Saturday, 4 March 2017

Beyond the coal rush part 3: The transition begins

From The Science Show

Saturday 10 September 2016 12:05PM (view full episode)

Change in the world’s energy system is happening fast in some countries, not at all in others. We’ve heard the battles of local people fighting for their homes, their farms and forests against the expansion plans of coal mining companies. And despite coal’s low market price in 2016, solar PV is on its way to becoming the cheapest source for electricity. Global investment in renewable energy is now higher than in fossil fuels. Some countries understand the urgency to reduce the amount of coal burnt for electricity. China has a policy to shift away from coal and has begun an energy transition. The nation has plans to reduce coal in its energy mix to 60% by 2020 and then reduce further. China’s wind capacity alone is already 100GW. Australia’s total generating capacity is 60GW. Change is under way. Electricity will be cheaper and cleaner. The challenge is for the world to rebuild its energy system quickly to minimise damage from a warming planet.



Reporter: Tom Morton
Production: David Fisher, Tom Morton
Technical production: Judy Rapley
Original music: Stuart Brown
Researcher: Emma Lancaster
Additional recordings:  Manuel Waltz
Additional Research: Areeb Hashmi, Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon, Katja Müller, Rebecca Pearse
Readings: Stephen Adams, Eurydice Aroney, Mark Don, Joe Gelonesi, Christoph Kaufmann,  Colin Moody, Timothy Nicastri, Shiv Palekar, Edmond Roy, Steven Tilley,
ABC Archivist: Sabrina Lipovic
ARC research project investigators: University of Technology Sydney: James Goodman, Devleena Ghosh, Tom Morton, Jon Marshall; University of Sydney: Linda Connor,Stuart Rosewarne. External Partner Investigators: Ortwin Renn, Dipesh Chakrabarty
Research and travel funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant “The Coal Rush and Beyond”.
Additional funding: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

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