Regardless of whatever position the PM decides to take on zero emissions, the Glasgow summit [COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, 31 October-12 November] is shaping up as a farce.
Three of the four big emitters have no intention of signing up to zero emissions by 2050 or whatever percentage Boris Johnson and Joe Biden come up with and foist on the rest of a feeble Western world.
The big emitters are: China, with 30 per cent of the world’s emissions, 50 per cent of its coal fired power stations and building another 127 before 2025; India, with seven per cent, who desperately wants to bring 300 million people out of poverty and needs cheap reliable coal fired power stations to do so; and Russia, with six per cent, whose leader, Vladimir Putin, is raking in a fortune selling gas to the Western Europeans who cannot get enough reliable energy as they have invested too heavily in wind and there is no wind at present.
There’s not much those responsible for the remaining 57 per cent of emissions can usefully do if the other 43 per cent won’t play.
The Germans, since 2012, have gotten rid of their nuclear power and are now dependent on Russian gas. The British “rely” on wind for 40 per cent of their energy needs.
Indeed, the only country in Western Europe that has handled this well is France who built nuclear power stations in the 1970s and 1980s, thus ensuring 75 per cent of their energy comes from nuclear power – and with no accidents.
What is occurring in Western Europe now is just a forerunner of what will occur to the Western democracies unless we make sure we do not get rid of reliable 24/7 baseload power like coal and gas until such time as the new technologies are proven to work. We still cannot store solar or wind power after 20 years of trying to work out a way.
Our PM, by ruling out nuclear power and not including it in the mix, has not only made it pretty much impossible for Australia to ever get to zero emissions (not that it matters much as we account for one per cent of the world’s emissions and have the second best record in the world over the last 15 years when it comes to actually reducing emissions rather than just talking about it), he has also probably destroyed his chances of winning the next election. Why vote Liberal – now Labor/Green lite – when you can vote for the real thing?
In the next few years, China will still be powering ahead with cheap, reliable coal, increasing its emissions in the process, and monopolising the production of solar panels and wind turbines (it already produces 70 per cent of global supply).
Any targets the West produces out of Glasgow will do nothing to help reduce emissions overall. We will not get anywhere near the goal of only a 1.5 per cent increase in global warming and almost certainly will be inflicting a catastrophic amount of unnecessary pain on ourselves in the process.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Canberra Daily.
