Oh boy… Aldous makes the common error of equating colorless, odorless, essential trace gas carbon dioxide with “pollution”. He’s dumb enough to want to deny the biosphere this desperately needed resource and spend absurd amounts of energy and effort doing so. That’s where weather superstition gets you.
A new era has started in Australia.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the start of the carbon price regime and a heavy investment in renewable energy is positioning Australia as a world leader in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
But to lead the world, Australia has to be ahead of the curve on green technology and on balanced investment in the right mix of technologies, projects and policies. It is imperative to Australia’s future that plans and decisions are based on sound science and economics, untainted by political debts or whims.
Fossil fuels will continue to be overwhelming important to both Australian and global economies for decades to come, and managing fossil fuel emissions can only happen with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The Government’s continuing modest investment in the technology is welcome. But a great deal more needs to be done if Australia’s first-class way of life is to be protected.
The initial low price on carbon of $23 a tonne is a starting point for managing emissions, but it won’t drive new technology development and deployment fast enough to meet the national 2050 target for emissions reduction of 80 per cent below 2000 levels.
Under the Australian Treasury’s modelling of the carbon pricing mechanism, fossil fuel-fired plants fitted with CCS could provide between 26 and 32 per cent of total electricity generation by 2050 – more than any other low-emission technology.
The Government’s draft energy white paper states that meeting this demand will depend on a range of factors, including research and development. Yet when it comes to funding, the ledger is dramatically skewed to investment in renewable energy.
One can only wonder how long it will take for the realization to sink in that CO2 is not a pollutant, and “clean” energy has nothing to do with carbon? That has to be the first step in rationally addressing both our energy and pollution problems.