If you’ve turned your eyes away from the computer and out the window this year, you’ve probably realized that we’re having an extreme series of temperature and weather events this year. The Climate Commission calls the excessive heat of 2013 the “Angry Summer”, where we’ve had the highest recorded temperatures in summer since we started keeping weather records in Australia in 1910. As far as official government statistics are concerned then, it means 2013 was the hottest summer we’ve ever had in Australia.
And while all the sunshine is really fine, especially when it comes to generating solar power, the real issue is that Australia, much like the rest of the world, is facing an climate change crisis where human-made sources of pollution and irresponsible industrialisation are impacting the earth and destroying the planet. While there’re many reasons for climate change, perhaps one of the most controversial – and even the one that’s most preventable – is the sheer amount of fossil-fuel based energy that most countries in the world use for their power needs, in spite of knowing the damage it causes to the planet.
Looking at the Australian government’s continuing subsidisation of fossil fuels makes you realise that renewable energy sources are fighting a hard fight when it comes to establishing themselves in the Australian energy market.
The Bad News in Numbers
Carbon-based fossil fuel sources run much of Australia’s industrial, commercial and residential sectors, which they’ve been doing very successfully for a couple of centuries. The problem isn’t about using them currently, it’s more about how much the government is doing to decrease their use in the future by switching to renewable energy. In 2010, for instance, the Australian government released a statement saying it was committed to phas[ing] out fossil fuel subsidies, so that the country could start switching to renewable energy sources like solar power, wind energy and so on. That was three years ago, and the fuel subsidies being handed out then were about $7.7 billion dollars. Has the government lived up to its promises?
The short answer is “No”.
If anything, the subsidization has actually increased since then. In 2013, there are about 10 billion dollars worth of fossil fuel subsidies in the most recent Federal Budget, and that’s even after the $1.1 billion dollars worth that have already been eliminated by adding the “Paid to Pollute” tax program that aims to prevent pollution from the mining sector. And the depressing fact is that the coal industry sees the taking away of their subsidies as a way to shut the industry down, and not as a way to a better renewable energy based future.
The effects of not reducing our current rate of consumption are scary, as this graphic shows. A future without good planning and a disciplined climate change policy means more extreme weather, natural disasters and catastrophic events like global food shortages, famines and a breakdown in global health and welfare of the world’s populations.
The Better News in Numbers
A silver lining to these statistics is that 2012-2013 Federal Budget made it one of Australia’s “immediate priorities” to see that the switch to going renewable has at least begun. With that end, the Australian government has committed about $450 million dollars to tax subsidies, rebates and other infrastructure developments for the renewable energy industry, of which solar power is huge part. The amount isn’t much when compared to the billions of dollars the non-renewable industry gets in tax cuts alone, but it’s a start at least.
The Best News? Solar Power is Where It’s At
A recent news report stated that the price of electricity generated by solar power, wind energy and other renewable sources is cheaper than that of electricity built by renewables like coal and natural gas.
Adding to that the fact that the Climate Commission has cautioned the Australian government that 80% of our country’s fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground if we want to reverse some of the environmental harm we’ve done so far, the answer seems quite clear: solar power – and its renewable energy counterparts— must be given the attention they need and deserve, to develop as the primary sources for power in Australia’s future. Otherwise, we may be stuck with many angrier summers and winters to come.
Contact us today if you’d like to know more about going solar.