclear energy. Already Australian uranium supplied to 11 nuclear-powered trading partners provides them with low-cost energy security and is destined to avert some 15 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 20 years. All but one of the countries that attended the recent G8 summit in Japan - some of theta as observers - already have, or are in the course of planning, a major domestic nuclear energy industry. Remarkably, and sadly, the sole exception is Australia.

The real climate change challenge for Australia is to embrace an energy policy that has the full endorsement of expert scientists and engineers and provides clean baseload energy security for the nation at the lowest possible cost. When such criteria are satisfied, the secondary task of implementing an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax is simplified both in terms of econometrics and the introductory timeline. The task then becomes focused not on political spin, as at present, but on national interest.

In February 2008, despite growing global and Australian approval for nuclear energy, Climate Minister Penny Wong reasserted the Australian Labor Party's opposition to it and promised to press for the greater use of "alternative energy resources". She stated, "We don't need to go down the path of nuclear energy. What we do need to ensure is that we look at renewables, and the Government has a 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 to drive investment in the renewable energy sector.

We will also be investing in carbon capture and storage so there is a clean coal future for Australia." The Australian Government could well learn from Australia's uranium trading partners as it shapes its energy and climate change policies. Wong should endorse the energy technologies that provide real energy security and offer the largest emission reductions at the lowest cost and not the other way around.

Her aspiration for "renewables" and "clean coal" clearly does not fit the template. Indeed they are highly questionable propositions on both technical and economic criteria. The introduction of nuclear energy and a nuclear industry into Australia is a matter of great urgency. From the point of view of global warming, it would be desirable to have our first five nuclear energy stations operating by 2020 and to have at least 25 GWe nuclear plants by 2050.

Without such a provision there will be little hope of meeting our stated emission reduction targets. Adopting such an energy policy would transform the token political gesture of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to the practical and ethical high ground of a real contribution to the global climate change problem. It would undoubtedly be highly commended by the UN at next year's Copenhagen climate conference.

Leslie Kemeny is the Australian foundation member of the International nuclear energy Academy. He is a visiting Professorial Research Fellow and an internationally acknowledged consulting nuclear scientist and engineer.

Green LNG exporters call for special treatment

Australian
Monday 15/9/2008 Page: 27

AUSTRALIA'S $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has called on the federal Government to create a category of "Clean Global Contributors" in its proposed emissions trading scheme. The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association argues in its response to the Government's green paper that LNG plays such a crucial role in the global move towards carbon constraint that exporters of the low-emission fuel should not be penalised for the emissions associated with preparing gas for export.

Under the proposal, the Clean Global Contributors category in the ETS would sit alongside other groups, which will be compensated by the government during the initial stages of the scheme including Emissions Intensive Trade Exposed Industries (EITE) and Strongly Affected Industries.

"Australia's liquefied natural gas industry is today urging the Government to recognise a new category of export industries that fights climate change the clean global contributors," APPEA chief executive chief executive Belinda Robinson told The Australian yesterday.

"APPEA's submission to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper process calls on the government to ensure that Australian industries, that materially assist the world move to a lower emissions future, are not hampered by a domestic emissions reduction scheme operating in the absence of a broad global scheme." Australia's LNG exporters were surprised in July when the Government's green paper did not include them in the EITE category of groups, which would receive free permits as the scheme was phased in.

APPEA's CGC's proposal aimed to continue to encourage developing countries to use lowcost, low-emissions liquefied natural gas while protecting Australian exporters who become liable for the emissions created when they cool the gas to minus 163 degrees Celsius so that it turns into liquid-form and can be exported.

"The category of Clean Global Contributors would be subject to materiality tests and sit alongside Emissions-Intensive Trade-Exposed Industries and Strongly Affected Industries," Ms Robinson said. "Every extra tonne of cooled gas that the LNG industry can export to China will help avoid global greenhouse emissions of up to 6.8 tonnes in net terms.

"That's why the growth of the LNG industry is so important because clean-burning natural gas provides a vital stepping-stone on the path to lowemissions economies." While gas produces between 50 and 70 per cent fewer emission than coal when used in electricity generation, most of the emissions the industry is liable for are created when gas is refrigerated in Australia so that it liquefies and can be exported to other nations.

Any export industry that can demonstrate the ability to deliver net greenhouse reductions for the world and meet a materiality threshold should be included in the Clean Global Contributors category," Ms Robinson said.

"It's important to understand that such a mechanism would be an interim measure only to partly address the disadvantage created by a domestic emissions trading scheme in the absence of a global agreement." The LNG industry warned that more than $100 billion in investments could be jeopardised if it is not compensated in the same way as other companies that were heavier polluters and similarly unable to pass on cost increases in international markets.