Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Reinventing Labor Values: Renewable Energy is on the Agenda

In reality, studies show that investments to spur renewable energy and boost energy efficiency generate far more jobs than oil and coal. 
~ Jeff Goodell 


Steady Stream of Clean Ideas ... ALP formally adopts 50pc renewable energy goal

ALP President Mark Butler addresses the conference.
ALP President Mark Butler addresses the conference
Labor has adopted a 50 per cent renewable energy goal, committed to tougher vehicles emissions targets and to introduce an emissions trading scheme as it puts green policies at the heart of a platform which is clearly aimed at fending off a threat to its political base from the Greens.
"There are some who say we cannot win this argument", he said, as a result of a combination of vested interests and some sections of the media". But he said there were not enough front-page digitally altered images in the world to deter Labor "because we have faith in the future to embrace faith and optimism over fear and scaremongering".
An ambitious 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 will form the centrepiece of a new Labor plan to tackle climate change at Malabar, Botany Bay area and beyond. Labor Leader Bill Shorten will officially unveil the green policy at the party's national conference later this week.

 "This is a game changer for Australia's economy."  (Czech out the Saudies 

Labor environment spokesman Mark Butler said Australia had to do its fair share to keep global warming below two degrees. "We have some of the world's best resources: solar, wind, geothermal, wave... some of the best scientists and innovative businesses." 

ACTU president Ged Kearney conceded jobs would be lost as the economy moved away from coal and towards newer technology. But the whole purpose of the renewable energy target was to encourage new investment and create new jobs...  Labor is leading again on renewable energy


As Ken Henry receny observed at the Pearl blog
‘I can’t recall a poorer quality of public debate on almost any issues, that we have had in recent times in Australia.’
Perhaps it is always darkest before the dawn!


Look who has made a full recovery!Taronga Zoo Wildlife Hospital released the seal rescued from Malabar after a shark attack














Rescued Malabar seal returns to the ocean


dailytelegraph.com.au








“The imagination is the power that enables us to perceive the normal in the abnormal, the opposite of chaos in chaos.”
Wallace Stevens, “Imagination as Value”

Renewable energy provides a pathway to lasting economic prosperity that does not take resources away from future generation and reduces the impact of our activities on the natural environment ...

Robert Manne has an interesting story in The Monthly on 1 July 2015. For link to the article see https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/robert-manne/2015/01/2015/1435708320/laudato-si-political-reading ..

Many Australian organisations are forced to look at best practice on a global level when it comes to sustainable business, as the federal government remains relatively disengaged on environmental issues. "Australia spends more than $120 billion a year on energy – that's a 67 per cent increase over 10 years. With the right equipment, businesses can lower energy and operating costs, cut heating, cooling and lighting bills, and even create energy from waste." Future Business Challenges Sustainability

Low voltage {laser technology}: An uncertain regulatory environment will contribute to subdued industry growth


The sunshine that strikes American roads each year contains more energy than all the fossil fuels used by the entire world."   
~ Denis Hayes 


Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nmhphr/north_and_south) has announced the addition of the "North and South America Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2015" report to their offering.
The report presents an in-depth analysis of the renewable energy policies across the major countries in North and South America namely the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. It also presents the major renewable policy frameworks in place in some of the major states in the US and Canada. The report provides the current and future renewable energy targets and plans along with the present policy framework, giving a fair idea of overall growth potential of their renewable energy industry. The report also provides major technology specific policies and incentives provided in each of these countries. The report also provides insights to major policy initiatives for the market development of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biopower and biofuels.
 

In an opinion piece published in Fairfax Media, Conservative UK MP Richard Benyon criticised PM Tony Abbott's leadership on the issue of climate change. Australia's climate change stance is "incomprehensible" and "profoundly un-conservative" ...

The Energy Information Administration—the federal agency responsible for forecasting energy trends—has consistently and significantly underestimated the potential of renewable energy sources, misinforming Congress, government agencies and others that use the forecasts to analyze and develop policies, according to a report by a trade group of clean energy companies. Clean energy

“Schorr, David, Art and the History of Environmental Law (July 19, 2015). Critical Analysis of Law (2015, Forthcoming). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2633175
“This article is an initial exploration of what the history of environmental law can learn from the arts. Looking at visual art (mainly paintings, with some drawings, prints, photographs, and poster art), supplemented by occasional glances in the direction of literary works, it asks what, if anything we can learn about the environmental law of the industrialized West of nineteenth and twentieth centuries before 1970, when environmental problems certainly abounded but before there was “environmental law”. The focus is on pollution law, especially air pollution, with some attention paid also to land use law




World Energy Council, 20/7/15. The BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC), New Zealand’s World Energy Council member committee, has initiated the first country-level use of The World Energy Scenarios: Composing energy futures to 2050
New Zealand develops the first country-level use of scenarios
   
In Germany the Energiewende has two main policy tools: generous support for renewable sources of energy, and an exit from nuclear power by 2022. The government supports renewables by promising those who install solar panels or finance windmills a fixed, above-market price for each kilowatt-hour of energy they feed into the grid. Those renewable sources have grid priority, meaning they must by law be drawn upon before other energy sources, like electricity from coal, gas or nuclear plants.


Fossil fuel companies impose more in climate costs than they make in profits Vox (reslic). Similar to banks, they are purely extractive, in both senses of the word.
Auctions are increasingly becoming a policy tool of choice to support renewable energy deployment, according to a new publication released by the International Renewable Energy Agency  IRENA publishes best practice guide for renewable energy auctions world wide

Australia will still lag behind New Zealand, which is aiming at 90 per cent renewable by 2025, and Germany, which is pitching for 55 to 60 per cent by 2035.
How To Be loser in the war for renewable talent

CODA: Bloomberg – With 65 percent of U.S. roads rated in less than good condition, cities and states no longer leave funding decisions to intuition and influence: “Instead, they use data vacuumed up by arachnid-armed “spider vans” with bulbous cameras and global-positioning equipment protruding from roofs. Six computers inside Phoenix’s four-ton vehicle stored data for engineers to download.

AUSTRALIA has the highest rate of climate sceptics among the world’s advanced countries, beating the US and the UK, according to a new university study. The University of Tasmania research published in the international journalGlobal Environmental Change this month found Australia topped the list in a study of 14 advanced countries.