Dr Giurco, Research Director for the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), says Australia is standing still while other countries are seeing opportunities and surging ahead in renewable energy.
“The whole world is moving in that direction.” he told The Epoch Times. “The early movers will get in there and really set the framework for how things operate, and identify the opportunities for making money.
“Australia has so much to contribute in this space,” he added.
Professor Ross Garnaut, Australia’s top climate advisor, has recommended this week that Australia adopt a carbon tax of $A26 that would bring in around A$11.5 billion in 2012/13, Fairfax News reported.
Prof Garnaut’s climate change update recommends that 46 per cent of the revenue raised should go to business as compensation, 52 per cent to subsidise households, and 2 per cent to fund research into renewable energy and improve energy efficiency measures.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is keen to set a carbon price by July this year and has been in discussions with the independents and the Greens, who will hold the balance of power in the Senate by that time.
Independent Tony Windsor, a key member of the Federal Government’s multi-party climate change committee, however, has held off declaring support for a carbon tax, saying that he is keen to see what the rest of the world is doing.
“Why should we do something when the rest of the world is doing nothing,” he said on the ABC.
However, if it was established that the rest of the world was acting on climate change, Mr Windsor said he believed Australia should also act.
“If that’s proven to be the case, then I think the answer is a carbon price.”
Dr Giurco said that other countries were way ahead of Australia in setting in place strategies to reduce emissions.
He pointed to the UK, noting that the Labor Blair and Brown governments had put in place an emissions trading scheme and, contrary to expectations, the new conservative Cameron Government had continued that “vision for the future.”
Last month, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, announced to the UK Parliament that the Cameron Government would accept in full the 4th Carbon Budget from the independent Committee for Climate Change (CCC.)
This will see legislation in place to cut emissions by 50 per cent (on 1990 levels) by 2025 and put the UK on track to meet an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050, the CCC said in a statement.
The Cameron Government is also likely to accept a review from the CCC that estimates that renewables would produce up to 45 per cent of the country’s electricity generation by 2030.
The CCC review, available on its website, highlights a range of promising renewable energy technologies, including electricity generation from wind, marine, air and ground source heat pumps, plus the use of bio-energy for heat generation.
Dr Giurco said that while governments in Europe were presenting climate change positively with a view to employment opportunities and new industries, Australia’s political leaders were taking a negative “populist” approach and ignoring Australia’s long-term interests.
“It is framed as a burden [in Australia], but other people will be wanting this technology,” he said, posing the question: “Are we going to wait around to buy it from the Chinese?”
According to a report published by the not-for-profit group the Pew Charitable Trusts, China surpassed the US as the world’s number one investor in renewable energy by doubling its investment in 2009. While that investment still contributed only 4 per cent of total electricity required by China, the Pew report highlighted progress in European countries, with investment in renewables in 2009 contributing 8.4 per cent of total electricity in the UK, 29 per cent in Germany and 30 per cent in Spain. Investment in renewables in Australia contributed only 3 per cent that year.
While critics have argued that renewables in Australia are too costly in their present form, a recent report from the Melbourne Energy Institute says that costs for renewables have been over estimated.
Looking at the history of technological development in the photovoltaic and wind power industries, the report, titled Renewable Energy Technology Cost Review, found that costs reduced considerably over time, not only from technical efficiencies, but also “from the learnings and economies of scale associated with large-scale global deployment.”
