Category Archives: The Mitigation Battle

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23 December 2015, Carbon Pulse, Dirtier energy mix pushes up Australia’s GHG emissions. Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 1.3% in 2014-15 to 549.3 million tonnes of CO2e, according to government data, as coal use increased after the carbon tax repeal. Electricity generation emissions increased 3% to 186.1 million tonnes of CO2e in the twelve months to June 2015, according to data from the Department of the Environment. “This increase corresponds to a flatlining in demand in the National Electricity Market (NEM) between the year to June 2014 and the year to June 2015 … combined with an increase in the emissions intensity of delivered electricity,” the report said. Electricity emissions from black coal rose 1.4% and brown coal 9.7%, the report said. Wind and other renewables increased 12.2%, but gas (6.2%) and hydro (30.3%0 saw drops. The comeback of coal in the generation mix has been well documented by NEM analysts, and coincided with the July 1, 2014 removal of the carbon tax. Most other sectors of the economy also saw higher GHG emissions in 2014-15, but this was partly offset by a 3.4% drop from agiculture, largely due to declining beef cattle population, a reduction in sheep numbers and reduced production of several key crops. Compared to 2005, Australia’s emissions have dropped 10.2%. Its target according to its DNC is to reduce emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2030. Australia now emits 23.2 tonnes of CO2e per capita, a 28.4% drop from 1990 but still among the highest in the developed world. Read More here

 

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22 December 2015, BBC, Australia approves Abbot Point coal port expansion. Australia has approved the expansion of an existing coal port at Abbot Point near Bowen in north Queensland. The controversial project will see Abbot Point become one of the world’s biggest coal ports. The expansion will involve dredging one million cubic metres of spoil near the Great Barrier Reef which will then be dumped on land. Conservationists have said the project will have a significant impact on the area’s wildlife and surrounds. The expansion project is key to the success of a coal mine to be built by India’s Adani Mining – the Carmichael project. Adani expects to export coal from the expanded port. Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved the expansion of the project on Thursday. ‘Damaging dredge’ Environmental group WWF said 61 hectares of seabed would be “ripped up”, creating the dredge spoil. “It’s disappointing that the minister has approved this project within the [Barrier Reef area], despite the damage it will do,” spokeswoman Louise Matthiesson said. “Damaging dredge plumes will be created harming sea grass and potentially reaching nearby coral reefs,” she added. In an original proposal for the port expansion, the dredge spoil was to be dumped at sea. However, in response to public pressure, that proposal was not approved. Read More here

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17 December 2015, The Guardian, There is a new form of climate denialism to look out for – so don’t celebrate yet.  After the signing of a historic climate pact in Paris, we might now hope that the merchants of doubt – who for two decades have denied the science and dismissed the threat – are officially irrelevant. But not so fast. There is also a new, strange form of denial that has appeared on the landscape of late, one that says that renewable sources can’t meet our energy needs. Oddly, some of these voices include climate scientists, who insist that we must now turn to wholesale expansion of nuclear power. Just this past week, as negotiators were closing in on the Paris agreement, four climate scientists held an off-site session insisting that the only way we can solve the coupled climate/energy problem is with a massive and immediate expansion of nuclear power. More than that, they are blaming environmentalists, suggesting that the opposition to nuclear power stands between all of us and a two-degree world. That would have troubling consequences for climate change if it were true, but it is not. Numerous high quality studies, including one recently published by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, show that this isn’t so. We can transition to a decarbonized economy without expanded nuclear power, by focusing on wind, water and solar, coupled with grid integration, energy efficiency and demand management. In fact, our best studies show that we can do it faster, and more cheaply. Read more here

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17 December 2015, Renew Economy, Tasmania switches gas fired generator back on as hydro runs low. Hydro Tasmania has announced that it will re-assemble and restart its Tamar Valley gas-fired generators for the first time in 18 months in response to the driest spring in the state ever recorded. The state-owned company, which powers the local grid mostly with hydro and wind energy, and exports some of that to the mainland, says hydro levels have sunk to around 25 per cent after the driest September to November period on record, although better inflows have been received in recent weeks. It says that restarting the Tamar Valley gas generators, which operate as a combined cycle gas turbine (broadly equivalent to base load rather than peaking) makes “good commercial sense”. Presumably because it allows the limited hydro to be conserved for higher pricing peaking events. The fall in hydro reservoirs is not just a problem in Tasmania. Earlier this year, Snowy Hydro decided to pay $234 million for the Colongra gas-fired power plant in NSW. Even though the plant had only operated for a total of 300 hours in 5 years, and rising gas prices basically priced it out of the market, Snowy Hydro bought the gas peaking plant as an insurance against the risk of declining water levels. Its gas plants in Victoria performed a similar role in the last drought in that state. Read more here