Environment: Content from Across the ABC


Date/Time 22 Apr 2015 12:20:33pm
"Since Australia's carbon price came into effect 14 months ago, emissions from electricity have fallen by about seven per cent, coal use for electricity is down by about 17 per cent" BUT "renewable energy generation is up by [only] 25 per cent".
Given that total electricity generation from "renewables" (not counting hydro, which the Greens are vehemently opposed to - let's not forget that the Greens party was actually born in opposition to dams) is a negligible part of total electricity generation, that just means that we are using less electricity. Interestingly, electricity consumption per capita has also fallen in the USA, which does not have a carbon tax, and in other countries. I think that you might be guilty of the "post hoc" fallacy.
Current indications are that the EU is trying to distance itself from renewables as the cost of energy spirals out of control, and it seeks to regain some measure of competitiveness with the USA, which is cashing in on the Fracking revolution. This would leave Australia hanging all by itself unless we scrap both the carbon tax and Abbott's nonsensical "Direct Action" policy.
Just one final point - the last 12 years might have been our warmest on record, but that does not mean the next 12 will be. There is universal agreement now that there has been a hiatus in "global warming" that is seriously testing confidence in climate models, and the AGW hypothesis. Unless the graph turns up by the next election, confidence in the models will have been broken and the hypothesis will be in need of serious revision. What then?