Mitigation of global warming in Australia

Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming. This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming which involves taking action to minimize the effects of global warming. Scientific consensus on global warming, together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions, is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions. However, CCS cannot deliver in time to avoid a dangerous increase in temperatures, as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030.

Following the introduction of government Mandatory renewable energy targets, more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power, photovoltaics, and solar thermal technologies. The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases.

Coal

According to Diesendorf, Australia produced about 200 Mt of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2004. Almost all of the coal emissions were emitted by coal fired power stations. On top of this coal is responsible for 42.1% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, not counting export coal, based on 2004 GHG inventory. Two forms of coal are mined in Australia, depending on the region: high quality black coal and lower quality brown coal. Black coal is mainly found in Queensland and New South Wales, and is used for both domestic power generation and for export overseas. It is normally mined underground before being transported to power stations, or export shipping terminals. Brown coal is mainly found in Victoria and South Australia, and is of lower quality due a higher ash and water content. Today there are three open cut brown coal mines in Victoria used for baseload power generation.

Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels, and the single greatest threat to the climate (False Hope, 5). Every stage of coal use brings substantial environmental damage (Diesendorf, 2007, 215). Phasing out dirty, unsustainable energy is one of the most important elements to climate change mitigation (Teske and Vincent, 2008,12). Today coal supplies almost one quarter of the worlds energy (Teske and Vincent, 2008, p17). Brown coal is by far the most polluting, and is currently used in Victoria. In order to have significant effects on greenhouse gas emissions, there needs to be a replacement of coal energy with gas within Victoria.

Carbon Capture and Storage

There has been a suggestion of carbon capture and storage as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions. CCS is an integrated process, made up of three distinct parts: carbon capture, transport, and storage (including measurement, monitoring and verification) (Rochon, 2008, 6). Capture technology aims to produce a concentrated stream of CO2 that can be compressed, transported, and stored. Transport of captured CO2 to storage locations is most likely to be via pipeline. Storage of the captured carbon is the final part of the process (Rochon, 2008, 6). The vast majority of CO2 storage is expected to occur in geological sites on land, or below the seabed. Disposing of waste CO2 in the ocean has also been proposed but this method has been largely discounted due to the significant impacts CO2 would have on the ocean ecosystem and legal constraints that effectively prohibit it (Rochon, 2008, 6).

However, according to the Greenpeace False Hope Report, carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot deliver in time to avoid a dangerous increase in world temperatures. The earliest for deployment of CCS is not expected before 2030, and global emissions need to start falling well before that.

The Report also states that CCS wastes energy, and uses between 10-40% of the energy produced by a power station (Abanades, J C et al., 2005. Summary for Policymakers in IPCC, Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, B. Metz et al., Editors. 2005, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, U.K.). It also asserts that CCS is expensive, and could double plant costs, and is very risky, as permanent storage cannot be guaranteed.

Renewable energy

See also: Renewable energy in Australia

The information centre near the base of one of the towers at Wattle Point Wind Farm.

Renewable energy technologies currently contribute about 6 per cent of Australia's total energy supply and some 8 per cent of Australia's electricity supply, with hydro-electricity by far the largest single contributor.

The Australian Government has announced a Mandatory Renewable Energy Target to ensure that renewable energy obtains a 20% share of electricity supply in Australia by 2020. To ensure this, the government has committed that the MRET will increase from 9,500 gigawatt-hours to 45,000 gigawatt-hours by 2020. After 2020 the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme and improved efficiencies form innovation and in manufacture are expected to allow the MRET to be phased out by 2030.

Following the introduction of government Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets, more opportunities have opened up for "new" renewable energies such as wind power, photovoltaics, and solar thermal technologies. The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases.

At the end of 2006, Australia had 817 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity, mainly in South Australia. A 154 MW, A$420 million, solar photovoltaic power station is planned for Victoria. Initiatives are also being taken with ethanol fuel and geothermal energy exploration.

Energy efficiency

See also: Efficient energy use

The most important energy saving options include improved insulation and building design, super efficient electrical machines and drives, and a reduction in energy consumption by vehicles used for goods and passenger traffic. Industrialised countries such as Australia, which currently use energy in the least efficient way, can reduce their consumption drastically without the loss of either housing comfort or amenity.

Solutions

There a number of ways to achieve the goals outlined above. This includes implementing clean, renewable solutions and decentralizing energy systems (Teske and Vincent, 2008, p6). Existing technologies are available to utilize energy effectively and ecologically, including the use of solar, wind and other renewable technologies, which have experienced double digit market growth globally in the last decade (Teske and Vincent, 2008, p12).

A large section of the scientific community believe that one of the real solutions to stopping dangerous climate change lies in renewable energy and energy efficiency that can start protecting the climate today. Technically accessible renewable energy sources – such as wind, wave and solar- are capable of providing six times more energy than the world currently consumes – forever (Rochon, 2008, 5). As coal is one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases, closing coal power stations is one of the most powerful tools for carbon emission reduction.

See also

• Effects of global warming on Australia
  
• Wind power in Australia
  
• Solar power in Australia
  
• Solar hot water in Australia
  
• Mitigation of global warming
  
• Coal mining in Australia
  

Bibliography

• Diesendorf, Mark (2007), Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy, UNSW Press

• Spratt, David and Sutton, Phillip (2008) Climate Code Red: The case for a sustainability emergency, Friends of the Earth

• Rochon, Emily (2008), False Hope: Why carbon capture and storage won't save the climate, Greenpeace International

• Teske, Sven and Vincent, Julien (2008) energy [r]evolution: A Sustainable Energy Australia Outlook, Greenpeace International, European Renewable Energy Council (EREC)