The government of the ACT has said that it will set a target of cutting greenhouse gas emission by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, based on 1990 levels. The ACT will commit to carbon neutrality by 2060 and with peak per capita emissions by 2013.

The ACT government will also require regular reporting of emission trends to the ACT Legislative Assembly, establish of a Climate Change Council for advice on response to climate issues and encourage of voluntary action.

Simon Corbell, the ACT Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water said that "Governments have a responsibility to act on this issue, and the ACT Labor Government is leading Australia on reducing our carbon footprint by increasing the uptake of renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency in Canberra homes and businesses."

The Australian Academy of Science has published a 16-page booklet on "The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers" for the interested non-scientist.

The publication provides an authoritative, unbiased explanation of the current situation in climate science, including where there is consensus in the scientific community and where uncertainties exist. It answers the questions:

• What is climate change?
• How has the Earth’s climate changed in the distant past?
• How has the climate changed in the recent past?
• Are human activities causing climate change?
• How do we expect climate to evolve in the future?
• What are the consequences of climate change?
• How do we deal with uncertainty in science?

A copy of the booklet can be downloaded at www.science.org.au/reports/climatechange2010.pdf

Click mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/08/ssw_20100807_1258.mp3 for a musical commentary on Australia’s current political situation by Professor Ian Lowe.

Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University.

REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, has produced its annual Renewables Global Status report. A copy of the report is available here.

Highlghts of the report on 2009 include:

• Investment in new renewable was $US150 billion – up from $US130 billion in 2008
• Globally, nearly 80 GW of renewable capacity was added, including 31 GW of hydro and 48 GW of non-hydro capacity
• Almost half of the new capacity (37 GW) was added in Chin
• More renewable power capacity was added than coal, gas and nuclear power capacity in.both the United States and Europe
• 38 GW of wind power capacity was added with more than a third (13.8 GW) of that being in China. The United States was second, with 10 GW added
• 7 GW of solar PV was added itions with Germany adding more than half (3.8 GW) the global total
• Many countries saw record biomass use. In Sweden, biomass accounted for a larger share of energy supply than oil for the first time
• Major crystalline PV module price declines took place, by 50–60 percent by some estimates, from highs of $3.50 per watt in 2008 to lows approaching $2 per watt
• There was record small-scale solar Pv but the dollar investment totals in utility-scale solar PV declined relative to 2008, partly because of the large drop in the costs of solar PV modules.

Wind Power – World Installed Capacity

Solar PV – World Installed Capacity

The City of Sydney is seeking tenders to develop a Decentralised Water Master Plan aimed at producing more than 10% of the City’s water supply from local sources.

Currently, the inner city imports drinking-standard water from Warragamba Dam, but only 20% of this is used for drinking, cooking and washing. 80% is used for purposes like toilet flushing (19%) and air conditioning cooling towers (15%) which do not need drinking-standard water.

The tender, which closes on September 7, will explore different business models to implement the master plan, including a private sector water services company or a public/private joint venture.

The infrastructure required to capture and treat the recycled water would piggyback the council’s plans to install trigeneration power plants in buildings in the city. Trigeneration power plants use the waste heat from electricity to heat and cool buildings.The recycled water would be treated by waste heat from the trigeneration system and would be cheaper than importing treated water from Warragamba Dam.

Changes to renewable energy target legislation designed to provide greater investment certainty for large projects has been put before the Senate.

The legislation has two parts. The first supports households using solar panels and solar hot water systems. Separate targets, designed to encourage the development of wind farms, commercial solar and geothermal projects will deliver the majority of the target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. The amendments include temporarily increasing the target in 2012 and 2013 and adjusting it in later years, regulatory powers to adjust credits for solar panels and reviewing the price of renewable energy certificates.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said that “The amendments will ensure the long-term, sustainable growth of both the small-scale and large-scale renewable energy sector and will support new jobs and investment.

UPDATE:

The new legislation has been passed by the Senate and will take effect on 1 January 2011.

A new study by the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute in Australia that has ranked most of the world’s countries for their environmental impact.

The study, Evaluating the Relative Environmental Impact of Countries, uses seven indicators of environmental degradation: natural forest loss, habitat conversion, marine captures, fertilizer use, water pollution, carbon emissions and species threat.

Australia was ranked as the ninth worst country in absolute terms, not just per capita – in other words Australia was again "punching above its weight", doing as much damage as countries with up to fifty times the population. The country ranked 7th worst in habitat conversion. It ranked 9th for fertilizer use and 10th for natural forest loss.

Brazil was found to be the most environmentally damaging nation. As well as ranking first overall, Brazil was placed in first place for natural forest loss, third place for natural habitat conversion, third place for fertilizer use, fourth place for threatened species, fourth place for CO2 emissions and eigth place for water pollution.

The USA was rated as the second worst country because of its poor record on fertilizer use, CO2 emissions, water pollution, marine captures and threatened species.

The USA was followed by China and then Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India and Russia. Peru was in tenth place, mainly because of over fishing and trade in endangered species.

The study concluded that the notion that wealthy countries are good for the environment because they can afford to do more to protect it is false and that, in fact, the more wealth a country has, the more it is likely to be damaging the environment.

Curtin University of Technology is heading a new $8 million space technology partnership that will address the issue of climate change with the use of its Global Navigation Satellite System Research Laboratory.

According to Professor Peter Teunisssen, the lead scientist on the project, “The new space technology program in which we will be involved is a vital step towards improving our understanding of climate change in Australia and will play a critical role in the way we cope with changes to our environment.”

As well as the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, participants in the project include RMIT University, the University of New South Wales, the Bureau of Meteorology, Electro Optic Systems Space System, GPSat Systems Australia Pty Ltd., the National Space Organisation of Taiwan and NOAA’s World Data Centre for Metrology.

Despite Australia’s enormous potential for renewable energy (see "100% Renewable Energy by 2020"), six months after Australia’s introduction of  legislation supposed to encourage the development of renewable energy, not a single major wind or solar project has commenced.

The failure of the scheme has been blamed on poor design of the legislation which promotes domestic solar hot water systems and rooftop solar panels at the expense of large projects.

Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said ”What we have is the retail market stymieing the commercial market. It needs to be addressed quickly or we have no large-scale clean generation capacity in three years.”

Projects that have stalled since the scheme was passed include AGL Energy’s 174-turbine wind farm planned for Macarthur in western Victoria

Wind turbine maker Keppel Prince Engineering said it had to decide this week whether to sack up to 150 workers at its plant at Portland in Victoria’s south-west. Managing Director, Steve Garner, said that "We’re finishing off our last project and we don’t have another wind farm to continue on with.”

The Australian Department of Climate Change has released the results of a study of the effects of rising sea levels as a result of climate change on Australia’s coastal dwellings and infrastructure.

The modelling assumed a sea level increase of 1.1 metres, which it describes as the "plausible worst case",  by 2100.

The key findings of the report were:

• Between 157,000 and 247,600 properties were identified as potentially exposed to inundation with a sea-level rise of 1.1 metres.
• Nearly 39,000 properties, located within 110 metres of "soft" shorelines, are at risk from accelerated erosion.
• The current value of buildings at risk from inundation is between $41 and $63 billion.
• Infrastructure considered to be at risk because it is located within 200 metres of a shoreline includes 269 police, fire, ambulance and emergency service facilities and 75 hospitals and health services facilities.
• Eight electricity and water treatment facilities are regarded as being at risk.

Narrabeen/Collaroy in 2009 and with 1.1m sea level rise and a 1-in-100 year storm surge.

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