A leading academic says Australia can afford to manage the risks of climate change but strong action is needed quickly, as a new global report urges the country to boost its investment in renewable energy.
Australian National University’s Dr Frank Jotzo said unless Australia quadruples its use of low carbon energy by 2050 agriculture, coastal areas and related tourism industries and trade will be jeopardised.
His comments come as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for greater effort by all countries regardless of current output in a new report released in Germany.
“Australia is one of the developed countries most at risk from climate change impacts,” Dr Jotzo told AAP newsagency.
And while encouraging other countries to help in the fight against climate change might lead to a drop in coal prices, it’s not all bad news for the economy.
“Australia has very significant opportunities in low carbon or zero carbon energies,” Dr Jotzo said.
AAP reports he said while we used to ride on the sheep’s back, the export of uranium for nuclear power could prove to be the golden fleece of the next century.
“Australia is one of the few countries in the enviable situation not just to have fossil fuels in abundance but also to have zero carbon energy source in abundance,” he said.
“There is every opportunity for Australia to be an energy super power under a strong global climate change mitigation scenario.”
The IPCC report, worked on by more than 800 experts, focuses on the underlying technical, economic and institutional requirements of mitigating climate change and recommends the world greatly increase the use of low-carbon energy sources by 2050.
The call for increased investment in renewable energy to combat climate change has been echoed by the independently funded Climate Council.
“Renewable energy is critical to tackling climate change,” says Amanda McKenzie, Climate Council CEO.
“Australians have already taken steps to increase renewable energy and this report shows we need to do more.”
AAP reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focused on mitigation strategies for climate change and indicated that globally the world needed to at least triple the use of zero and low carbon energy sources by 2050.
The IPCC said key players, such as the United States and China, were quickly moving ahead.
For example, the US doubled renewable capacity between 2008 and 2012, and China increased its capacity in wind energy by 36 per cent in 2012.
Australia currently has a national renewable energy target to generate 20 per cent of the power mix from renewable energy by 2020.
However, the conservative Liberal-National government has that target under review and is reported to want to either abandon it entirely on reduce the target significantly.
Over 130 other countries have similar targets to bolster renewable energy.
“It’s clear that the renewable energy race has begun,” said Ms McKenzie.
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Shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a key part of tackling climate change and has other benefits, for instance growing new jobs, industries and investment,” said Ms McKenzie.
“Australians know that solar power is just common sense here, so there is a lot of community support for greater investment in renewable energy.
“On the other side of the ledger, Australia is also home to some very inefficient and aging coal fired power plants.
That means our current electricity supply is one of the most emissions intensive and least efficient in the world,” she added.