<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/disordered-and-delusionary-thinking-ex-adf-chief-calls-out-australias-climate-hypocrisy/>
"Australia’s ongoing addiction to fossil fuel exports is undermining the
“enormous” success of the renewable energy transition and threatening national
security, one of the nation’s top military experts has warned.
In a keynote address to the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney on Tuesday, the
former chief of Australian Defence Force, retired Admiral Chris Barrie AC said
the renewables industry had achieved “something extraordinary” getting the
national electricity grid to an average share of 50 per cent renewables.
But Barrie, who since retiring from the military has turned his attention to
the global fight against climate change, says Australia’s success with wind,
solar and battery storage is only one part of the battle.
“The renewable energy industry has achieved something extraordinary with a
historic transformation of the electricity system, but it is also a fact that
every new fossil fuel project and every expansion in exports cancels out part
of the progress being delivered by the clean energy industry.”
Federal Labor, which has set an interim emissions reduction target of between
62% and 70% below 2005 levels by 2035 and a renewable energy target of 82 per
cent by 2030, has also approved 36 new, expanded or extended coal, oil and gas
developments since coming to power in 2022.
Among these approvals is last year’s 40-year extension for Woodside Energy’s
controversial North West Shelf development in Western Australia’s Pilbara
region, which allows the nation’s biggest gas project to keep operating until
2070.
And it’s this contradiction that Barrie says risks undermining Australia’s
climate credibility and undoing the work done by the shift to renewables.
“Renewables are just half the story, but phasing out fossil fuels is the other.
And from that standpoint, Australian policy is contradictory and perhaps even
delusional,” he told the summit.
“The Australian government has a clear policy of talking about and championing
renewable energy, whilst avoiding, wherever possible, any discussion of climate
impacts and how Australian coal and gas, including new licenses, are helping
drive the world towards an unlivable planet.
“It is disordered and delusionary thinking to ask this industry to build the
clean energy economy of the future while at the same time continuing to expand
the industries fuelling climate breakdown.
“Whatever short-term income fossil fuel exports generate is overwhelmed by the
deaths, destruction and decline in human security caused by accelerating
climate disruption, costs that will continue accumulating for decades and be
borne by communities, governments and future generations.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
