greenkeeper
the coming years," AEMO's chief operating officer, Mike Cleary,
says. The draft of the resulting report is due in March 2013.
There are vocal proponents of renewable energy supporting
claims that Australia could change its ways to become a 100
per cent renewable energy market. Beyond Zero Emissions
is an Australian think tank and clean energy advocate group
that has devised a model, published in a 2011 report, for
Australia's transition to 100 per cent renewable energy, which
includes a 10-year road map to achieve that goal.
In the report, titled the Zero Carbon Australia 2020
Stationary Energy Plan (ZCA2020 Plan), the think tank
says that fossil fuels account for more than 70 per cent of
Australia's CO2 emissions, with stationary energy generation
accounting for 55 per cent of Australia's emissions.
The group's plan involves replacing stationary energy
(generated from coal and gas) with renewable energy within
10 years, and it says this is possible and achievable now, if
only industry and governments could commit to such a plan.
Furthermore, it says that developing technologies will make
it easier to transition to renewable energy sources.
So long as climate change policy in Australia continues
to be guided by potential political outcomes – take too
much action and you risk losing votes, or be perceived
as doing nothing and you risk losing votes – the issue
remains at an impasse. However, global warming and
our response to climate change are sure to be the focus
of some hot debates when Australia gears up for this year's
federal election.
"Developing technologies will
make it easier to transition to
renewable energy sources."
90
