Thanks to all my supporters, friends and family for all their efforts. In particular my literary agent Benython Oldfield, has been magnificent and Sputnik Agency who developed this website and hosted the Melbourne book launch - I can't thank enough all those at Sputnik for donating, developing and supporting me!
Few things to report:
Bill Clinton famously said you can put wings on a pig but you don’t make it an eagle. Well, Malcolm Turnbull launched the alternative ETS today in Canberra which proclaims that Australia could achieve 10% unconditional cuts by 2020 at one-third the cost of the governments CPRS. Wings-pigs-eagle!
Its actually easy to achieve deep carbon cuts even beyond 10% unconditional - through a massive purchase of international carbon permits, whether it be capturing methane from a Phillipines landfill or a windfarm in China. We could have 100% cuts by 2020 if we want to purchase enough of the permits while continuing our domestic carbon emission increases (completely smoke and mirrors). In the oppositions ETS, we apparently save billions on household energy costs by completely shielding coal-fired electricity generators and buying permits from offshore. But taxpayers will still have to pay for these permits (and lets hope the price doesnt sky-rocket in the future).
Aside from the smoke and mirrors, there is something much more dangerous about the alternative ETS. I was really hoping that Malcolm Turnbull would understand the importance of carbon emissions legislation beyond just reducing emissions itself. Carbon cuts need to transition our economy form investment and production for AUSTRALIA from high carbon (coal, oil) to position itself as a leader for the production and commercialisation of low carbon products, technologies and services (renewable, EV). If we dont have a meaningful carbon price for the electricity generators and the economy as a whole, there is no incentive for those companies and new companies to invest in clean technology which is the future for growing Australia’s prosperity.
Although the CPRS isn’t perfect, I was encouraged when I heard Senator Wong say this important point today: “Combining these two elements [cap on carbon and carbon price] means we not only start to close the door on climate change, we also open the door to the investment in low-carbon technology that will drive the clean-growth economy of the future. We can tackle climate change and grow our economy.”
Trying to somehow bring forward the opportunity side of the argument in Australia leading a low carbon economy, I’ve published an op-ed in the Canberra Times today in which I make the argument that ‘emissions cuts aren’t just a feel good exercise’ and ‘as the world moves to value carbon, Australia protecting high carbon interests is the equivalent of protecting the type-writer at the dawn of the personal computer’. Read more below if interested.
President Barack Obama has announced a massive investment in advanced battery technologies in the US - see here for announcement from Steven Chu, energy secretary. Batteries and electric vehicles are the conduit for a low carbon, non-oil based economy which is inevitable and this is a very smart investment to ensure US start-ups and tech companies enter the clean technology race. The question for today is: where is Australia?? We cant just leave it up to visionaries like Evan Thornley at BetterPlace! or maybe we can 
One of the big surprises over the last few years since the publication of the IPCC has been the acceleration in summer-time melting of the Arctic sea-ice (see the NSIDC for more). The issue of having sea-ice free Arctic summer due to high Northern Hemisphere warming isn’t new, but the timing of which this is projected to occur has been considerably underestimated by most climate models. Since the record melting of the summer 2007 and then the second highest melting in summer 2008, there is much anticipation and hope of a recovery during the current summer in 2009. Unfortunately, real-time data suggest although the 2009 data isn’t at the record 2007 levels, they are tracking worse than 2008 levels - see below.
