Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Premier Steve Bracks promised the new standards would make homes 50 per cent more energy efficient.

But Dr George Wilkenfeld, one of the country's foremost experts on residential energy efficiency, has found that new Victorian homes use more power and produce more greenhouse emissions than before the five-star rules were introduced.

"The energy-related emissions of the average new dwelling are nearly 6 per cent higher than average emissions of existing dwellings," says the report, Options to Reduce Greenhouse Emissions from new homes in Victoria.

See here. New standards seem to have no effect on C02 emissions, we still want bigger and more. The only thing that will fix the problem is to charge a tax on emissions when there is a cost to emissions then people will begin to move in the right direction.

“Gordon Brown will make a dramatic bid to steal a march on David Cameron tomorrow when he pledges to build five eco-towns that will create up to 100,000 new homes powered by solar panels and wind turbines.” See here.

The British labour party is showing the way, government funded eco-towns could help ease the housing problems and show the way to a truly carbon neutral world. Instead of wasting billions on the “War on Terror” lets spend the money in our own backyards, to overcome the real Terrors of global warming and rising house prices!

“We're still suffering from Australia as giant quarry syndrome. I think few people understand just how important to the Howard Government is this idea that Australia's prosperity depends on continued exports of energy to Asia. The PM last year talked about Australia becoming an energy superpower and he's really talking about coal at a time when we know over the next couple of decades we need to shift away from that form of energy, and yet this commitment to continuing coal exports seems to underpin the whole approach to climate change policy in the country.”

says Clive Hamilton, author, and Director of the Australia Institute on “Meet the Press” this morning.

We will know that the ALP and Liberal party are serious about Climate Change when they address the issue of coal exports.

In his speech, Mr. Obama proposed stricter fuel economy standards, greater availability of tax credits to consumers who buy hybrids or other ultra-efficient vehicles and subsidies to help automakers pay health care expenses in return for greater investment in advanced technology.

He asserted that his proposals would save the United States 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, which he said would be the equivalent of halting oil imports from the Middle East and would remove 50 million cars’ worth of pollution from the road.

I bet Costello doesn’t have this sort of initiative in his budget policy.

I wonder if the US would have gone to Iraq if it no longer relied on Middle East oil imports.

Frank Muller, professorial visiting fellow at the University of New South Wales' Institute of Environmental Studies, says reducing greenhouse gas emissions has many benefits.

"Cutting emissions not only protects us from dangerous climate change, but also provides other important benefits that typically are not counted in economic studies. These include better public health, greater energy security and the benefits of innovation," he says.

"Another key message is that improving energy efficiency, especially in buildings, provides an enormous opportunity globally for cutting emissions at low cost, and in some cases actually saves money."

Dr Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute, says the report strengthens the case for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

"Although substantial uncertainties remain, the IPCC report concludes that 'even for the most stringent of stabilisation pathways assessed' the costs of reducing carbon emissions are comparable to or lower than the economic damage avoided," he says.

"In other words, the economic benefits of deep cuts in emissions outweigh the costs."

See here.

Paul Kelly says here: [extract]

“The policy and strategic flaws of the Howard Government have been exposed this week with the appointment by ALP leader Kevin Rudd of Australian National University economics professor Ross Garnaut to produce Australia’s version of the Stern report. This is what John Howard should have done a year ago.

Howard’s refusal to investigate the optimal solution to climate change on Australia is a blunder that will haunt him. As a public policy and market economist of global status, Garnaut was the ideal candidate to define an Australian market-based solution”.

“While the federal Coalition and state Labor governments talk up their increased spending on programs to tackle climate change, that spending is literally a fraction of their multibillion-dollar subsidies for fossil fuels each year.

Just one example in the transport sector is the federal fringe benefits tax, which offers more generous tax rates for company cars the further they are driven.

Company cars that travel more than 15,000 kilometres in a year are taxed at 23 per cent - but as soon as the odometer ticks over to 40,000 kilometres, that tax rate plummets to 7 per cent.

That concession alone costs taxpayers $1.1 billion a year….current model hybrid cars are already about 40 per cent more efficient for inner-city driving.”

Why don’t we give the 7 percent tax rate only to hybrid cars?  Again it’s not about spending, just good governance. 

“The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change backs that assessment, showing that over the next 23 years, efficiency measures offer by far the most potential for major greenhouse emission savings from energy. It also concludes that energy efficiency typically pays for itself, while boosting employment and energy security.

A recent report for Australian energy ministers found that, on average, industry could slash energy use by a quarter, with the costs of doing so paid off within four years.

Only 5 per cent of Australia's 8 million homes use solar water heating, which costs about $4000 upfront, but usually pays for itself in five to 10 years and saves up to 3.5 tonnes a year in greenhouse emissions.”

For Australia to reach its climate change reductions we need really good governance now.

We need politicians who will legislate energy efficiencies, which would not only reduce our carbon emissions but also create employment. Use some of the future fund to help finance solar water heaters for everyone. That way our grand children may actually have a future.

Howard and his team are too close to the energy barons. The coal industry needs to go the way of the horse and cart.

The world has less than eight years to arrest global warming or risk what many scientists warn could be catastrophic changes to the planet…

Those are among the findings of a landmark international statement on climate change, signed off yesterday by the world's leading scientists, economists and government representatives from more than 120 countries, after a marathon meeting in Bangkok.  

Howard is so arrogant to think his knowledge of global warming is better than the world’s best.

There is no time for a nuclear solution; we need to act now simply by getting more efficient in our use of energy and making users pay for carbon emissions. Not so hard, not so high tech.

Howard needs admit he has been wrong and sign up to Kyoto now!