News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

The promises that lead to the victory of Rudd ALP government on climate change have not yet been concretized. There hasn’t been any action taken against the greenhouse gas emission in Australia. The worse aspect is that emissions are continuing to rise higher.

The figures on greenhouse gas have since December 2009 experienced a rise according to the Department of Climate Change. This is the first increase in carbon dioxide emission after the fall experienced during the economic crisis. According to “Sydney Morning Heralds”, the energy sector is the leading contributor of the augment in pollutions.

The announced figures for the rise in carbon emission were 1.3% (expected to account for seasonal fluctuations), but they are probably underestimated. The emission generated from land use and forestry was excluded in the calculation.

A national campaign was launched in May 2, 2010 with the name “100% renewable energy”. The two largest parties in the country which haven’t yet implemented any major global warming policies will soon be forced to make amendments because of community awareness campaigns.

The message that the campaign is conveying is lucid. It is calling for an urge change towards using 100 percent of renewable energy to provide the country’s energy demands. This is also likely to spur new jobs and industries. The rather long-term achievement will be a safer climate for the future generations to come.

The message is “going renewable”. However, the aim of the campaign is to establish a solid community support to force the policy makers to act. The support for the campaign has grown, day-by-day there is already a dozen of climate action groups involved in the 100% renewable campaign through-out the country.

The MPs stated that they are increasingly feeling “vulnerable” to act in respect to demands due to the promises of climate policy proclaimed during the elections. This is how an article published the 5th of May in the “Australian”, describes the controversy.

The World Environment Day, which was the 5th of June 2010, sat stand for the next round of the campaign. The various climate action groups are gathering information concerning the number of individual involved in the community support for renewable energy in the country. They will also create enthusiasm to propagate the campaign so that awareness and community support keeps on growing.

After information concerning the volume of supports has been examined it will be published to enforce the pressure towards new climate policies. It is the campaigns main strategy in supporting the transition to clean energy.

The early steps to assure the transition towards 100% renewable energy requires that the federal government implement attractive packages. This includes a feed-in-tariff or clean energy bonus scheme.

It is predicted that clean energy bonus would have the effect of encouraging large scale investment in alternative energy projects like solar, wind, wave and geothermal energy. It will also enable small scale projects like the rooftop solar photovoltaic cells and small wind turbines, to befall affordable.

The campaign is also trying to redirect the actual government subsidies provided for the fossil fuel industry to Renewable energy instead.

The first step is to introduce the clean energy bonus. However, according to climate activists, it will be insufficient to fulfil “Australia’s 100% renewable energy aim”.

The campaign has thus provided 10 additional steps to spur the complete way towards Australia’s 100 renewable energy vision. This includes policies such as increasing government’s renewable energy targets and to suspend the construction of new coal power plants. There is also a need for more public investment in clean energy, introduction of carbon levy on polluters and other similar actions making renewable energy a cost effective alternative.

Source: 100 Percent and Greenleft (Australia)