Australia Energy Market Operators claim it could easily go 94% Renewable by 2040 - Climate Weekly
Welcome to Climate Weekly!
Each week we (usually) ask one guest writer from our network to give you a short selection of some of the best climate news from their region, giving you a little window into some climate stories you probably didn’t see in your News Feed.
This week, we have a change in our regular schedule. I recently had to shift from Malaysia back to Australia, and since I’m outta quarantine, I’ll be serving you a hot plate of news off the coal fired Aussie bbq.
So...G’day
You might’a seen that Australia (‘straya) is going through its “second wave” of COVID cases.
With Vietnam and Spain on alert, many of us here are starting to realise this pandemic is going to be with us (globally) for a long time to come. Oh and as I’m sure you guessed it, when disaster strikes, our Prime Minister went on holiday again.
But with secret plans for coal and gas subsidies, the world’s biggest battery, and reports that Australia could be coal free by the 2040’s without any further action, it’s been a big week for climate news.
Let's get you recharged with big battery news. As you probably know, Australia is a big, sunny island close to Indonesia. This gives the country access to some of the fastest growing energy markets, and massive renewable energy potential.
That’s why Australia’s richest Tech entrepreneur, and one of its biggest Mining magnates are lining up to invest $15 billion USD in the world’s biggest battery to power Singapore. The project has just been given the official governmental green light, and they think there is room for more.
But don’t get too excited, here comes bad news in this renewable energy sandwich. After national gas and electricity consumption dropped by about 3%, Australia’s biggest gas companies are secretly appealing for a massive hand out, as part of the COVID response.
Of course, the government is refusing to release these plans, even as our own Workers Unions are backing renewables and former political leaders are sounding the alarm on the underestimated climatic impacts of methane leaks.
On the other side of this week’s energy sandwich, the Australian Energy Market Operator says we are “in the midst of what is likely to be the world’s fastest energy transition”.
In their latest assessment, presented to the government, they believe this sunny island could be generating 94% renewable energy, and have retired almost all its coal plants without even breaking a sweat in the mid 2040’s (well, kinda).
I’m personally not too sure who they are comparing us to, but Ketan Joshi highlights that if the government wants to get in the way of this inevitable shift, they still can.
P.s. if you didn’t get that holiday joke about the Prime Minister, his last holiday was when my family farm was being burnt to the ground. This week, the Guardian did an amazing story covering the impact of those bushfires.
From Climate Tracker
This week we announced the winners of 2 of our recent fellowships:
Check out our African Energy Fellows who have won an 8 week fellowship reporting on Sustainable Energy challenges from Zimbabwe to Nigeria. If you are an energy expert who knows African energy challenges, please reach out
We also selected 5 amazing Young Media researchers from across Southeast Asia. They’ll be looking into how their national media is talking about their country’s energy future in this year of Corona. If you are interested in their progress, or want to get involved, please reach out.
What else we’re reading
You might have heard about the floods across Bangladesh? The New York Times ran a piece today highlighting that ¼ of the country is now flooded due to an incredibly heavy monsoon.
The floods have lasted almost all July and already killed 61 people, and displaced nearly 800,000.These are intensely shocking floods. Greta Thunberg has pledged to donate €100,000 to BRAC, Goonj, Action Aid to support flood relief efforts.
However, this story in Bangladesh’s Financial Express on government led aid innovation really caught my eye. In a merge of science and aid, the government is handing out aid to potential vulnerable people ahead of predicted storms.
This meant that instead of waiting for the worst to hit, Parvin Begum was able to buy food, “rented a boat, and took her belongings to a government shelter on a nearby island before the rising water crossed the danger level.”
Clearly this month’s floods are going to push systems like this beyond their limits, but this again proves that Bangladesh is once again on the cutting edge of poverty-alleviation and climate risk initiatives.
Strangely, if you did a scan over the biggest english language dailies in Bangladesh today, you wouldn’t think there were floods anywhere.
Staying in the region, Indian Climate Tracker fellow Vaishnavi Rathore published this brilliant investigative piece linking Brazil’s deforestation and Indigenous attacks to India’s rising desire for Gold. Published in the Bastian.
Finally, if you haven’t read Pro Publica’s piece titles, Where Will Everyone Go? on the future of climate migration across Central America, give yourself 40 mins and dive in. Please
Photo of the week
That story in the Guardian reminded me of last Summer’s bushfires. We’re still cleaning up, but here’s a shot I took back in January:
This is a Weekly newsletter created by Climate Tracker. If you have any questions, comments or want to get involved, email Chris at chris@climatetracker.org - that’s me. I’d love to hear from you...and don’t worry, I’m locked inside too.
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