Australia is
burning as record temperatures scorch the country. I wonder if this will be
enough to put a bushfire through Australian coal policy.
Australia's
highest recorded temperature is 50.7C, set in January 1960 in South Australia.
The record for the hottest average day across the country was set last Monday,
at 40.3C, exceeding a 40-year-old record. Wildfires are raging across New South
Wales and Tasmania. For next Monday Australia's Bureau of Meteorology forecast
temperatures over 52C – so high that it has had to add a new colour to the top
of its scale, an incandescent purple.
This is a
country with huge reserves of coal which it burns to generate electricity and
exports, particularly to China. The coal industry defends itself in forthright
Aussi style with mining magnate Clive Palmer accusing the Australian Greens and
Queensland environmental campaigners of "treason" in conspiring with
US powers to destroy the nation's coal industry. This is also a country blessed
with one of the largest solar energy capacity per head of population on the
planet. Australia could close down its coal industry and get all the energy its
needs from solar, not just solar power stations but houses with air
conditioning running from solar panels on the roof and a whole range of innovative
methods to gather the Aussi rays. This includes a huge commercial opportunity
in the potential market for ‘liquid sunshine’ as I wrote in my book Adapt and
Thrive: The Sustainable Revolution:
Australia has huge deserts, technical
expertise and investment capital. It is a great country, but under the Howard
premiership (1996-2007) it has risked undermining its standing in the world by
not engaging with the world’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions. I believe
this is very short-sighted. If the world turned against fossil fuels, then the
economic barrier that prevents us from solving the challenge of fuel from the desert
would be removed. I believe that it would be in Australia’s long-term interests
to switch policy and push hard to eliminate fossil fuels. Australia should act
first at home and close down its coal mining industry in order to have the
credibility to then support world efforts to close down the market for fossil
fuels. In this way, Australia could become much more sustainable and establish
a lucrative market for ‘liquid sunshine’ from Australia’s vast desert interior.
The world would have enormous respect for
Australia if it could put short-term economic considerations aside to
pursue such a strategy.
The case for
closing down the world coal industry is strong on environmental grounds. For
many countries this would be hard; for Australia it is feasible and sensible to
stop cooking on coal but short-termism and vested interest will intervene. Aussis
don’t like being lectured by outsiders but I am an insider born in Hobart,
Tasmania with every right to speak out. Wake up Australia, pull your thumb out
of your bum and stop the Barbeque whilst you still can.
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