Just a quick reminder: zoom talk this wednesday at 6pm
Our guest speaker on Wednesday is Dr Jennifer Bonham from UniSA, talking about Transport and city design.
Zoom details:
Topic: FoE meeting
Wednesday June 29, 2022 6:00pm Adelaide / 6:30 Melbourne
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83397402251?pwd=VzdNdU1PMVAzS3BvR1NaRzIwSkRzdz09
Meeting ID: 833 9740 2251
Passcode: FoE
Joshua S Hill, reports on the NZ climate plan:
New Zealand’s Labour government announced on Monday [may 16th] its “landmark” Emissions Reduction Plan which is designed to set the country on a pathway to meet its 2050 net-zero targets.
The Emissions Reduction Plan targets climate strategies across a range of sectors including transport, energy, waste, building and construction, and agriculture and forestry.
The multi-sector strategy is designed to meet emissions budgets while improving the ability of those relevant sectors to adapt to the effects of climate change.
[…] the Emissions Reduction Plan includes the launch of the Clean Car Upgrade program, which provides targeted assistance to lower- and middle-income households for the uptake of low-emission vehicles.
The EV subsidies are part of $NZ1.2 billion worth of transport sector-specific investments, which also include $NZ350 million for public transport, cycling, and pedestrian access, and an EV leasing scheme trial for low-income families.
The larger Emissions Reduction Plan also includes just over $NZ650 million to decarbonise industry over the next four years.
There is also a further $NZ18 million to fund the development of an energy strategy, a regulatory framework for offshore renewable energy, and a roadmap for the development and use of hydrogen.
On a larger scale, approximately $NZ1 billion will be spent over seven years to decarbonise industry
— more details at “We must wean ourselves off fossil fuels:” New Zealand launches “landmark” climate plan, reneweconomy.com.au
National security experts have called on Australian voters to use the federal election to support candidates that back strong action on climate change, saying Australia has “squandered” the last two decades.
Speaking at the Smart Energy Council’s Emergency Fuel Summit in Sydney, retired admiral Chris Barrie described climate change as the single biggest threat to Australia’s national security.
Barrie currently serves on the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group and said the group saw national climate policy failures as putting Australia at risk.
“We consider that climate change now represents the greatest threat to the future and security of Australia,” Barrie said.
More details: Michael Mazengarb, renew Economy
Australia is not on track to meet its weak Paris Agreement commitments, with a lack of meaningful national climate policies resulting in emissions cuts that are too slow to achieve the Morrison government’s 2030 target, new analysis shows.
New analysis from consultancy Ndevr Environmental says that if Australia’s emissions trajectory remains on current trends, Australia will fall short of achieving the already meagre emissions reduction target set by the Morrison government.
“If Australia continues its current emissions trajectory, then by 2030, Australia would have cumulatively emitted over 125.4 MT CO2-e more than the Paris [Emissions Reduction Target] trajectory,” the Ndevr analysis says.
“This is equal to 25 per cent of Australia’s annual entire national emissions.”
[…]
While the period was impacted by some Covid-19 lockdowns, the temporary relaxation of some restrictions in the last three months of 2021 contributed to a jump in transport emissions, with a resurgence in the number of Australians taking more trips leading to a 12 per cent increase, compared to the previous quarter.
Emissions from stationary use were also higher – representing emissions produced in the consumption of coal and gas in industrial operations like steelmaking – as activity returned to normal pre-Covid patterns, growing 2 per cent on the same quarter a year prior.
Emissions in the agricultural sector are also on the rise as drought conditions across Australia ease and farmers are able to grow herd numbers. Nvedr estimates that agricultural emissions were 5.2 per cent higher in the last three months of 2021 compared to a year prior.
Agricultural emissions in the 2021 year were a massive 15 per cent higher than in 2019 when drought devastated cattle numbers across large parts of Australia.
Australia has no economy-wide emissions reduction policy that would help drive cuts in sectors beyond the electricity sector.Australia will miss its weak 2030 emissions reduction targets, new data shows, Michael Mazengarb, RenewEconomy
On Monday last week, an earlier iteration of controversial regulations issued to ARENA – that sought to redirect its funding to non-renewable energy technologies were cancelled out by the federal senate.
The cancellation occurred after a senate oversight committee deemed the regulations to be unlawful, and inconsistent with ARENA’s legislated aims to only fund renewable energy technologies.
However, before the end of the week, federal energy minister Angus Taylor had issued a replacement set of regulations that again sought to have ARENA’s funding redirected to the government’s preferred technologies, including carbon capture and storage and fossil hydrogen production.
The new regulations tie the types of technologies that ARENA may fund to a definition of “clean energy technologies” included within legislation establishing a separate agency, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
The regulations create an unusual situation where one body, the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, is able to define which “low emissions technologies” ARENA will be able to fund.
An explanatory statement included with the latest set of regulations stated that the Morrison government intends to ensure ARENA could fund non-renewable energy technologies.
“The Regulations provides ARENA with the necessary authority to deliver any non-renewable elements of the programs, supporting emissions reductions through broader clean energy technologies such as energy efficiency and non?renewable low-emission technologies,” the explanatory statement said.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is, however, explicitly prohibited from investing in nuclear projects and carbon capture and storage projects under its legislation.
More details: “No prohibitions”: Renewables funds can be spent on fossil hydrogen and CCS, officials say