We all need to realise that oil is a scarce commodity. The way Australian cities have been set up with very limited transport infrastructure other than roads, large clocks of land for each house etc will make some of our outer suburbs close to uninhabitable. People in the outer suburbs use six times as much fuel as those close to the city centre. It is not as if we did not know about this!

At the same time tourism is decreasing and airlines are reducing flights, especially the low cost flights to holiday destinations.

The longer we delay restructuring our transport infrastructure, the worse the pain will be.

Perhaps a short term help would be more car and bike parking on bus routes with much more regular buses and maybe smaller feeder buses in local areas, for school pickups and to local shopping centres so that the existing road infrastructure can be used for fleets of subsidised buses and allow the fuel price for private use to increase as it naturally will and should once the carbon accounting is added to it.

We should look at oil shock as an opportunity to get ourselves reorganised instead of just trying to pretend it isn’t happening and the we also need to be aware that the cost of electricity is also on the way up.

Whatever they do the voters will hate it.

Technorati Tags: oil, oil shock, global warming, scarce commodity, Australia, transport infrastructure

Innamincka in northern South Australia, will close its diesel-fuelled generators by the end of 2008 when Australia’s first power plant fuelled by hot rocks, four kilometres below the Earth’s surface, supplies electricity to the sun-scorched Cooper Basin outpost 1100 kilometres north-west of Adelaide.

Innamincka, which has a population of 12, is a long way from everywhere, and the power plant will generate only 1 kilowatt of electricity, a modest beginning. But it will be the first exploitation of deep-earth geothermal energy in what is known as the South Australian Heat Flow Anomaly, a vast area of subterranean fractured granite with estimated potential to produce 60 times more electricity than the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme.

In these times of climate change, it is significant that geothermal power replenishes itself and is clean, producing none of the carbon dioxide gases that contribute to global warming. Geothermal power figures as a major contributor in Federal Government plans to drastically reduce greenhouse emissions, with predictions that hot rocks will supply 6.8 per cent of Australia’s total energy by 2030.

There are plans to expand the Innamincka power plant to 50megawatts in 2012 and send electricity 110 kilometres to the Moomba oil and gas field.

The company plans a 500 megawatt plant by 2016, when it expects to supply power down a 500-kilometre, high-power transmission line to the national electricity grid in Port Augusta, and another transmission line to BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine, 490 kilometres away. The estimated cost is $2 billion.

More holes are planned for later this yearl two four-kilometre deep wells later this year and early next year and a 7.5 megawatt power plant by 2010, supplying electricity to the nearby Beverley uranium mine, expanding to 30 megawatts in 2012 and 260 megawatts in 2020, with transmission lines to Port Augusta, and 300 kilometres east to Olympic Dam. The estimated cost is $2 billion dollars.

[/tags] hot rocks plant, massive potential, South Australia, Innamincka, diesel-fuelled generators, geothermal power [/tags]

Modern building materials are often formaldehyde-rich and so are the cushions, foam underlay’s etc and that creates health problems for residents.

The wood products that cause problems are medium-density fibreboard, or MDF and most of the glued ans composit boards. How many of us actually have real solid wood in our houses now? How many of our homes and offices are really well ventilated?

The union that represents carpenters launched a campaign last month to crack down on imports of wood products that contain high levels of the chemical. Australian-made products are subject to tight standards but there are no laws governing the formaldehyde levels on imports.

An incident late last year put formaldehyde in the headlines locally. Relief workers taking part in the Northern Territory indigenous intervention reported similar symptoms after sleeping in converted shipping containers contaminated with the substance.

In May 2007 hundreds of imported blankets from China were recalled after a Herald investigation revealed they contained levels of formaldehyde 10 times the international standard.

With so many reported cases of exposure, the obvious question is why are we are still using this carcinogenic substance at all. Formaldehyde is an organic compound that is useful in a huge number of manufacturing processes. A common use is in resin in timber replacement products, such as particle board or MDF, which are used in most homes as skirting boards, furniture and fittings like kitchen cupboards.

It can also be used in cloth manufacturing, because of its anti-creasing and moth-resistant qualities, in chemical products such as cleaners and cosmetics, and for embalming. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to kill infectious agents, like parasites or bacteria, which would otherwise contaminate wood, cosmetics or human remains.

But the product’s safety is a cause for concern. At low levels it irritates the eyes, nose and throat, and can cause eczema. At high levels it can cause cancer of the nasal passages and sinus. In 2004 the World Health Organisation recognised it as a human carcinogen. Apparently the levels of exposure you get from building materials are not sufficient to cause cancer,” says Professor Michael Moore, the director of the National.

Technorati Tags: sick house syndrome, syndrome, formaldehyde, safety, sustainable business, WHO, World Health Organisation

Experts worry that plankton, coral and shellfish will struggle to survive as greenhouse gas emissions change their environment. Just think about it, marine life has evolved in a highly stable environment for millennia. Fresh water and estuarine species are able to withstand change but marine life has not evolved in a variable environment and there is a high likelihood that it will not be able to cope big changes. The really big change it is facing is much higher levels of dissolved CO2 producing Carbonic acid. Acid dissolves shells and hard skeletons of shellfish, plankton and coral

Scientists conducting a major survey of the North American Pacific coast have found that in some parts of the ocean these increases are happening much faster than predicted. The change seen in the surveys was not expected until 2050. That will seriously reduce the productivity of the entire food chain, changing ocean ecology and leading potentially to drastic reductions in fish stocks.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also flagged ocean acidification as a problem in its fourth assessment report in 2007. Higher greenhouse gas emissions lead to more acid seas because around half the CO2 humans produce is soaked up by the oceans. In the new research, Richard Feeley at the US government agency the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and his colleagues sampled ocean chemistry from central Canada to northern Mexico. They found acidic water much closer to the surface than expected. The results are reported in the journal Science.

Upwelling acidic water is going to intermittently flood into our productive shallow seas and would be corrosive to some marine creatures. That does not mean that species will immediately die, but it does mean they have to use huge amounts of energy just to maintain their shells. The great concern is the speed of the changes. “Marine species may not have time to adapt.”

Technorati Tags: marine life rise, marine, marina, marine life, acid environment, environment, water resources

SIX years ago, when Brod and Vivienne Street renovated their Hawthorn home, they decided they would go green wherever possible. By installing a solar electric system, the couple and their son, Alexander, reduced their emissions by more than 3000 kilograms to just 900 kilograms a year.

Since the initial $250,000 renovation back in 2002 — which included the solar electricity system, alternative water sources and solar hot water — the couple have continued to upgrade their energy efficiency and gradually put in, more efficient appliances..

All the water used in their 7-star efficiency standard home, except the toilet, runs on rain water — of which they have 9000 litres of storage. If the tanks are dry, they use mains water. Mr Street, a policy officer with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, said they collect and treat grey water for toilet use.

They also have a solar electricity system, with 18 panels on the roof producing up to 1.7 kilowatts, provides about 75% of the family’s electricity needs each year.

Technorati Tags: Victorian family have reduced their home energy use, energy use, home energy use, home energy, solar electric system, solar hot water, energy efficiency

Even though there are now stricter building regulations Australian’s are building bigger houses and this coupled with a population surge means homes are using record levels of energy. Overall electricity use by Victorian homes is expected to rise by 45% by 2030, with average household and total residential energy use both increasing.

Household energy use has continued to soar in Victoria, despite the 2004 introduction of five-star energy efficiency standards for the 40,000 new homes built each year. In Australia we have “modest” minimum energy efficiency standards compared with standards overseas. “In ‘95-96 the average house size was something like 190 square metres, and here we are 10 years later and it is something like 234 square metres,” and at the same time occupancy rates had gone down from 2.7 to 2.5 people.

Sustainability expert Alan Pears, an RMIT adjunct professor, said Victoria should aim for world’s best practice, requiring houses to be built to a rating of between seven and eight stars, on par with standards in California, Britain and Canada. e said future green building ratings should put more emphasis on double glazing, shading of windows and better insulation, and also ought to deal with power consumption for lighting and televisions. “A lot of new houses now generate more.

Technorati Tags: energy in our housing, energy, housing, building regulations, record levels of energy, energy efficiency

I attended a fascinating lunchtime talk by Dr Michael Molitor from Price Waterhouse Coopers on Thursday 22nd May. His figures were of CO2e or including the other gases such as methane, nitrous oxides and others with CO2 as a “carbon dioxide equivalent”.

When we look at CO2e the figures are very interesting. Globally the average per person is 8 tons of CO2e. The Average Australian emits 28 tons CO2e per person and Queenslanders emit 41 tons CO2e per person (the extra is coal related).

The average person in China emits 4 tons CO2e. Because so much of our total emission is coal related we do have opportunities to reduce this. One major issue is that China is replicating our entire power grid every 8 months with coal fired power stations. I have just returned from Newcastle with is a major coal exporting port and the amount of coal being exported is mind blowing. That wonderful “fount of all wisdom and information” the taxi driver, was saying that at times the queue of waiting coal carrying ships is as many as 60, hanging outside the port. The scale of the export that I saw was HUGE.

Globally we need to stabilise at 1ton of CO2e per person. The current best guess at the average cost of reducing 1 ton CO2e is US$50 so to remove the 750 billion tons of CO2e that we need is around UD$37.50-$40 trillion. At the same time we need to keep growing the global economy so that all humans can lead sustainable and healthy lives. There are some interesting balancing acts here.

Some interesting facts Michael told us were that if we were to replace all cars with hybrid vehicles like the Prius, the net effect would be negative because the CO2e used in replacing the other vehicles would well and truly outweigh the improvements in reduction due to the hybrid engine. It is a similar story apparently with Qantas’s move to 22% more efficiency in the new airbus engines they have ordered. This is because of the increase in air traffic.

There is a flow on effect now into global financial markets and the carbon disclosures required for stock market reporting. Carbon is impacting on share price. Look at the Carbon Disclosure Project at www.cdproject.net.

The coal value chain is under pressure. 69 of 84 new US coal fired power plants have been stopped. Canada has a 2012 ban on coal fired power plants (sorry I was unclear whether this was existing or new and I would welcome feedback from you)

The good news in Australia is that it is possible to reduce our emission to 30% at NO net cost as we have a very large pool of low cost abatements.

Technorati Tags: carbon dioxide emissions, carbon dioxide, emissions, CO2, Dr Michael Molitor from Price Waterhouse Coopers, CO2e, global warming

The number of top 100 share-market listed companies in Australia reporting on sustainability issues has increased from 23 to 35. This is much less than in countries where disclosure is regulated and compares with 76 of the top 100 in the UK. Even among those companies that do report it is often suggested that many do so purely for marketing or public relation purposes – or “greenwashing”!

The spokesman for the Australian Shareholders Association, Mr Stuart Wilson, said that shareholders are looking for long term sustainable increase in earnings and anything that may impact on future earnings, whether changes in government regulations or damage done by unsustainable practices are ultimately going to impact on the companies bottom line.

Technorati Tags:   Sustainability Reporting, Sustainability, Australian Shareholders Association, Mr Stuart Wilson, greenwashing

The Productivity Commission is attacking the new Australian Government’s policies in the carbon area. The theory is that a true carbon price will drive change while a subsidy to meet a 20% renewable energy target is subsidising the wind energy sector is detracting from this and pushing wind at the expense of other technologies including natural gas which is less polluting.

This whole area is a “bag of worms” and I am deeply grateful that I am not in one of the hot seats making the decisions. Some of the more obvious pressures come from:

• Petrol needs to be included in the emissions trading scheme but huge numbers of swinging voters live in the outer suburbs without adequate public transport
• The coal industry is huge and cannot just be “turned off”. However many of the green groups are very angry about a commitment to fund clean coal.
• It is fascinating reading some of the recent reports in the Financial Review and the Australian newspapers as the industries and the NGOs all start lining up to talk to the ministers and complain about not having enough time to argue their cases..
• China is replicating our entire power grid every 8 months with coal fired power stations. If we stop selling them coal they will buy it elsewhere and the coal may well be lower quality with worse emissions and more damaging mining practices.
• Power generation has peaks and troughs and energy sources like wind do not provide for this so we need a mix in our grid including some plants that can be fired up fast otherwise we will have blackouts.
• Then there is vehicle manufacture in Australia and the fact that our local car plants have concentrated on the large 6 and 8 cylinder engines when they should have looked to the future and started building more fuel efficient models. There are huge electoral and economic backlashes where large scale job losses happen and the Australian car industry looks vulnerable to me if it cannot move towards greater fuel efficiency rapidly.

Technorati Tags: Decisions, policies and looking to the electoral backlash, electoral backlash, coal, coal industry, global warming, Productivity Commission

Another note from Michael Molitor was about a New Zealand winery that was told by Tesco’s in London they would be canceling their orders because of the food miles involved. The winery became Carbon Neutral and has actually grown its export sales to Tesco’s as a result.

His big message to business was that carbon abatement is essential regardless of the size of the business.

This is a very big issue for Australian and New Zealand businesses selling to the UK and Europe.

Technorati Tags: food miles, carbon credits, Michael Molitor, New Zealand, UK, Europe