The dragging of dusty feet

Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 3/2/2007 Page: 31

The water shortages have stirred the Government into action, writes Ian Lowe, but the cause is still neglected.

AUSTRALIA: There are no real surprises in the Paris report. With each report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the evidence gets stronger that the climate is being changed by human activity, mainly our burning of fossil fuels.

We are already paying the costs of climate change in reduced farm production, increased costs of water supply and rising bills for extreme weather events. As the new report confirms, more change is inevitable because of the long time fossil-carbon stays in the air. But we can avert the more gloomy possible outcomes by rapidly reducing our release of greenhouse gases.

It is important to understand the scale of the change needed. Biologists argue we should keep the increase in average global temperatures within two degrees to prevent dangerous changes to ecological systems.

Climate models suggest we need to cut global emissions of carbon dioxide to less than half the present level. To allow improved living standards in the poorest countries we will have to reduce our greenhouse pollution dramatically, probably to something like 10 to 20 per cent of the present level over the next 50 years or so.

We urgently need to reshape our energy supply and use. We need a cleaner energy supply and improved efficiency to reconcile the demand for energy services with our global responsibility. Time is not on our side. Any decision to build another coal-fired power station would commit us to releasing extra carbon dioxide until about 2050, and on average that carbon dioxide would stay in the atmosphere well into next century.

Business and the community are way ahead of the Government in recognising the problem and working toward solutions. Last year, the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change called for a concerted policy response, with a real price on releasing carbon dioxide and binding reduction targets.

Last week the US Climate Action Partnership, also an alliance of some of the largest corporations with non-government organisations, called for "a policy framework for mandatory reductions" based on a "cap and trade" approach. The idea is that national targets are set, giving steady reductions over time. The fuel industries then trade for the permits to release their share of the national quota. That is the economically efficient way to achieve the cuts we need.

The Australian Government has accepted that water shortage is a problem, but is still doing nothing substantial about the underlying cause: climate change.

The Australian Conservation Foundation estimates Australia still spends more than $5 billion of public money every year subsidising supply and use of fossil fuels, while the costs of climate change this financial year will probably exceed $1 billion.

By contrast, we are spending very little on responses. Government attention and funds have been wasted on diversions like the Switkowski task force, which confirmed what we knew: nuclear power is too expensive, too slow and too limited a response, and creates serious environmental risks for the future.

More public funds are going into research aimed at prolonging use of coal-fired power than the clean alternatives. A Federal Government report published 15 years ago found we could get 30 per cent of our electricity from renewables by 2020 at no more than 10 per cent extra cost. The Government has given us the extra cost, through its GST, but renewables account for a smaller fraction of our power today than when John Howard was first elected.

The Government has finally accepted we need an emissions trading system to drive change, but has stacked its task force with the big polluters. So it is very unlikely we will see the sort of change now being proposed in the US by such companies as General Electric, Alcoa, BP America and Pacific Gas and Energy.

The local mind-set is clear. The Electricity Supply Association of Australia even produced a report this week claiming nuclear and more coal power will be needed. This week we also saw another local renewable Ref: energy group give up and move overseas, despairing of the prospect of serious action from the Australian Government.

We urgently need a concerted response to climate change. We must prepare for the changes that are inevitable, but at the same time we must reduce our assault on the Earth's weather system. We need a different economic framework as well as appropriate regulation. That is our responsibility to the millions of other species that share this planet with us, and to the future generations for whom we hold it in trust.

Ian Lowe is emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University, and the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation.