Greener energy needs billions in funding

Adelaide Advertiser
Friday 9/10/2009 Page: 26

AUSTRALIA needs to invest billions of dollars in renewable energy, including nuclear energy, if it is to help mitigate climate change and eradicate energy poverty, a leading global energy lawyer says. Delivering the second UCL Santos International Lecture in Adelaide, University College London chair of international law Professor Catherine Redgwell said that on present trends, global energy demand would rise 53% by 2030 and carbon dioxide emissions would rise by 55% in the same period.

"The only certainty of our carbon-constrained future is that we will need to invest significantly in developing different sources of energy over the next 20 years as we face up to the twin challenges of mitigating climate change and eradicating energy poverty," she said. "We still have the ultimate challenge that 2.6 billion people - over a third of the world's population - remain dependent on wood, charcoal and animal dung for their daily cooking and heating." Professor Redgwell said Australia was highly reliant on the fossil fuel industry and did not necessarily have to distance itself completely from it. "The investment could be in carbon capture and storage, where carbon dioxide is stored underground," she said.

Adelaide company Santos, who hosted the lecture, had investigated the feasibility of underground carbon dioxide storage in outback SA but shelved plans in March. Professor Redgwell identified nuclear energy as an option for Australia. "That choice is made domestically and politically and it's a matter for each state," she said. "There are real questions over proliferation and storage of waste but it's an option." Professor Redgwell said that as emission reduction targets became more widespread and binding, countries could face legal ramifications if they did not lower emissions.