Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
shift from coal-fired power to hydro, wind and solar. In 2012, supply from hydro
rose from 7.6 to 9.6 per cent (reflecting an improvement in water flows), and
wind from 5.5 to 5.6 per cent of total power generation (Pitt and Sherry, 2013).
Nevertheless, Australia's renewable energy consumption - the source of around
10 per cent of electricity generation in 2011-12 (BREE 2013, 29) - remains low
given its considerable natural advantages. Meanwhile, over 1 million rooftop
solar PV systems have been installed in Australia since 2007, serving some 11
per cent of Australia's population, and providing over 16,700 fulltime jobs (CC
2013b: 13).
Recent Australian studies suggest that the demand of baseload power is no
longer an inhibiting factor for a renewable energy transition (Elliston et al., 2012)
and that it would be technically possible to move stationary energy production
to 100 per cent renewables within a decade (thereby reducing aggregate national
emissions by 50 per cent by around 2020). The
Beyond Zero Emissions Plan
would
require investment of AUD$37 billion per annum for 10 years, creating 30,000
jobs and offsetting losses in the fossil fuel sector. The costs of transition should
be set against the costs of business as usual, which would involve some AUD$135
billion in investment to replace ageing energy infrastructure and an additional
estimated AUD$300 billion in expensive fossil fuel costs (Wright and Hearps,
2012: xix)
.
Coupled with enhanced energy efficiency measures, existing renewable energy
technologies - with their uptake assisted by an adequate regulatory regime,
appropriate financing and the withdrawal of confounding subsidies - are suffi-
cient for Australia to move towards a very substantial emissions reduction
target by 2020. In this context and given the need to bridge the ambition gap,
Australia's existing Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target to provide 20 per cent
of total stationary energy by 2020 could be increased to at least 50 per cent by
2020 and 90 percent by 2030, and be achieved using additional measures that
support investment during that transition period.
Economic costs and vulnerability
The costs of extreme weather are already
expensive, socially and economi-
cally. Even in affluent Australia, households, businesses and insurers sometimes
struggle to cope. The Queensland floods, the Victorian bushfires, and cyclones
Yasi and Oswald are all examples of traumatic and expensive weather events
which caused critical power generation and public transport infrastructure to
fail, disrupted production, killed and displaced people and livestock and caused
significant damage to property. For instance, flooding in Queensland in January
2013 claimed 4 lives, left 230,000 homes without power, closed roads, damaged
the railway network, affected coal production and inundated thousands of
properties.
Insurance costs only partially reflect the economic losses associated with
disasters, but are nevertheless broadly indicative of their scale. Estimates put
the insured losses of the Queensland floods of December 2010/January 2011 at
