Climate Change & Peak Oil: An Integrated Policy Response for Australia

Ian Dunlop: Climate Change & Peak Oil

Wednesday, 04 April 2007

An integrated policy response Ian Dunlop has outlined the need for an integrated policy response for Australia to the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Full report as submitted to the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading. Climate change and peak oil are inextricably linked. Each one is a major issue in its own right, but their convergence has received minimal attention, which is unfortunate as it is likely to have far greater impact than the sum of the individual parts. Policy must ensure that solutions to the one reinforce, and do not conflict with, solutions to the other. Current piecemeal government policy is totally inadequate to meet the challenges of climate change. Emissions trading is now, reluctantly, under discussion but it is only one component of the comprehensive policy required. Peak oil is barely on the agenda, although it may be the issue which has the greatest impact in the short-term. This paper suggests a comprehensive, integrated policy, at both global and national levels, which will provide a coherent response to both issues. Above all, visionary, principled, long-term leadership is need from government, the community and business. Short-term political or corporate expediency is no longer acceptable; bi-partisan cooperation is essential. Action is required in the next 6-12 months, not in the 3-5 years favoured in political debate. Ian Dunlop is a senior member of ASPO-Sydney. He is an engineer and was formerly a senior international oil, gas and coal industry executive. He chaired the Australian Coal Association in 1987-88, chaired the Australian Greenhouse Office Experts Group on Emissions Trading from 1998-2000 and was CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors from 1997-2001. He has a particular interest in the interaction of corporate governance, corporate responsibility and sustainability. Read More

Petrocaribe Summit Promotes Energy Security

By Odeen Ishmael

CARACAS, Venezuela, Fri. August 24, 2007: The third PetroCaribe summit, held in Caracas on August, 11, assessed the achievements in the Caribbean region’s energy integration over the past two years.

The attending Presidents and Prime Ministers and other heads of delegations agreed that progress has been made in the field of energy, and initiatives of a social character have benefited some of the poorest sectors in some of the countries. Attending the forum for the first time were the Presidents of Haiti and Nicaragua who formalized their nations’ membership of the 16-nation Caribbean Basin group initiated by Venezuela in 2005.

In addition, the summit, chaired by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, implemented new measures to guarantee regional energy sovereignty through the signing of an Energy Security Treaty which promises energy security through reliable and timely supply from Venezuela and the increase in the fuel storage capacity. Read More

Developing World Seeks Funds And Technology To Tackle Climate ChangeEnergy Security

This week's debate is laying the groundwork for a high-level meeting called by UN chief Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the September General Assembly meeting, and for a major climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December.

by Gerard Aziakou
United Nations (AFP) Aug 01, 2007
Rich nations were challenged Wednesday to make deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions and to provide the developing world with funding and technology to help it tackle climate change. Developed countries "have a specific responsibility" to carry out deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emission "in accordance with the commitments made under the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol," Pakistani Environment Minister Mukhdoom Faisal Hayat told the General Assembly on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. Read More

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the parent of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the landmark environmental treaty that mandates cuts in the gases blamed for global warming.

World cannot afford nuclear climate solution-report

27 Jun 2007 15:58:51 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Jeremy Lovell LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - The world must start building nuclear power plants at the unprecedented rate of four a month from now on if nuclear energy is to play a serious part in fighting global warming, a leading think-tank said on Wednesday. Not only is this impossible for logistical reasons, but it has major implications for world security because of nuclear weapons proliferation, the Oxford Research Group said in its report "Too Hot To Handle - The future of civil nuclear power". The report fired a series of broadsides against the growing momentum for more nuclear-generated electricity to help cut climate-warming carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. Read More

Bush: 'Nuclear a key to economic vitality'
22 June 2007

US President George Bush paid a visit to the recently restarted Browns Ferry 1 nuclear power unit on 21 June, making forthright statements on the benefits of nuclear power.

US President George Bush in the Browns Ferry 1 control room. (Image: White House, Chris Greenberg)

Bush visited the machine shop and control room of the 1155 MWe boiling water reactor unit before addressing about 230 workers and local officials.

In a wide-ranging speech on energy, Bush hailed nuclear as a safe, clean, affordable and reliable power source, which "is a key component of economic vitality, because it provides 20% of electricity."

On environmental issues, he said that "if you are interested in cleaning up the air, then you ought to be an advocate for nuclear power... There is no single solution to climate change, but there can be no solution without nuclear power."
Read More

San Francisco To Explore Tidal Power Options In Bay

just whack on a couple of sluice gates and catch the running tide...

by Staff Writers
San Francisco CA (SPX) Jun 20, 2007
In support of ongoing efforts to increase California's renewable power supplies and address climate change, Pacific Gas and Electric Company today signed an agreement with the City and County of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Energy Company to conduct the most comprehensive study yet undertaken to assess the possibilities for harnessing the tides in San Francisco Bay to create a new source of zero- emissions, renewable electric power for California energy customers.
Read More

The Pentagon v. peak oil

Published on 14 Jun 2007 by Tomdispatch.com.

by Michael T. Klare

Sixteen gallons of oil. That's how much the average American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan consumes on a daily basis -- either directly, through the use of Humvees, tanks, trucks, and helicopters, or indirectly, by calling in air strikes. Multiply this figure by 162,000 soldiers in Iraq, 24,000 in Afghanistan, and 30,000 in the surrounding region (including sailors aboard U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf) and you arrive at approximately 3.5 million gallons of oil: the daily petroleum tab for U.S. combat operations in the Middle East war zone.

Multiply that daily tab by 365 and you get 1.3 billion gallons: the estimated annual oil expenditure for U.S. combat operations in Southwest Asia. That's greater than the total annual oil usage of Bangladesh, population 150 million -- and yet it's a gross underestimate of the Pentagon's wartime consumption.

Such numbers cannot do full justice to the extraordinary gas-guzzling expense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, for every soldier stationed "in theater," there are two more in transit, in training, or otherwise in line for eventual deployment to the war zone -- soldiers who also consume enormous amounts of oil, even if less than their compatriots overseas. Moreover, to sustain an "expeditionary" army located halfway around the world, the Department of Defense must move millions of tons of arms, ammunition, food, fuel, and equipment every year by plane or ship, consuming additional tanker-loads of petroleum. Add this to the tally and the Pentagon's war-related oil budget jumps appreciably, though exactly how much we have no real way of knowing. Read More