Australia 2020 Summit

As an Australian who lives and works overseas I couldn't miss the opportunity to make a submission to the Australia 2020 Summit - a really great initiative in my opinion. This is what I wrote ...

AUSTRALIA – A LEADER OR LOSER ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY SECURITY?

The Australian Government is faced with a number of decisions around climate change and energy security over the next few years (that will affect Australia for generations). The science of climate change is growing stronger, and the impacts are becoming impossible to ignore. The price of oil has the world searching for alternatives and the issue of energy security is high on the political agenda everywhere.

Australia is “blessed” with enormous coal reserves, unconventional oil in the form of oil shale, uranium as well as natural gas and conventional oil. It would be easy for the Australian Government to focus on a fossil fuel future by “betting” on carbon capture and storage technology. While this technology is promising and brings the coal industry to the table to discuss sustainability, it is also at least 20-30 years away from a commercial reality (if then). A basic knowledge of climate change tells us this is too long to wait.

So what can or should the Australian Government do? A good start would be to learn from (and benchmark against) the “very best”. A nation that leads the world in terms of its environmental commitments, robust economy and social well-being is Sweden. From the 1970s the Swedish Government (and its people) realised that being dependent on oil was not “smart”. With no economic or military power to ensure the supply of oil, the obvious choice for Sweden was to focus on indigenous supply options and energy efficiency.

Sweden has also become a world leader on climate change, and the Swedish Government has pledged to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But why? Aren’t we regularly told by our politicians and the media that it is a choice between the climate/environment and our economy? There are at least 3 reasons to explain the position of the Swedish Government. These include:

- They are leaders on climate change because it is morally the “right” decision for future generations, developing countries, and the planet.

- Building a global consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is incredibly difficult. Some nations must lead, so that others can follow – the Swedish Government takes on this challenge with pride.

- It’s a matter of very good business. As a front-runner, Sweden has become a leader on environmental technology. It can sell both the technology and know-how to countries, such as China and India, and this is fast-becoming a booming market.

The Swedish Government has built its achievement on progressive national policy and local action (lead by municipalities). It has adopted an energy system perspective, and not only focused on supply. This means Sweden invests in energy efficiency as well as renewable energy. The Swedish Government is also committed to the phase-out of nuclear power, a dramatic increase in wind power, further expansion of bioenergy (currently 20% of primary energy), and re-designing buildings and cities. C’mon Australia! This is our time to lead!