Extract from The Guardian
By environment reporter Sara Phillips
Updated about 6 hours ago
Photo:
Professor Flannery said the booming renewable energy industry is
proof the world is willing and able to step up to the challenge.
(AAP)
Australian Climate Council chief Tim Flannery says
he is optimistic world leaders will reach a global agreement on
climate change during talks in Paris next week.
The council will release a report today outlining
the growth of renewable energy in the past six years.
Professor Flannery said the booming industry was
proof the world was willing and able to step up to the challenge of
addressing climate change.
"Circumstances have changed between the
Copenhagen meeting in 2009 and the Paris meeting in 2015,"
Professor Flannery said.
"We've seen a huge increase in the deployment
of renewables, and an enormous cost decrease in those renewables.
"What that story tells us is the mechanism is
there to honour the pledges that are being made at Paris."
He said while the world was moving to embrace
renewable energy such as solar and wind, Australia had been hampered
by government policy in recent years.
"We went through five electoral cycles at the
federal level, where we had clear bipartisan support for an ambitious
renewable energy target ... that bipartisanship was then blown out of
the water," he said.
While the Government and the Opposition reached a
compromise Renewable Energy Target, Labor has said it intends to
raise it if it wins government.
"I think it'd be great to see bipartisan
support for a much stronger target," Professor Flannery said.
"If you look at that target versus
opportunity, you'll see Australia is still missing the ball. The
opportunities here are so enormous," he said, pointing to
Australia's wealth of wind, sun, waves and natural geothermal heat.
Paris talks 'won't be a make or break event'
Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy
Council, was less optimistic about prospects for the international
climate meeting.
"The reality is that Paris won't be a make or
break event, but it could be an important demonstration of global
momentum," she said.
Megacities swamped by sea rise
Australia's coastal capitals would slip under the waves along with megacities across the world even if global warming can be limited to 2 degrees Celsius, scientists say.
"What is most important is the commitments
that countries have already made, and will continue to make.
"And what is becoming abundantly clear is
that the globe is heading towards a low-carbon future."
Both men agreed that the renewable energy industry
had exploded globally.
"According to the International Renewable
Energy Agency, more than 160 countries now have some kind of
renewable energy target — four times the number there were in
2005," Mr Thornton said.
Professor Flannery pointed out that new investment
in renewables had eclipsed investment in traditional energy sources
and jobs in renewables had doubled in the past six years.
All of which "gives us cause for real hope
that Paris will be a success," Professor Flannery said.
"Whatever promises are made to reduce
emissions you need to have mechanisms in place that will do that and
renewable energy has now got to a scale where very clearly it's
capable of doing that," he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment