Carbon Economy

It’s a tricky question.

Via The Guardian: Batteries capable of fully charging in five minutes have been produced in a factory for the first time, marking a significant step towards electric cars becoming as fast to charge as filling up petrol or diesel vehicles.

Via the AFR: Policy changes flagged by politicians and government departments in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and a full moratorium on new coal plants in the Philippines, may result in just 25 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-power projects getting built this year.

The BOM has released its Annual Climate Statement for 2020, headlining the sobering fact that 2020 was the fourth-warmest year on record, with temperature now 1.15 °C above the 1961–1990 average.

Via Oilprice: …if governments decide to double down on their climate change targets and start aiming for the more ambitious 2-degree scenario under the Paris Agreement, LNG growth will suffer.

This is potentially a very big story for 2021.

There is a reason that Energy Quest gets all of the research from the gas cartel.

Stephen Duckett, Health Program Director for the Grattan Institute, has released a new report explaining how climate change poses a health disaster for Australia.

It’s taken me years to beat sense into the ACCC.

Via Bloomberg: China’s recent pledge to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 has surprised the world.

Via Domain: The world is waiting for a “suicidal” Australia to reverse its stance on climate change, says one of the world’s most senior diplomats.

Via the AFR: …energy spokesman Mark Butler said NSW needed the gas from the proposed $3.6 billion development.

It’s funny watching the AFR do conferences.

The oil and gas lobby is having itself on big time at the AFR: Nationally consistent policy, improved regulation and better tax rules could help unlock billions of dollars in investment in Australia’s oil and gas sector and create thousands of jobs, according to a new report.

Dr Tony Recsei, president of the Save Our Suburbs community group which opposes over-development, has challenged the notion that high density urban planning is more environmentally sustainable than lower density: The assumption that high-density is environmentally superior seems to be based on intuition as no proof is provided to support this claim.

Here’s what Coalition brains trust, Brian Fisher, author of the Menzies Research Centre report Powering out of Pandemic: Unleashing the Potential of Gas, writes today at the AFR: The competitive advantages of natural gas in our changing energy mix are too great to be ignored, even by its would-be detractors.

We interrupt this program with a news flash from the International Institute of Finance: Climate in the spotlight: The COVID-19 recession has been a stark reminder of how strongly the environment can impact the economy, as the long-term economic consequences of climate change increasingly begin to materialize.

Via the ABC: The Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO have teamed up for the latest biannual report on the climate, and the findings are clear: Australia is experiencing climate change now, and the warming trend is continuing.

Via the ABC: The Federal Government’s planned gas-led recovery could turn out to be a mirage, according to energy experts who question the economic case for investing in gas infrastructure when fossil fuels are being rapidly replaced by renewable energy sources.

Marvellous!

For those in the know, it has been clear for a long time that the Coalition Government in NSW despises the Coalition Government in Canberra when it comes to energy and climate.

Via Deloitte: If climate change goes unchecked, then Australia’s economy will be 6% smaller and have 880,000 fewer jobs by 2070.

Lordy, are there a few brain cells left in the LNP?