Speech on Energy Options

Energy Forum,
Taree Enviroment Fair

Thank you on behalf of The Greens and congratulations on organising this excellent event. I have been asked to speak today about energy options.

Time is running out for this planet, its ecosystems and its people. Global warming is a frightening reality that demands immediate and direct action both at an individual level and as a community. If we don't change our addiction to burning fossil fuels and to other climate damaging activities soon, we will not only be robbing our children of the quality of life we enjoyed, we will be damaging the very basis of life on this little planet.

The major parties at best play lip service to global warming and at worse deny it is even a problem. Lured by the campaign donations from the fossil fuel industries, they have comprehensively rejected the serious changes to our economy and to our lifestyles that are required to avert disaster.

It is up to us as a community to show leadership, to make it clear that there are alternatives and to insist that both industry and government change their ways to secure a future for this planet.

Over the last decade, the last remaining excuses for ignoring the global climate impacts of our energy, transport and land clearing activities have evaporated.

Our collective awareness of the effects of emitting huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has passed from being an esoteric theory, held by a few scientists and promoted only by dedicated environmentalists, to being accepted by the overwhelming mass of scientists and to being part of the mass consciousness.

Even President Bush who has a head in the sand approach to global warming this week dropped his position of total denial acknowledging that there is some negative impacts as a result of global warming. It will be interesting to see how the handful of scientists who are thoroughly corrupted by their financial relationships with the fossil fuel industry adjust their propaganda now President Bush has modified his position.

The Australian Coalition government has been very comfortable with the US position was we are also a climate criminal on a grand scale: on many measures we are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.

In NSW, the culprits are clear. 28% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the generation of electrical energy, another 13% from other energy uses - principally natural gas - and 14% from transport. Inappropriate land use, agriculture and forestry amount for 30%. In all, energy production and use amounts for 41% of our greenhouse gas emissions.

The message from the climate scientists is clear: in each of these sectors we must make substantial and profound changes and we must do it urgently.

Within the energy industry the renewable alternatives are both clear and obvious. Energy from the sun, both as direct solar heating and converted to electricity by solar cells, and wind energy not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also avoid many other air, water and land pollutants that come from fossil fuels.

Australian renewable energy technologies lead the world both in the lab and now in commercial production and installation.

Energy efficiency - using less energy to achieve the same outcomes - and energy conservation not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they make sense economically and morally.

So there are solutions. Yet Australian governments, state and federal, refuse to ensure that Australia leads the world in using these technologies. Conservative politicians from the Coalition parties and to a lesser extent from the Labor Party have been happy to see us continue to be the greenhouse sewer of the world.

They have not only sold out the environment but they are also losing us massive economic opportunities. Sooner or later we - and the rest of the world - will have to make the change to renewable energy and a more energy efficient economy.

The decisions we make today will determine whether, when that day arrives, we will be importers or exporters of clean technologies.

The way we are going now, we will end up losing jobs and spending money on importing technologies from European countries that have already begun to make the profound changes and have thus developed a leading edge in the technologies.

What a tragedy - allowing our early advantage to be squandered while other countries surge ahead. That is what is happening because of short sighted politicians.

The Commonwealth government has worked hard to keep us out of the Kyoto protocol. It has set up a few sham renewable energy programs to create the appearance of change whilst encouraging the mining and exploration industry to run rampant.

Prime Minister Howard's view of sustainability means nothing more than will it work until the next election.

The state Labor government has, in some ways, been a little better, setting up the Sustainable Energy Development Authority - SEDA - but then it has effectively starved it of the funds it needs to really make the transformations so urgently needed.

The state government has also set up a compulsory greenhouse targets program for electricity distributors, with, belatedly, fines when emissions pass the target levels. In principle this is a great step forward. In practise, there are question marks over the implementation which could render it meaningless unless the Carr government is prepared to take the hard steps.

The Greens in State parliament, having blown the whistle on the problems with this scheme, are working hard on the government to make sure that this potentially important step forward is not buried by the industry lobby.

But there is something else that lurks in the minds of the NSW State treasury that could undo all of this. It is privatisation of the electricity industry. This desire has distorted and twisted energy policy in this state since the current Labor Treasurer, Michael Egan, took office and started hatching a plan to sell off our electricity industry. NSW Labor leaders want to hand over our electricity supply to the multi-nationals.

In the United States, these same multinationals, such as the infamous and now bankrupt Enron, inflicted skyrocketing prices and plummeting reliability on electricity consumers.

But worse, because their profits are derived from selling more and more electricity, global corporate owners would never tolerate a move towards a more efficient and sustainable energy industry. We must never allow our electricity industry to be globalised for then we as a community would lose all control over it. A privatised industry can never be made sustainable.

So while the Federal government continues to play handmaiden to the coal industry and the state government is flirting with privatisation, NSW continues to pour greenhouse gasses into the environment and continues to threaten the future of the planet. However, while our politicians fiddle and the climate burns many local communities, groups and individual households show the real leadership.

Many local communities have opted for clean power options. Rainbow Power, that venerable institution of northern NSW has been defying the government's preferences for the polluting coal monsters and installing renewable energy systems for more than 15 years. And many households have voluntarily taken up greenpower options, paying more to save the planet. It is a measure of the failure of government and industry policy that those who do the right thing have to pay more.

The Greens would argue that it should of course be the other way round - those who do the wrong thing should pay more. But we are not there yet. Other households and communities have gone a step further and installed their own solar cells and their own passive solar heating. It is these households, these communities and these groups that are showing the leadership that is so sadly lacking in our governments. We Greens see our role as ensuring that governments see and respond to that community leadership.

This is a difficult and challenging task. Governments are captured by an industry that has no interest in changing its ways and by Treasury officials who cannot see beyond the bottom line on their spreadsheets. Yet it is vital that we win. Standing here and listening to what is happening in this community gives me every confidence that we will win. Thank you.

Time is running out for this planet, its ecosystems and its people. Global warming is a frightening reality that demands immediate and direct action both at an individual level and as a community. If we don't change our addiction to burning fossil fuels and to other climate damaging activities soon, we will not only be robbing our children of the quality of life we enjoyed, we will be damaging the very basis of life on this little planet.

The major parties at best play lip service to global warming and at worse deny it is even a problem. Lured by the campaign donations from the fossil fuel industries, they have comprehensively rejected the serious changes to our economy and to our lifestyles that are required to avert disaster.

It is up to us as a community to show leadership, to make it clear that there are alternatives and to insist that both industry and government change their ways to secure a future for this planet.

Over the last decade, the last remaining excuses for ignoring the global climate impacts of our energy, transport and land clearing activities have evaporated.

Our collective awareness of the effects of emitting huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has passed from being an esoteric theory, held by a few scientists and promoted only by dedicated environmentalists, to being accepted by the overwhelming mass of scientists and to being part of the mass consciousness.

Even President Bush who has a head in the sand approach to global warming this week dropped his position of total denial acknowledging that there is some negative impacts as a result of global warming. It will be interesting to see how the handful of scientists who are thoroughly corrupted by their financial relationships with the fossil fuel industry adjust their propaganda now President Bush has modified his position.

The Australian Coalition government has been very comfortable with the US position was we are also a climate criminal on a grand scale: on many measures we are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.

In NSW, the culprits are clear. 28% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the generation of electrical energy, another 13% from other energy uses - principally natural gas - and 14% from transport. Inappropriate land use, agriculture and forestry amount for 30%. In all, energy production and use amounts for 41% of our greenhouse gas emissions.

The message from the climate scientists is clear: in each of these sectors we must make substantial and profound changes and we must do it urgently.

Within the energy industry the renewable alternatives are both clear and obvious. Energy from the sun, both as direct solar heating and converted to electricity by solar cells, and wind energy not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also avoid many other air, water and land pollutants that come from fossil fuels.

Australian renewable energy technologies lead the world both in the lab and now in commercial production and installation.

Energy efficiency - using less energy to achieve the same outcomes - and energy conservation not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they make sense economically and morally.

So there are solutions. Yet Australian governments, state and federal, refuse to ensure that Australia leads the world in using these technologies. Conservative politicians from the Coalition parties and to a lesser extent from the Labor Party have been happy to see us continue to be the greenhouse sewer of the world.

They have not only sold out the environment but they are also losing us massive economic opportunities. Sooner or later we - and the rest of the world - will have to make the change to renewable energy and a more energy efficient economy.

The decisions we make today will determine whether, when that day arrives, we will be importers or exporters of clean technologies.

The way we are going now, we will end up losing jobs and spending money on importing technologies from European countries that have already begun to make the profound changes and have thus developed a leading edge in the technologies.

What a tragedy - allowing our early advantage to be squandered while other countries surge ahead. That is what is happening because of short sighted politicians.

The Commonwealth government has worked hard to keep us out of the Kyoto protocol. It has set up a few sham renewable energy programs to create the appearance of change whilst encouraging the mining and exploration industry to run rampant.

Prime Minister Howard's view of sustainability means nothing more than will it work until the next election.

The state Labor government has, in some ways, been a little better, setting up the Sustainable Energy Development Authority - SEDA - but then it has effectively starved it of the funds it needs to really make the transformations so urgently needed.

The state government has also set up a compulsory greenhouse targets program for electricity distributors, with, belatedly, fines when emissions pass the target levels. In principle this is a great step forward. In practise, there are question marks over the implementation which could render it meaningless unless the Carr government is prepared to take the hard steps.

The Greens in State parliament, having blown the whistle on the problems with this scheme, are working hard on the government to make sure that this potentially important step forward is not buried by the industry lobby.

But there is something else that lurks in the minds of the NSW State treasury that could undo all of this. It is privatisation of the electricity industry. This desire has distorted and twisted energy policy in this state since the current Labor Treasurer, Michael Egan, took office and started hatching a plan to sell off our electricity industry. NSW Labor leaders want to hand over our electricity supply to the multi-nationals.

In the United States, these same multinationals, such as the infamous and now bankrupt Enron, inflicted skyrocketing prices and plummeting reliability on electricity consumers.

But worse, because their profits are derived from selling more and more electricity, global corporate owners would never tolerate a move towards a more efficient and sustainable energy industry. We must never allow our electricity industry to be globalised for then we as a community would lose all control over it. A privatised industry can never be made sustainable.

So while the Federal government continues to play handmaiden to the coal industry and the state government is flirting with privatisation, NSW continues to pour greenhouse gasses into the environment and continues to threaten the future of the planet. However, while our politicians fiddle and the climate burns many local communities, groups and individual households show the real leadership.

Many local communities have opted for clean power options. Rainbow Power, that venerable institution of northern NSW has been defying the government's preferences for the polluting coal monsters and installing renewable energy systems for more than 15 years. And many households have voluntarily taken up greenpower options, paying more to save the planet. It is a measure of the failure of government and industry policy that those who do the right thing have to pay more.

The Greens would argue that it should of course be the other way round - those who do the wrong thing should pay more. But we are not there yet. Other households and communities have gone a step further and installed their own solar cells and their own passive solar heating. It is these households, these communities and these groups that are showing the leadership that is so sadly lacking in our governments. We Greens see our role as ensuring that governments see and respond to that community leadership.

This is a difficult and challenging task. Governments are captured by an industry that has no interest in changing its ways and by Treasury officials who cannot see beyond the bottom line on their spreadsheets. Yet it is vital that we win. Standing here and listening to what is happening in this community gives me every confidence that we will win. Thank you.