Yearly Archives: 2015

PLEA Network

7 October 2015, Renew Economy, Hunt says “inevitable” large numbers will quit grid with battery storage. Australian environment minister Greg Hunt says it is inevitable that significant numbers of consumers will leave the grid in coming years, and repeated his vow to help accelerate the deployment of battery storage. Hunt was asked on ABC TV’s Lateline program on Tuesday – following a segment on a couple in the Blue Mountains going off-grid – if he thought that significant numbers of consumers would follow. “I do. I think it is inevitable,” Hunt said, before noting that Australia already had the highest penetration of rooftop solar in the world – an average 15 per cent across the nation. “Increasingly we will see the adoption of battery storage, which is the key thing to enable people to go off the grid. This is clearly the future,” Hunt said. “The debate is how long it takes and the task for government is to help bring that forward.” Indeed, two big international battery storage developers have chosen Australia to be their global launch pad for their battery storage initiatives. This includes Tesla and California counterpart Enphase Energy, which describes the Australian market as the most promising in the world. Not everyone, however, agrees that consumers should be encouraged to go off-grid, and Hunt’s comments could be seen as controversial if that is what he is urging. Read More here

PLEA Network

7 October 2015, The Guardian, UN drops plan to help move climate-change affected people. Australia opposed the plan for a group to assist migration, and it has been left off the draft agreement for UN climate talks in Paris. Australia’s opposition to the creation of a body to help people escaping the ravages of climate change appears to have paid off, with the idea dropped from the draft agreement for the crucial UN climate talks in Paris. A previous draft of the deal to be thrashed out by nations included a “climate change displacement coordination facility” that would provide “organised migration and planned relocation”, as well as compensation, to people fleeing rising sea levels, extreme weather and ruined agriculture. Read more here

PLEA Network

6 October 2015, The Conversation, Winners and losers in the Trans-Pacific trade deal: experts respond. Australia is among 12 nations signing the historic Pacific rim trade and investment pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The agreement, eight years in the making, is one of the largest free-trade agreements in history, encompassing countries that represent 40% of the global economy. We’ve asked our experts to explain some of the winners and losers. Read More here

PLEA Network

6 October 2015, Renew Economy, UN draft Paris climate pact released – Australian policy under pressure. A new draft of the global climate change pact due to be signed in Paris this December has been released by the UN, calling on all nations to commit to mitigation policies that reflect their highest possible ambition, and to toughen these commitments every five years. The 20-page draft, released by the co-chairs of the UN climate negations in Bonn on Monday, increases the pressure on countries like Australia, whose low-ball emissions reduction target has been roundly criticised for lacking ambition and not having a sufficient policy framework. The Ad hoc working group on the Durban platform (ADP), the body tasked with negotiating the agreement, prepared the greatly pared-back draft – it is less than a quarter of the length of the last version – as the basis for negotiation of the draft Paris climate package. And while it leaves many key details unclear or unstated – namely when parties should reach peak emissions growth, or how quickly curbs will have to be ratcheted up – it does include a commitment to hold warming to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels; a target the science dictates as crucial to avoid irreversible, catastrophic climate change. The report also contain a draft of the decision that will operationalise the agreement from 2020 and a draft decision on pre-2020 ambition. This suggests each party should regularly communicate a nationally determined mitigation contribution or commitment, which should “reflect a progression beyond its previous efforts, noting that those Parties that have previously communicated economy-wide efforts should continue to do so in a manner that is progressively more ambition us and that all Parties should aim to do so over time.” Read More here