Climate Emergency: Is carbon neutrality an economic reality? | 7.30

The Federal Government is pledging more than half a billion dollars for new energy projects in an attempt to create jobs and cut Australia's carbon emissions. The money will go towards so-called 'clean hydrogen' projects and investing in carbon capture and storage technology for existing coal-fired power plants.
In part 3 of our climate change series, Andy Park reports it is still far from the ambitious action that many are calling for and which business leaders say offers Australia a massive economic opportunity.
For Part 1, click here: • Climate Emergency: Aus...
For Part 2, click here: • Climate Emergency: How...
For Part 4, click here: • Climate emergency: Mou...
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[@jestronixhanderson9898]

Sitting here slamming companies for doing what they do and not voting for change is nuts. Vote for change.

[@LukeHaylerPlus]

Stop exporting coal. Stop subsidising carbon consumption. Invest in solar and green battery technology.

[@taylormatthews6086]

China's helping lol.........😆 Banning the coalol

[@brynphillips9957]

@@coal_man They are far from perfect but a lot better than fossil fuels currently. The technology of both is also developing at a very fast pace. Tesla's new battery cells are already a lot better than the previous generation.

[@alexandermelbaus2351]

​@@brynphillips9957 Solar panels and batteries are never going to even get close. The cost would also be unworkable. Coal seems much cleaner then all the massive effort and environmental impact from 100,000's of solar panels, batteries or wind generators and all the extra cabling.

[@brynphillips9957]

@@coal_man No it really is impressing people. I doubt you even know what Tesla's new generation battery is and how it is different from the last generation. Tesla has one of the fastest growing stock prices in the world. It and SpaceX have made Elon Musk the richest man in the world and probably soon in history. He is well on tract to being the worlds first Trillionaire.

[@brynphillips9957]

@@alexandermelbaus2351 What extra cabling? Solar panels have been developing at leaps and bounds and are already at cost parody with coal in many places in the world. Same with Batteries. We literally have a new generation of Batteries being released this year that are made with easier to acquire materials, are more effective and cheaper to produce. All this can be run of existing power infrastructure. You have existing power providers planing to turn their old coal power stations into Battery farms. That isn't even factoring in the basic reality that you only need to build a solar panel or battery once and it will run for at least 20 years and then much of it will be recyclable while coal requires at least the same amount of effort to get out of the ground and shipped and then is consumed in a moment. We are also burning through our coal so even if climate change wasn't a factor, which it is, we would have to replace it eventually.

[@BobBob-kr5wr]

The industries recognized the long term damage they were doing they simply ignored it in order to focus on the short term gains. "Who cares about the problem in 20+ years, I'll be retired by then and rich."

[@timedone8502]

It’s not just industries. Individuals (not all but many) have the same mindset.

[@wamnicho]

@@timedone8502 so why do you keep buying their products. Give them back and go start living like a caveman

[@DSAK55]

Mad Max will soon be Reality

[@iareid8255]

Who says there is a climate emergency and can prove it? Talk is cheap but trying to do what the greens want us to do is very expensive and likely to be completely ineffective. How much has the cost of electricity gone up in the last ten years in Australia? Mostly due to renewables and the grids are less stable and reliable, needing even more expensive equipment to just keep the grid running; all unecessary

[@vwatohd]

Australia has a great potential to produce all the metals needed for a green economy, with the right attitude and regulation we could become a resource superpower. We have the mining workers in the coal industry that need jobs lets give them a green future owned Gov run mines not foreigners that leach the profits.

[@rickrys2729]

We have reached the point where net zero alone is insufficient and we will need to take CO2 out of the air to meet our Paris climate goals of 1.5 to 2.0 DegC. It's long overdue to put a fair price on carbon pollution as all options for removing CO2 so far are hugely expensive.

[@marktucker887]

Scottie in charge of Marketing is doing a good job of wagging the dog!

[@bosswana]

It is great to hear some of the industry leaders pushing this change and their comments add value to the public debate. I am not sure how the journalist interviewed adds to the credibility of the debate though. They are just qualified in writing and have no standing in the actual science. Unfortunately our media have developed a habit of interviewing journalists and treating them as experts (ABC is a killer at doing this) and using them to lead opinion when their formal expertise is low and their standing in the community is questionable.

[@dadt8009]

As we are working more at home using computers and other devices, drive electric cars, have wind farms, solar panels, etc, remember that all the raw materials to make these things come from mining and oil extraction.

[@zympf]

unfortunately, the climate alarmists don't acknowledge that contradiction

[@brynphillips9957]

@@zympf Actually you would find that they do. It is often discussed along with how such industries can be moved in to less carbon intensive and environmentally friendly methods of extraction. Many of those 'climate alarmists' are scientists and you would find that scientists tend to be rather practically minded and methodical when looking at issues just by virtue of the work they do. End of the day we have to find a way to change otherwise we are screwed. There is nothing optional about this. The science is very clear on that at this point.

[@Albot940]

@@zympf of course they do. The point is to stop using those things for energy generation. And where mining minerals, find alternatives to diesel for transport and gas for heating.

[@zympf]

@@brynphillips9957 "we are screwed", is that a prediction? like polar bears? sinking islands? climate refugees? polar caps? sea-level rise? no more snow? empty dams? decades have passed since those predictions have expired, don't you people ever get it? you may have noticed the recent *record* cold (transcends the ENSO cycle) in the northern hemisphere. Check the actual data (eg. UAH satellite temperature data) and get a life. PS: Is this the only way the ABC can survive?

[@brynphillips9957]

@@zympf Expired? Those predictions have been pretty accurate if not underestimated. We have had the warmest global decade on record. The Polar vortex in the northern hemisphere is becoming seriously distorted. Fire seasons are getting longer. The Sea Levels have been rising, calling salinity in areas that used to be used for crops in low lying nations and more frequent and severe flooding from high tides. The arctic was open ocean for the first time in recorded history. You have massive glaciers around the world, including in the poles disappearing. We just had one of the worse droughts to effect Australia in history end with some of the worst bushfires in our history. There is an endless litany of examples of the impacts from climate change. How many times have you heard about another 'once in a 100 years' weather event happen recently? Get a life? Get your facts straight. You apparently didn't even know what the past predictions actually were or the time frames given to those predictions.

[@rogiervantilburg3440]

Thanks so much for sharing!

[@JM-hn7ju]

Cannon-Brookes has it right. It will be market forces that determine the transition. Harvesting solar energy provided directly or indirectly from renewable sources is the cheapest way. Sure, there are technological hurdles to get across, but it's just matter of time and the whole economy will transition through a profit motive. Personally my household rooftop solar is producing more than I use over a year. The major cost isn't in producing energy anymore, it's about the storage and distribution of it now which is a major paradigm shift.

[@brynphillips9957]

@@coal_man Not really. My home's entire solar set up has long since paid for itself, batteries included. Plus Storage causes things like what happened in Texas less likely which is why Texas is now heavily investing in battery storage.

[@brynphillips9957]

@@coal_man A great deal of home solar does have batteries as standard. However one reason is sometimes regulation. There are rules about ownership of the power grid that effect how systems can be run. Some private solar that isn't completely off grid, is required to feed directly into the grid. Also You have large battery farms springing up everywhere. Two major coal power stations in Australia are being decommissioned and turned into Battery farms. Those companies wouldn't be doing that unless they saw it as profitable.

[@brynphillips9957]

@@coal_man In the time since my home had solar installed, which is about 7 years, the entire set up has long since paid for itself. Solar panels have saved us money. Further, Blackouts aren't a thing for us. If there is a power outage, it just doesn't effect us. Quite a lot of homes have solar and batteries because as an investment, it is cheaper than staying on the mains. The biggest issue is the upfront cost and that is pretty small compared to the general cost of housing these days. They have also been steadily getting cheaper and more efficient every year. You are factually incorrect on the realities of the situation.

[@TomSimak]

“Don’t want to tax these industries off the planet” 😂 I think they’ll be right Scomo

[@MENDNZ]

of all countries in the world NOT needing more heat and fires and droughts and warming..it's Australia. I know.. being born there but living in temperate NZ where 28C is a real hot day!!

[@conor5145]

good video. can bicker over government policy all day but seeing the business / market side of the transition was interesting

[@jonc67uk]

A better question to ask would be is consumer capitalism physically sustainable without making the planet unsurvivable. Cue the awkward silence...

[@davidwilkie9551]

Good

[@alanmay7929]

why cant australia invest in nuclear energy

[@biggav7434]

Not politically viable. And it's too late really. Planets fkd.

[@garytabor2069]

Life in the Big City.

[@jeanlefranc3817]

Companies exist because customers buy their products. Simple as that. Expecting companies to bring their total emissions down to zero, with an ever growing world population, aspiring to higher standards of living at no extra cost, is just a dream. It will simply not happen. The only way to sustainability reduce the GHG content in the atmosphere for the next centuries is to bring the world population down to 2 or 3 billion in the next 30 years and bring back manufacturing and food making at local level. Worked well until 1850, will work just as well tomorrow.

[@yggdrasil9039]

6:35 Erm, hold on, what? Coal exports drops from 21B to 15B in ONE YEAR? So, more than 1/4? Draw a line on that graph and it doesn't look too pretty for the export coal industry.

[@notyou1877]

Let's see, hmmm? Removing carbon from carbon life cycle... that sounds like a bad thing to me...

[@garytabor2069]

Life in the Big City

[@charleskaplan3567]

I wonder what the next form of energy discovered will be. Tax is important for even the highest earning companies to pay them that will disincentivise construction of unnecessary mines. Abstention certainly is the aim reducing at this stage to give the planet a fighting chance to recover like allowing a field a year to rest except on a global scale and for over a hundred years to recover from the previous hundred years. Why not plant a few million trees while you are at it BHP.

[@mornramy4806]

Up

[@stephenspreckley8219]

That Mr Mann is ..............................

[@bobmathieson987]

The statement that if we stop the use of fossil fuels the climate change will stabilize in a couple of years is rubbish. The cycle of carbon, and that is only a small part of the problem, takes 20 to 30 years. The feedback loops have already started to kick in and the latest data suggests we have already surpassed 2 Degrees and rising. There is so much spin going on out there and in this coverage.

[@yggdrasil9039]

yep. There are some scientists predicting 4C and 8 metres of sea level rise by 2100. We will probably have to do some reverse engineering and suck CO2 out of the air.

[@abcde102]

Solve world hunger first

[@fraser372]

We simply have no choice as there is no bargaining point and to presume there is is to seriously underestimate the significance our climate driven to hither too unknown levels. We and the foods we depend upon will struggle with increasing average temperatures as chlorophyll within our diverse food crops simply shuts down and aerobically respires. Our most serious concern should be food production and that which impacts it and its sustenance because if we cannot feed ourselves everything else in a very short order becomes meaningless. Already food insecurity in many countries is a growing concern and as far as Australia is concerned look at the prices of food as an indicator and its demand world wide . All this before we even think of portable water with aquifers running empty and desertification continuing not to mention incremental weather which can destroy a food baskets production in very short order. Hollow idols.

[@gamingtonight1526]

I don't know whether Australia is ever going to bite the bullet. So it is probably doomed. Feel so sorry for ordinary Australians,

[@fridaybot]

They get what they deserve voting for this all the time. May they melt in the sun.

[@terenceiutzi4003]

I know it will never be a possibility and I am extremely glad! If the world goes carbon neutral we will all starve because of the carbon drought

[@davidcarey9135]

Lots of feel good statements and vague ambitions without fully discussing or understanding the impacts on both sides. Basic problem is that a barrel of oil contains the energy equivalent of around 4.5 years of human labour. Nothing currently comes close to that including solar panels, batteries and wind turbines which is why oil currently dominates the economy and almost all human activity. Even if all coal fired electricity were phased out completely, electricity is only a fraction of total energy use. Trucks, tractors, shipping etc. don't run on electricity. You also need to be able to generate the heat to smelt certain metals which can currently only be achieved by burning something in many instances. Zero carbon dioxide emissions are fine if humanity decides that it wants to make huge sacrifice for the environment. You would be looking at humans living much closer to subsistence and probably with a much smaller global population. The idea that we will magically stop burning fossil fuels and everything will continue as normal with economic growth etc. is sadly unlikely to be the case - not consistent with physics.

[@DaniDhonau]

No CO2 means no vegetation equals no food. Do not turn the CO2 neutrality (what ever that neans anyway) into a religion by missing more important issues such as overfishing and polluting of the oceans and illpracticing and unsustainable farming. Use common sense and keep focusing on things that we can control and make a huge difference today.

[@bign1667]

ABC Who cares?? 1. do a story on what will happen to the next generation of born Australians with the property market 2. We all know another mining boom is necessary to get out of this economic mess the RBA has made.

[@VMRDY]

Sad to see my tax dollars being wasted on ABC. Let’s defund the ABC and lower income taxes for every Australian.

[@pranavananda7]

More people die of extreme cold than warmth. This series is nothing more than propaganda. The term carbon pollution is obscure and nothing more than a marketing slogan. Models cannot predict what the climate will be like in future. Dismantling existing infrastructure on a false premise driven by bad science attempting to stabilize the temperature is moronic.

[@emy4president]

last

[@HappyBear376]

Utter tripe

[@ianbarron1196]

remember when we run out of carbon dioxide we all DIE !

[@Yetifile]

And you think without human production this will happen. What happened in the billions of years before? The problem is we tipped the scales to far in one direction and need to rebalnce those scales not that we need to remove all the co2.

[@AviationSports1978]

Carbon. Net zero bahahahahhahahhaha