After a well needed weeks break from activity, the reviews seem to be flowing through. Attached is the review from Mary-Lou Considine at Ecos Magazine.
Credits
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!
While this review and the book itself rightly trumpet the (only)direction in which we need to steer our economy; both are short on the detailed policy initiatives that are required to commercialise emerging low- or zero-carbon technologies. In Australia we have plenty of good R&D, and we have a few punters willing to try new ideas when they are available “off the shelf”. The gap is the problem - how do we incentivise the commercialisation pathway through pilot scale, to demonstration scale and then full commercial deployment? RET won’t do that, more R&D funding wont do it either. The private-public model needs to be applied to this with agressive tax concessions, seed money, planning fast-tracking, and ongoing funding (in exchange for equity) for a sufficient period to bridge this gap. In most cases it is a 5 -10 year committment to bring R&D to the market in a commercial form. Globally the winners will be those nations that invest in this important transition phase; the Nokias, Toyotas, Vestas and so forth all enjoy this level of support and committment in their home countries. There is a list of specific Australian Technologies that are currently struggling with this gap and they need to be sheparded through it as quickly as possible. The low-carbon economy is a race, in the technology sense. Once a technology establishes itself in a niche, then it is hard to fill that niche with a competitor. Australia needs to fill as many of these niches as it can!
I think Bens book is a pearler - its really good to see the Australian context in print; I think its the best book of its kind since The Weathermakers. What was particulalry refreshing was the use of new anecdotes (canadian diamonds), new corporate examples (nokia, toyota, honda), and a clearly imagined and articulated domestic future (Australia 2050). We need to imagine the future before we can plot the path to reaching it, and Ben has done a great job of doing exactly that.
Thanks for the comment Arjan! I completely agree that the single biggest barrier to that low carbon future is the transition phase between idea and commercialisation. It is always difficult to overcome the long-horizon for returns in the market-place and I absolutely agree thats where the government with tax breaks and direct seed funding should come in - we have to remember that’s how much of Toyota/Honda success came about through government incentives.