Turning over a Green Leaf?

This really is a case of thinking global and acting local, and even a bit of the reverse, this week. Strong words at the World Green Building Congress in Singapore for global action, while recognition at home and abroad for the sustainability and affordability of earth building. The World Economic Forum takes an Asian approach for its meeting in China, while the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate meets in New York next week. The UK Environment Minister tells it the way it is on climate and big business leaders in Australia finally accept the need for a price on carbon. Greg Combet gets the top Climate Change job in Australia but wants to stay loyal to coal! Malcolm Turnbull supports his leader but stays true to his climate credentials. Even confirmation that women get the climate science better than men and Spain gets the wind up in China. Nay, there’s a new way to sleep green. “Perchance to dream”, as Shakespeare would say.- Ken Hickson

Profile: Greg Combet

As Australia’s newest Minister of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, former union leader Greg Combet has vowed to bring “common sense” to the climate change debate. And he has warned that he will fight for coal industry jobs as he pursues a price on carbon. An impossible task?  Or is he the one person who can do it?

Samantha Maiden in The Australian (13 September 2010):

THE nation’s new Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, has vowed to bring “common sense” to the climate change debate.

And he has warned that he will fight for coal industry jobs as he pursues a price on carbon.

The former union leader has predicted the coal industry “absolutely” has a future as he pursues his three key policy reform objectives: pursuing renewable energy; energy efficiency; and the development of a carbon price for Australia.

Insisting the Climate Change portfolio was an economic reform challenge, he said: “You don’t take the back of the axe to the fundamentals of the Australian economy.”

Julia Gillard yesterday moved to stamp her authority on her new government after elevating her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, to the senior portfolio of Foreign Affairs and shifting Stephen Smith to Defence.

With 42 ministers and parliamentary secretaries, the front bench and junior ministry now outnumber Labor’s own back bench. Among the biggest winners were Senator Penny Wong, who was shifted from Climate Change to the important Finance portfolio, and Peter Garrett, who takes up the Schools portfolio, despite the insulation scheme debacle happening on his watch as environment minister.

Mr Combet’s new role puts him in cabinet for the first time.

As part of its deal to secure government, Labor signed a formal alliance with the Greens, whose policies include the eventual phasing out of the coal industry, Australia’s biggest export earner.

But in an interview with The Australian, Mr Combet said his background as a former coal engineer, union official and MP with coal workers in his NSW electorate meant he did not believe his job was to shut down the coal industry.

“I don’t agree with that. That’s not part of my job at all,” he said.

“I am acutely aware of the challenges that this policy presents. But people jump to these absolute positions, and I just don’t think that’s appropriate.

“I’ve got a responsibility to support those people’s jobs. The coal industry is a very vibrant industry with a strong future. What you’ve got to do is look to how we can achieve in the longer term things like carbon capture and storage for coal-fired power stations.”

Greens leader Bob Brown has described Australia as being like a heroin addict “feeding the habit” of the world’s reliance on coal. The party’s stated policy is to oppose development of any new coalmines or the expansion of existing coalmines and to phase out all existing coal subsidies. It wants to work towards stopping the development and granting of export licences for all new coalmines.

But in a statement last night, Greens senator Christine Milne, who has the party’s portfolio responsibility for climate change, said she did not intend to rehash the policy differences with Labor as she sought to build “trust” with the new Gillard government. “I have put in a call to Greg Combet to congratulate him and begin the exciting conversation,” she said.

“In the meantime, I hope we can all respect the delicate process of building trust between people coming from different policy positions so we can achieve the best outcomes possible for the climate.”

Mr Combet said his job as minister was to build a stronger, deeper consensus on climate change issues, including election campaign policies to develop efficiency standards.

During the election campaign, the Prime Minister vowed to ban new coal-fired power stations that use “dirty” technology and require that any power station built can be retro-fitted with developing clean-coal technology.

“We will never allow a highly inefficient and dirty power station to be built again in Australia,” she said. “If we are re-elected, Labor will ensure that all new power stations have to meet world’s best practice.”

But yesterday, Mr Combet said he was not in the business of applying the adjective “dirty” to coal.

“People will use whatever language they want. But you won’t hear me using it,” he said. “You do not take the back of the axe to the fundamentals of the Australian economy. We just work through it very carefully with reforms such as energy efficiency improvements, where you can reduce emissions quite significantly. With investment in renewable energy sources, which will help us reduce emissions significantly and work towards introducing a carbon price. The key thing about a carbon price, from my point of view, from the outset is that it created an incentive to reduce emissions . . . but do it sensibly. And we did do it with the CPRS (carbon pollution reduction scheme), with all the negotiations we had with industry. We’ve got to keep it on it a commonsense frame.”

Mr Combet said he believed he knew the industry “very well” but conceded he had a lot to learn, particularly about international negotiations.

He declined to criticise Senator Wong or Mr Rudd’s failure to deliver on an emissions trading scheme in the previous term, describing it as a complex area.

“I am certainly not going to criticise any of my colleagues. I mean, I’ve been involved in the portfolio over the past 18 months. People can criticise me too if they wish,” he said. “There’s no doubt that Kevin Rudd was fundamentally committed to dealing with climate change. The new PM is fundamentally committed. We were so close to getting it through.”

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au

Editorial in the Geelong Advertiser (14 September 2010):

“I’ve got a responsibility to support those people’s jobs. The coal industry is a very vibrant industry with a strong future. What you’ve got to do is look to how we can achieve in the longer term things like carbon capture and storage for coal-fired power stations.”

So says incoming Climate Change Minister Greg Combet.

Anyone unclear about the Gillard Government’s surrender to the bitter economics of tackling its erstwhile greatest moral challenge should be in the picture now.

Coal exports, like other resources exports, are holding this country’s finances together. And Australian coal’s contribution to greenhouse emissions is far greater among our customers than it is here.

The Government’s coffers, with their serious shortfalls, need everything they can get. Curbing coal-sourced revenue, especially without a new extra mining tax, is anathema to the Government. Never mind that jobs might suffer, too.

Greg Combet’s stance is pragmatic, pure and simple.

But, by necessity, his overtures toward a carbon price, renewable energy and energy efficiency through such efforts as carbon capture and storage will be longer term.

The fact right now is that the Government can’t afford such environmental advances unless it can sell more resources, like coal, overseas and cash in on the practice.

Source:www.geelongadvertiser.com.au

Be Prepared for Unavoidable Climate Change

“It is vital that we carry on working to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions to stop the problem getting any worse,” the United Kingdom Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman says. “But we are already stuck with some unavoidable climate change. Because of this, we need to prepare for the best and worst cases which a changing climate will entail for our country.”

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent, The Guardian  (13 September 2010):

Climate change is inevitable, says Caroline Spelman

For the past few years Government policy has concentrated on trying to make people turn off lights and grow their own vegetables in an effort to bring down carbon emissions.

But as global greenhouse gases continue to increase, with the growth of developing countries like China and India, and the public purse tightens, the focus will increasingly be on adapting to climate change.

The Government will set out plans to protect power stations from flooding and ensure hospitals can cope with water shortages during dry summers.

Since the beginning of the industrial era, the temperature has already risen by 0.8C, according to the Met Office.

Temperatures are expected to rise further because of greenhouse gases that are already “locked in” but will take decades to warm the atmosphere.

In her first speech on climate change since taking office Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, will speak about the need for Britain to adapt to rising temperatures.

“It is vital that we carry on working to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions to stop the problem getting any worse,” she will say. “But we are already stuck with some unavoidable climate change. Because of this, we need to prepare for the best and worst cases which a changing climate will entail for our country.”

However environmental groups are nervous about the change in direction. They fear that the move away from tackling climate change is motivated by spending cuts rather than saving the planet.

They also point out that no new money is being offered to help companies or the public sector adapt to climate change, preferring to leave it to ‘the Big Society’ and forward thinking businesses to come up with the cash.

Lord Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, said it was dangerous to rely on adaptation rather than trying to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“If Caroline Spelman makes her first speech about adaptation and nothing about mitigation it spells out significant danger for all of us,” he said.

Mrs Spelman will be speaking in response to a hard-hitting report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), due out on Thursday.

The committee, set up to advise the Government on tackling climate change, is expected to recommend specific actions to protect against global warming. For example flood defences in coastal areas at risk of rising sea levels. Emergency plans are recommended for coping with heatwaves in the summer that could kill thousands of elderly people and more floods throughout the year.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is also producing a report on the risk of climate change, which will also call for more efforts to prepare for the impact of rising remperatures.

The powerful group of businesses leaders will call for a new public information bank, easily accessible online, that explains the risks in the local area to companies and individuals. People will be able to type in a postcode and be told the likelihood of floods and droughts over the next few decades.

The CBI said the current information available needs to be simplified so that businesses and home owners can protect themselves in future.

In a speech to the CBI, Lord Henley, the climate change minister, will warn that business, public bodies and each individual will have to adapt to climate change.

“One way or another, climate change is going to affect every organisation and every individual in this country. If we are to thrive as a society, every organisation and every individual must adapt,” he will say.

Professor Beddington, the Government’s Chief Scientific adviser, will be in conversation with Sir David Frost today at the Garden Party to Make a Difference.

The festival in the grounds of Clarence House has been organised by the Prince of Wales to highlight the ways ordinary people can help to tackle climate change by reducing emissions.

In the “Frost on Sunday” style talk, Prof Beddington and Sir David will debate the arguments of the climate change sceptics that Prince Charles branded “extraordinary” last week.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Global Green Building Boosted in Singapore

Chairman of the World Green Building Council Tony Arnel made a call for the property industry and governments to join forces and pick up where the international community had failed on climate change, while the Singapore Green Building Council President Lee Chuan Seng pointed to the strong collaboration between private and public partnership frameworks, as he announced that Singapore would need 18,000 green building trained personnel to deliver on the government ambitions for the sector. Tina Perinotto reports for the Fifth Estate from the Global Green Building Congress in Singapore.

By Tina Perinotto reporting from Singapore for the Fifth Estate (14 September 2010):

Chairman of the World Green Building Council Tony Arnel used his opening speech at the WGBC International Congress in Singapore on Monday to call for the property industry and governments around the world to join forces and pick up where the international community had failed on climate change.

Through the proven ability of industry and government to co-operate on green building developments it was possible to shift the market and create huge momentum for change, and much lower greenhouse gasses, he said.

Speaking at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Mr Arnel pointed to the huge potential for better building outcomes in the fast growing South-East Asian region.

South-east Asia was the world’s fastest growing region and green building was the fastest growing industry, Mr Arnel said.

In Singapore the nation’s government had already shown that it was willing to seize the opportunity to position its country as a hub for the region from which to spread expertise and showcase demonstration projects.

A key mechanism for the spread of the idea, Mr Arnel said, was the growth of green building councils themselves.

There were now almost 80 GBCs and a tool for the development of green building councils, available through the WGBC website, had shown high downloads, he said.

Another key mechanism was sectoral agreements that would create a framework for green building development between industry and government, with international harmonisation.

The theme dominated the first day of talks in “closed door” sessions between leaders of the world GBCs and pointed to the potential for business drivers and market demand from tenants and investors for more sustainable investment options, to cut through where political leaders have failed.

Green Building Sectoral Agreement

A sectoral agreement plan, now in draft form and distributed to the delegates, would “establish a clear and compelling case for tackling greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector by way of a multilateral agreement that is supported by industry, governments and other stakeholders.”

Mr Arnel said it would open the way for developed nations to use existing mechanisms, such as the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism, to invest in sustainable building in developing countries.

He said that too often, the objectives of emissions reduction and those of developing nations were often seen as being in conflict with each other, yet this was a way in which they could be aligned.

What was clearly needed, he said, was “national and international cooperation.”

“As we know only too well, in the current international structures for tackling climate change, buildings have been largely overlooked. “

The failure of last December’s Copenhagen Climate Change Conference to reach a binding agreement on emissions targets had delivered the built environment the “perfect platform to assume leadership in the low cost abatement arena.”

Updated International Panel on Climate Change data showed that that “aggressive implementation of current technology and practices could reduce building related emissions by between 40 and 70 per cent, which is far more than originally predicted.”

And the United Nations Environment Programme said that no other sector has such a high potential for drastic emission reductions as building.

Promoting the Common Carbon Metric

Essential to the framework would be to achieve a common carbon metric, currently under development by the WGBC, the Sustainable Building Alliance and United Nations Environment Protection Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative, or UNEP-SBCI.

This would harmonise the underlying methodology of measuring carbon used by the various rating tools around the world such as LEED from the United States, BREAMM from the United Kingdom and Green Star from Australia.

“The WGBC is working with UNEP-SBCI and SBA to provide methodologies for governments to use building performance data to establish baselines that give them an accurate picture of their building stock,” Mr Arnel said.

“This is critical for governments to be able to make commitments and take action to reduce their overall carbon footprint.”

Singapore is on board with green

On Singapore, Mr Arnel said that the government had already demonstrated it wanted to pursue a greener building agenda.

The government had supported the establishment of the SGBC, and had set a target to green 80 per cent of the building stock by 2030, with an allocation $100 million to assist in the task.

President of the Singapore Green Building Council Lee Chuan Seng, in his opening remarks to the Congress, also pointed to the strong collaboration between private and public partnership frameworks in his country.

Mr Seng announced a new product certification scheme to support the industry and said that Singapore would need 18,000 green building trained personnel to deliver on the government ambitions for the sector.

Already, he said, there were about 500 green buildings in the country, about 8 per cent of the building stock, and all new buildings were required to achieve certain levels of sustainability depending on their size.

The Government is holistic in its approach. Later in the Congress it outlined a target of 35 per cent reduction of energy use in buildings by 2030 based on 2005 levels and incentives for more sustainable buildings that included greater density bonuses.

Through his role as Victorian Building Commissioner Mr Arnel said he had been involved in the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Singapore Government (through the Building and Construction Authority) and the Victorian Government on formal collaboration on building regulation.

“The MOU represents practical linkages where both the BCA and the Building Commission have much to offer each other and the region in a general building sense,” Mr Arnel said.

“Ongoing collaboration will see us develop energy efficiency and green building standards that can translate into use throughout Asia Pacific – for the benefit of the region and the world – and share our experience in market transformation to a low-carbon and sustainable built environment.

“It is very much in line with the WGBC model, which works with, connects and strengthens, green building councils around the world as they transform their marketplaces toward green buildings.”

He also said that the WGBC was “delighted to have worked closely with Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority and the Singapore construction industry as they have nurtured the SGBG through its formative stages to its graduation to established green building council status.

“The SGBC conference and the WGBC Congress, and their outcomes, will be integral to defining the role the green building sector plays in delivering meaningful cuts to greenhouse gas emissions – securing the future of the planet no less.

“I can assure you the WGBC is steadfast in its determination that the building sector is the key catalyst for change.”

Mr Arnel promised the councils would be continue to grow a collective voice on the world stage, especially leading up to the Cancun Climate Summit in December.

The Fifth Estate was a guest of the Green Building Council of Australia for WGBC International Congress, Singapore 2010

Source: www.thefifthestate.com.au

Major Economies to Meet Again on Energy & Climate

Representatives from the 17 nations responsible for 80% of the emissions thought to be the cause of global warming, including Australia, will meet in New York next week (20/21 September). US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern said the meeting, under the aegis of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate launched by US President Barack Obama last year, is part of ongoing global talks for climate change action.

AFP Reports (15 September 2010):

Representatives from the 17 nations responsible for 80 per cent of the emissions thought to be the cause of global warming, including Australia, will meet in New York next week.

US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern said on Tuesday the meeting will take place on September 20 and 21, as part of ongoing global talks on reducing harmful emissions that cause climate change.

The talks fall under the aegis of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, launched by US President Barack Obama to facilitate climate talks ahead of last year’s disappointing United Nations conference in Copenhagen.

The successor conference to the Copenhagen meet is set for this November in Cancun, Mexico.

Stern said the New York meeting would provide a chance for “a candid dialogue among major developed and developing economies to make progress in meeting the climate change and clean energy challenge”.

The meeting will also “advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions”, he said.

Environment ministers from 45 countries are also scheduled to meet in Geneva in September at the invitation of the Swiss and Mexican governments.

And negotiators from the 194 signatories to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change are to meet in Tianjin, China for a final preparatory round of talks in October.

The New York talks later this month will also include representatives from Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States.

Source: www.news.theage.com.au

Advice For China at World Economic Forum in Asia

The founder and chairman of the forum, Klaus Schwab, urged China to reduce its excessive reliance on coal and other fossil fuels and to increase nuclear power. A director of the London based non-government, Climate Group, said China should have clearer legislation and a full blown carbon trading scheme. But Peter Sheehan, the director of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University says it would be premature for China to move into an international emission trading scheme.

Radio Australia “Connect Asia” (14 September 2010):

An international economic gathering in China has been told governments and business leaders need to act urgently on climate change. 

The three day World Economic Forum’s Asian meeting has been opened by premier Wen Jiabao in Tianjin, south of the capital, Beijing. Over one thousand delegates will discuss resource limits, the role of Asia’s soft power, and the Korean peninsula.

Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speaker: Peter Sheehan, director, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University 

SNOWDON: The premier, who gives the opening speech at the forum each year, also takes a leading role in China’s climate change policies.

Ahead of the forum he’s been given a range of advice.

The founder and chairman of the forum, Klaus Schwab, urged China to reduce its excessive reliance on coal and other fossil fuels and to increase nuclear power.

Wu Changhua, China director of the London Based non-government, Climate Group, said China should have clearer legislation and a full blown carbon trading scheme.

But Peter Sheehan, the director of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University says it would be premature for China to move into an international emission trading scheme.

SHEEHAN: China is addressing a large number of policy issues about this and I think taking it seriously, but I think an emissions trading policy is some years down the track for them. It’s really important to remember that China is still a developing country – its GDP per capita is only about 15 per cent of the US and it doesn’t have a lot of the institutions, the data and so forth that’s required. It’s trying to get those and it’s trying to develop a lot of other policies. There are a lot more down to earth and immediately effective things that it can do.

SNOWDON: The forum is the Asian version of the World Economic forum held each year in Davos – its theme this year is an unsurprising ‘Driving Growth Through Sustainability’.

It’s expected to focus on increasing energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, and developing green technology.

In an early salvo, the National Development and Reform Commission – the major body in China working on climate change – criticised rich nations.

Su Wei, the head of the commission’s climate change office, said they still expected countries like China and India to commit to large cuts in emissions.

He was critical, too, of what he says is their emphasis on market mechanisms to supply funds and transfer climate change new technology.

Tianjiin will be the focus again next month. It’s the city where negotiators will meet in October ahead of the December meeting in Mexico that is meant to finalise the global climate change talks which failed in Copenhagen last year.

Peter Sheehan says the divisions between rich and developing countries will still be evident, but that China is making progress to cut its emissions.

SHEEHAN: For example, it’s trying to work with companies to reduce their levels of energy use, close down a large number of very inefficient coal mines, it’s trying to develop all sorts of renewable technologies. So, there’s a great flurry of activities and I think this is the most important game.

SNOWDON: What’s your view of the meetings later this year to find a replacement agreement for the Kyoto Protocol? What are the chances of the world arriving at an agreement when China and the US are still at loggerheads over who should do what?

SHEEHAN: Well, my view of the Copenhagen meeting is that it really demonstrates that the world isn’t going to see a single binding agreement that all countries sign that addresses this problem. And I think it’s good that we realise that. I think we’re going to have to have a sort of ‘learning by doing’ approach, a series of agreements as countries learn how to do it. The dream, as it were, of a single uniform agreement covering everybody – I think that’s a misinformed dream. We’re into the actual reality doing it now.

Source: www.radioaustralia.net.au

Big Business is Now Saying it is the Time to Act

Global mining company BHP Billiton’s CEO Marius Kloppers has certainly made a dramatic intervention into the Australian climate change debate. He said this week  it was clear that Australia did need to take strong action to reduce its emissions, it needed to look beyond coal and towards other energy sources, and it needed to do so to protect its international competitiveness. TRUenergy and AGL Energy also called this week for an Australian emissions trading system to spur investment to replace coal-fired power plants.

Giles Parkinson in Climate Spectator (16 September 2010):

There can be no doubting now that a carbon price is back on the political agenda. Big business – or, more to the point, the biggest business – has spoken, and there is now no hiding from the issue.

BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers certainly made a dramatic intervention into the debate.

He took three three pillars of the fossil fuel lobby’s defence of the status quo and threw them out the door. He didn’t just skirt around their Maginot Line, he ploughed straight through it. And he’s challenged the nation’s politicians to do something about it.

The three key elements from Kloppers speech was that it was clear that Australia did need to take strong action to reduce its emissions, it needed to look beyond coal and towards other energy sources, and it needed to do so to protect its international competitiveness.

The need for global action on climate change is not, apparently, just a left-wing conspiracy. And it is now, once again, a front page issue.

“We do believe that such a global initiative will eventually come and, when it does, Australia will need to have acted ahead of it to maintain its competitiveness,” he said.

The opportunity of Australia acting ahead of anyone may have already been lost, but you get the picture. Kloppers is now showing the sort of leadership from the biggest companies that has been so desperately lacking in the last 12 months.

The business community largely fell mute after the CPRS was dispatched, and has remained so, despite the massive investments towards the low carbon economy overseas, and some dramatic decisions by many of the world’s leading industrialists to reshape their businesses and invest in what they now freely call the “green economy.”

Kloppers has set the tone and the Australian dialogue can now change. And business can finally wake up to growing cost of inaction – AGL managing director Michael Fraser put the cost of delays at $2.1 billion in energy pries a year by 2020 – that works out roughly to an extra $8 per megawatt hour in energy costs to business, just as a result of doing nothing.

So, it is no longer good enough to allow politicians to put it in the too-hard basket. It’s time for Labor to have the courage to deliver on its election mandate, the Opposition can no longer put their hands to their ears and say “this is not happening”, and the Greens must be brought into negotiations.

The question now returns to what sort of carbon price mechanism should be imposed. Kloppers is keen for action, but he is wary of the economy-wide schemes that were contemplated by the CPRS, no matter the compensation levels.

He said on Wednesday that he favours a simpler, if less elegant solution, and he talked of a mixture of a trading system limited to the energy sector, and a focus on land use initiatives.

As this web site noted yesterday and in the past, a staged implementation that begins with the energy sector is now emerging as the most likely compromise between the government and the business community – AGL added its name to the supporters list yesterday – although it’s not entirely clear which of the Coalition or the Greens would support that.

The Coalition should have no problems with such a concept, but its current embrace of a standing Green Army (sounds like a socialist cliché), its direct action plan (since when did Liberal politics favour big government over a market mechanism?), and its refusal to nominate representatives to the climate change committee, relegates it to a sideshow comedy act. Kloppers should perhaps drop by Abbott’s office to have a quiet chat.

The Greens, of course, will want a broader scheme that affects more business sectors, on the perfectly reasonable assumption that they need to start making their transition to ensure they remain internationally competitive, and can therefore protect jobs.

But if Kloppers is right about the pact of international action – be it at a political or a corporate level – then the imperative for a broader-based scheme in Australia will follow on soon enough. It’s just a matter of getting the pathway in place.

Source:  www.climatespectator.com.au

By James Paton for Bloomberg (15 September 2010):

TRUenergy Pty. and AGL Energy Ltd. called for an Australian emissions trading system to spur investment to replace coal-fired power plants and said they look forward to working with new Climate Change Minister Greg Combet.

Continued doubts about whether the government will impose a price on carbon emissions would threaten spending, including as much as A$3 billion ($2.8 billion) Melbourne-based TRUenergy is ready to invest in gas-fired generation, Richard McIndoe, managing director of the CLP Holdings Ltd. unit, said today.

“We all would like a price on carbon,” McIndoe said in an interview in Sydney. “The issue is not about an ETS. The issue is one of transitional assistance. If it’s not done in this government and if this uncertainty continues, not for two to three years, but four to five years, and nobody is building, then you will have power shortages and insufficient capacity.”

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has tasked Combet, a former union leader, with leading an effort to impose a price on carbon to curb emissions in Australia, the world’s largest exporter of coal. Combet, 52, who was sworn in yesterday in Canberra, previously assisted Penny Wong in the climate change portfolio.

“He understands each part of the equation,” McIndoe said. “He understands the investors. He understands the importance of maintaining job security and not closing vast tracks of Hunter Valley and Latrobe Valley power stations. He also understands that an emissions trading scheme, longer term, is the most efficient way to provide a lower carbon economy.”

Coal-Fired Power

TRUenergy has a A$5 billion portfolio of generation and retail assets and operates the Yallourn coal-fired station in the Latrobe Valley east of Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, its website shows. Yallourn supplies 22 percent of Victoria state’s electricity needs.

Michael Fraser, chief executive officer of Sydney-based AGL Energy, said the company had discussed government amendments to the nation’s renewable energy target with Combet. AGL has said it accelerated plans for the A$1 billion Macarthur wind farm in the state of Victoria after the Australian Senate approved revisions to laws aimed at encouraging renewable energy.

“He got his head around complicated issues quickly,” Fraser said in an interview in Sydney yesterday. “It’s a difficult portfolio that’s going to require a lot of negotiation skills, and I think he has a demonstrated track record.”

While a price on carbon in Australia is inevitable, “it’s going to be very difficult” to achieve in the next two or three years, Fraser said.

Risk to Investment

“I don’t think anyone can predict how this is going to unfold, but if there isn’t legislative change, you won’t get large-scale investments like replacing coal-fired power stations with gas to make a real difference,” he said.

AGL rose 1.8 percent to A$15.82 at the market’s 4:10 p.m. close in Sydney. The stock has climbed 13 percent this year, compared with a 4.3 percent drop in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Australian lawmakers should consider an emissions-trading system that applies only to electricity generation and excludes transport and agriculture, Fraser said at a conference today.

“When you look at Canberra and you look at the political difficulties, and you look at the interests of stakeholders around the country, one of the things I would reflect on is that perhaps we have been too ambitious in trying to introduce an all-encompassing CPRS or emissions-trading scheme,” he said.

TRUenergy’s McIndoe said the government’s prior carbon pollution reduction plan introduced while kevin Rudd was prime minister would have “impaired the company’s business by several hundred million dollars” and addressed the power industry last. McIndoe said in the interview he supports the AGL chief’s idea.

“I think Michael Fraser is right,” he said

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Down to Earth & Back to the Future for Sustainable Buildings

Some of the oldest buildings on the planet are made of earth. It is estimated that one half of the world’s population – approximately three billion people on six continents – lives or works in buildings constructed of earth. With the future of the planet at stake, with carbon reduction and options for sustainable living at the forefront of consciousness across the world, the Earth Building Association of Australia (EBAA) meets this week to engage in both the philosophy and the practice of the safest and most sustainable option for building and community living.

Report from Ken Hickson:

Last year I was privileged to attend and speak at the EBAA conference in Victoria. They are such a wonderful bunch of creative and committed designers and builders. 

Having lived in a rammed earth home, which my wife and I commissioned and oversaw the construction, I am convinced it is building system worthy of much greater recognition today than ever before.

We provide in this issue the full programme for the EBAA event this year (this Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and urge all to attend and, if that’s not possible, visit the website and make contact with Australia’s leading earth builders.

We also found this interesting piece of information on earth building from an international website/on line publication.

Report from in Design Boom:

Some of the oldest buildings on the planet are made of earth. Currently it is estimated that one
half of the world’s population – approximately three billion people on six continents – lives or works
in buildings constructed of earth.

Earth is a 100% eco-friendly building material. It is neither manufactured nor transported.
A wall made from raw earth serves as a natural air conditioner, being warm in winter and cool in summer.  When the building is demolished, the earth returns to the soil and can be recycled indefinitely.

Largely shunned since the arrival of its close cousin ‘concrete’ in the 1950s, earth is now back in
fashion as its ecological and aesthetic benefits attract the attention of an increasing numbers of
contemporary architects and eco-builders. Industrial sectors devoted to earthen building are
currently emerging as this sustainable material wins over.

The misconceptions associated with earth architecture is that many assume it’s only used for housing in poor rural areas – but there are examples of airports, embassies, hospitals, museums, and factories that are made of earth. Current research efforts are focused on increasing its resistance and processing speed in order to make it a modern and competitive material.

Source: www.designboom.com

Here’s the programme for the Earth Building Association of Australia annual conference 2010 on 17th – 19th September at the Eltham Community and Reception Centre, 801 Main Rd, Eltham, Victoria.

Topics under discussion include Thermal Mass verses Insulation, Affordable Earth Housing, and Earth Buildings for Bushfires

DAY 1: Friday 17th September

8.30am Registration

9.30am Welcome by EBAA Patron: Professor Allan Rodger, Professor Emeritus,

The University of Melbourne

10.00am Conference Opening: Geoffrey London, Victorian Government Architect

10.30am Introduction: Peter Hickson, President EBAA

11.00am Morning Tea (provided for all delegates & speakers)

11.30am Keynote Address: Terry Williamson, Assoc Prof University of Adelaide, School of Architecture

Landscape Architecture and Urban Design More Politics than Science: The Dirt on Star Ratings

12.30pm Lunch (provided for all delegates & speakers)

1.30pm Linda Dvorak, Master of Engineering, Sustainable Energy, RMIT Housing in bushfire prone

areas: Assessment of exterior walls reveals optimal choice

2.30pm Garry Baverstock, AM. B.Arch, MSc, LFRAIA, MISES, MANZSES; Adjunct Professor, Murdoch

University, Role of the Built Environment in Addressing Climate Change

3.00pm Afternoon Tea (provided for all delegates & speakers)

3.30pm James Fricker, B.MechEng, CPEng, F.AIRAH, M.EngAust Independent Consulting Thermal

Engineer: Basics of the thermal comfort performance of buildings

4.00pm Forum: Question and Answer session with Expert Panel and Moderator

5.00pm Networking

6.30pm Dinner, Eltham Community Hall (provided for all delegates & speakers)

DAY 2: Saturday 18th September

8.30am Registration

9.30am John Moffin, CEO, Jack Thompson Foundation Housing homelands communities into the future

10.30am Morning Tea (provided for all delegates & speakers)

11.00am Anthony Pease, Some Structural and Technical Aspects of Earth Building

12.00noon Lunch (provided for all delegates & speakers)

1.00pm Veronica Soebarto, Associate Professor University of Adelaide, School of Architecture

Landscape Architecture and Urban Design: Challenges of Earth Buildings

2.00pm Angel Benson & Anthony Pease: Passive Solar Design, Bushfires and Earth Building

2.30pm Afternoon Tea (provided for all delegates & speakers)

3.00pm Dean Farago Earth Render Specialist Traditional surface treatments, and options today

3.30pm Daryl Taylor IntegralEvolution Green Cross, adobe & other green realities

4.30pm Rob Hadden Builder: Anyone can build a comfortable, sustainable home

5.30pm Networking

6.30pm EBAA Conference Dinner at Eltham’s famous and beautiful Montsalvat, with special Guest

Speaker Richard Glover of ABC Radio

Please book your place for what will be a very special and entertaining evening ($45/head).

Montsalvat is licensed with drinks payable on consumption

DAY 3: Sunday 19th September

8.30am Bush breakfast, 96 Mine Road Nutfield hosted by Rob Freeland, AMCER (provided for all

delegates & speakers)

9.30am Workshops & Trade Displays

- AMCER : Pressed Earth brick production and testing, & new model compact plants

- James Henderson, Henderson Clayworks: Raw earth rendering and finishes – a voyage of

discovery in clay and straw

12.00noon Lunch at 96 Mine Road, Nutfield (provided for all delegates & speakers)

Packed with excellent speakers and information on:

• Thermal Mass versus Insulation
• Bush fire bunkers and fire resistant house designs using earth
• Carbon Pollution and the Role of the Built Environment in Addressing Climate Change
• Affordable housing using Earth Building Techniques
• Appropriate Climate Responsive Design with Earth
• Earth Workshops

The Earth Building Association of Australia (EBAA) is an organisation formed to promote the use of unfired Earth as a building medium throughout Australia. 

Source:  www.ebaa.asn.au

Women Lead Men in Accepting Scientific Consensus on Climate

Women tend to believe the scientific consensus on global warming more than men, according to a study by a Michigan State University researcher, sociologist Aaron M. McCright, published in the September issue of the journal Population and Environment. “Men still claim they have a better understanding of global warming than women, even though women’s beliefs align much more closely with the scientific consensus.”

Report from Eureka and eScience (14 September 2010):

Women more likely than men to accept global warming

A study by Aaron M. McCright, sociologist at Michigan State University, suggests women are more likely than men to accept the scientific consensus of climate change.

Women tend to believe the scientific consensus on global warming more than men, according to a study by a Michigan State University researcher.

The findings, published in the September issue of the journal Population and Environment, challenge common perceptions that men are more scientifically literate, said sociologist Aaron M. McCright.

“Men still claim they have a better understanding of global warming than women, even though women’s beliefs align much more closely with the scientific consensus,” said McCright, an associate professor with appointments in MSU’s Department of Sociology, Lyman Briggs College and Environmental Science and Policy Program.

The study is one of the first to focus in-depth on how the genders think about climate change. The findings also reinforce past research that suggests women lack confidence in their science comprehension.

“Here is yet another study finding that women underestimate their scientific knowledge – a troubling pattern that inhibits many young women from pursuing scientific careers,” McCright said.

Understanding how the genders think about the environment is important on several fronts, said McCright, who calls climate change “the most expansive environmental problem facing humanity.”

“Does this mean women are more likely to buy energy-efficient appliances and hybrid vehicles than men?” he said. “Do they vote for different political candidates? Do they talk to their children differently about global warming?”

McCright analyzed eight years of data from Gallup’s annual environment poll that asked fairly basic questions about climate change knowledge and concern. He said the gender divide on concern about climate change was not explained by the roles that men and women perform such as whether they were homemakers, parents or employed full time.

Instead, he said the gender divide likely is explained by “gender socialization.” According to this theory, boys in the United States learn that masculinity emphasizes detachment, control and mastery. A feminine identity, on the other hand, stresses attachment, empathy and care – traits that may make it easier to feel concern about the potential dire consequences of global warming, McCright said.

“Women and men think about climate change differently,” he said. “And when scientists or policymakers are communicating about climate change with the general public, they should consider this rather than treating the public as one big monolithic audience.”

Source: www.esciencenews.com

Spanish Wind Turbine Maker Triples Its Investment in China

Spain’s Gamesa, one of the world’s top wind turbine manufacturers, says it will triple its total investment in China by 2012 to meet rising demand for clean energy there. China wants renewable energy like wind to meet 15% of its energy needs by 2020, double its share in 2005, as it seeks to rein in emissions that have made its cities among the smoggiest on Earth.

Report in Sydney Morning Herald (15 September 2010):

Spain’s Gamesa, one of the world’s top wind turbine manufacturers, says it will triple its total investment in China by 2012 to meet rising demand for clean energy there.

The company has so far invested a total of 42 million euros ($A57.84 million) on facilities in China and it plans to invest over 90 million euros ($A123.95 million) between 2010-2012, bringing its total investment in the country to over 130 million euros ($A179.04 million), it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gamesa forecasts China will account for over 30 per cent of total sales, compared to 15 per cent last year.

“One of Gamesa’s goals is to cement its position as one of the top five players in the Chinese wind energy industry,” Gamesa chairman Jorge Calvet said in the statement.

China wants renewable energy like wind to meet 15 per cent of its energy needs by 2020, double its share in 2005, as it seeks to rein in emissions that have made its cities among the smoggiest on Earth.

The country, the world’s most populous, nearly doubled its wind energy capacity last year with the rollout of 13.7 Gigawatts of wind assets, making it the largest wind power market in the world, according to Gamesa.

The company said it had broken ground on its sixth manufacturing centre in China, a factory in the province of Inner Mongolia, one of the country’s leading hubs for wind power development.

It has another factory under development in Jilin province in northwest China and four manufacturing centres in the province of Tianjin, which is home to the company’s largest manufacturing base outside of Spain.

When the factories in Jilin and Inner Mongolia come online, Gamesa will have a production capacity in China of 1,500 megawatts per year.

Gamesa also said it had recently agreed to supply two of China’s largest power companies, Guangdong Nuclear Wind and Datang Renewable Power, with 1.3 Gigawatts of turbines through 2013.

The company did not disclose how much the contracts with the two Chinese firms were worth but French investment bank Societe Generale put the figures at 1.3 billion euros ($A1.79 billion) .

Gamesa has 30 manufacturing facilities in Europe, the United States, China and India and an international workforce of more than 6,300 people.

Shares in Gamesa closed up 9.6 per cent at 5.70 euros, its biggest one-day gain in over a year, on a day which saw the benchmark Ibex-35 index of most traded shares close up 0.38 per cent at 10,806.60 points.

Source: www.smh.com.au