Budget brief: what’s in the budget on climate change and renewables? Not much was announced in last night’s budget on climate change and renewable energy. However, a total of A$400 million was announced for drought assistance and tax breaks for farmers to implement water infrastructure, which could become increasingly necessary given we are seeing possibly the biggest El Niño – a phenomenon often linked to drought in Australia – since 1997-98. Although not badged as such, this could be considered as climate-related finance to deal with increasingly extreme drought, and flood, climatic conditions in Australia. ….Unfortunately, the rest of the budget doesn’t show much change in the current rate of climate change investment. Read More here
hmcadmin
13 May 2015, RenewEconomy, Andrew Lang: Time to get real about sensible development of bioenergy. Australia is the only OECD country that produces a significant annual supply of biomass but that, as yet, has no coherent development strategy for bioenergy. In any another country this would be inexplicable, since bioenergy is the renewable energy source that generates most jobs per unit of energy produced, is most cost-competitive with fossil sources, is associated with the greatest sequestration of atmospheric CO2, and is the only renewable that produces all three of the required energy forms….The blocking or obstruction of bioenergy in Australia has resulted from the blinkered push to close down all native forest logging. So, in effect, the opponents of native forest logging, who also appear to the public to be the most vocal advocates of ‘low emissions energy’, are prepared to see the development of the most effective of the renewable energy sources blocked in order to achieve their anti-native forestry aim. Read More here
13 May 2015, Earth Policy Institute: Seven Surprising Realities Behind The Great Transition to Renewable Energy. The global transition to clean, renewable energy and away from nuclear and fossils is well under way, with remarkable developments happening every day. The Great Transition by Lester Brown, Janet Larsen, Matt Roney, and Emily Adams lays out a tremendous range of these developments – here are seven that may surprise you. Read More here
BOM: We’re calling it, the 2015 El Niño is here: We’re calling it. The Bureau’s ENSO Tracker status has moved from ALERT to EL NINO, signalling the official declaration by the Bureau of Meteorology of El Niño 2015.
Click to enlarge
El Niño is often associatedwith drought in Australia. It may be cold comfort for those toughing out the current dry in parts of eastern Australia, but while El Niño certainly raises the risk of drought, it doesn’t guarantee it. Of the 26 El Niño events since 1900, 17 have resulted in widespread Australian drought. Read More here