Clean energy support
IT is very easy to jump on an ideological bandwagon but if you do you should be accurate. High power bills are caused by privatisation. Only six per cent of electricity bills are related to investments in renewable energy. It isn't the cost of the power that's increasing, it's the ancillary charges.
Most Australians support international action to address climate change and the United Nations process is democratic, with each of 176 countries getting one vote. Those agreements have reduced anticipated warming by an estimated two to three degrees.
Natural climate variability has been very gradual and does not compare to the sudden impact the Industrial Revolution had, releasing more than 1500 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since 1751. More than half of this has been released since 1988. The planet has started to exceed temperatures not experienced in millions of years.
- James Henderson, Munruben
ACCORDING to treasury, fossil fuel industry rebates and tax incentives are worth $10 billion a year and will continue to climb. A new study by the International Monetary Fund puts the total cost of fossil fuel subsidies at $10 million US per minute globally, when health costs and degradation are included.
The real causes of electricity price rises in Australia are the introduction of a national electricity market and price manipulation by generating companies; shifting of risk against market price volatility from retailers to ratepayers, and the introduction of a pricing formula for electricity distribution which replaced investment decisions based on need to those maximising rate of returns.
Green energy is becoming cheaper than coal and gas. If fossil fuel subsidies were stripped away, renewable energy would be cheaper than coal and gas.
Nowhere are renewable energy targets being used as an excuse for rising power prices, with the exception of the Mineral Council of Australia and companies with vested interests in coal or gas.
- John McCullough, Park Ridge
SURELY we have a duty to preserve the beauty around us, to find alternatives to so-called ‘clean’ coal, stop clearing forests and polluting waterways. Norway manages its natural resources to benefit the whole country. In contrast, Australia welcomes companies like Adani, allows a holiday on the royalties and offers a billion dollars worth of infrastructure. Regardless of whether you think climate change is man-made or not, we need politicians who will listen to scientists and do the forward planning.
- Eve Jensen, Greenbank