Australia aims to be the worst

The Australian government has belatedly announced its planned greenhouse emission targets for the United Nations negotiations in December. Australia will take a take of 26 per cent by 2030 to the conference.

For comparison, the Climate Change Authority suggested 45 to 65 per cent by 2030 would be Austalia's fair share.

Of 38 comparable countries only Japan and Norway's targets are weaker, but they've done a lot of work already. Of the 15 most polluting nations Australia is the highest per capita polluter. Based on these targets, that will still be the case 15 years from now.

Poetry and science are different

Just when you think we're all finally all on board to tackle climate change, there'll be someone who doesn't quite get it.

Fortunately there are comedy shows to set the record straight. The relevant part of the video starts at 1min18s.



"There's probably a good reason why the CSIRO doesn't use poetry as data"

There's also a good reason not to listen to people who use bizarre logic to attempt to shy away from addressing climate change. It's like saying "People died before drugs were invented so drugs don't kill people". It starts off with a true statement but then goes into crazy 'logic'.

PS. Sorry, the video also contains a piece on the budget. I'd hoped it was a separate clip.

How is the world's oil like a rollercoaster?

My friend Stuart is a cartoonist, and has just completed a 120-page non-fiction comic. It's about the scientist M.King Hubbert and what he discovered about the way the world uses oil.

The comic takes about 20 minutes to read - which is much shorter than watching a documentary. As far as comics go, it may not be as action packed as you Batman or Spiderman comics, but at the end you'll feel a bit smarter and more knowledgeable about the world.

Now that we now what we've got, how will will best use it?

The hottest 12 months

I read yesteday that January-March this year is the hottest January March ever recorded.

Combined with last year's record heat, this makes the last year (April 2014 - March 2015) the hottest 12 month period on record. It beat the 12 months ending in February, which beat the 12 months ending in January

Coincidentally I met up with a couple of good friends last night, and one mentioned how long this summer has been.

The year to year temperature increase is probably not noticeable. But after a while it adds up, and it is noticeable when there are several 30°C days in the middle of Autumn.

Solar Scorecard 2015

This is a non-partisan blog, but near election time I do pass on some voter information. My home state of Queensland goes to the ballot box this weekend, and Solar Citizens has scored the parties on their solar-friendliness.

For the full scorecard, and the detailed responses of the parties, see www.solarcitizens.org.au/scorecard. The sunnier the ratings, the better the policy for solar.

This information is meant as a guide. If solar energy matters to you - this scorecard allows you to assess which parties are more likely to support solar energy.

2014 - Hottest Year on Record

It's Official. 2014 is the world's warmest year in recorded history - and the 38th year in a row of above average temperatures.

Bloomberg did a clever animation showing how the years just keep getting hotter and hotter.

And the New York Times had this informative graphic showing both a heat map of 2014 and a chart of all the years up to now.

Hot Springs

Last year I wrote that 2013 was Australia's Hottest Spring. Now, 2014 has broken that record.

Possibly not surprising considering we had the warmest September ever, Australia's Hottest October Day, and a November heatwave.

This is getting serious. We really need to act.

Energy Freedom

Want to reduce your energy bills and your greenhouse emissions?

Energy Freedom is a program helping Australians make their homes high-performing, comfortable and zero emissions. With technology available now, home owners can be highly-efficient - cutting energy consumption to a much smaller amount - and then generating that amount from solar.

There are example Success Stories - a family in Victoria is now saving $4700 a year. A Brisbane family has halved their energy costs despite the addition of two children - and still has further savings to make.

One of the strategies they suggest is to switch from gas to electric - as there are more efficient electric products. A new report by ATA - Are we still Cooking with Gas? - has determined that for a new homes it is not even worth connecting to gas. Also, warmer states (like mine) have the best economics for converting to electric.

PS. Another benefit of being energy neutral is that (as batteries become cheaper) you could disconnect from the grid and stop paying electricity bills.

USA and China lead the way

The USA and China have announced their biggest climate change deal.

This agreement reduces carbon pollution by the equivalent of the entire world's emissions from 1990-2013.

Australia's position, coming into the G20 meeting is best summed up by this cartoon.

Or maybe this cartoon of the G20.

And while the future commitments are great, China is already doing some amazing things. The Climate Council posted this summary before the announcement.

It's an impressive set of statistics:

• 1st in renewable energy capacity and investment
• 2.6 million jobs in renewable energy
• in 5 years have shut down more coal power than exists in Australia

Australia's Hottest October Day

Monday wasn't just a hot day. It was Australia's hottest ever October day - with an average maximum of 36.39°C (97.5F). And it's not even summer yet!

Some places even passed 42°C!

Of course, last October we had spring bushfire - so I guess we can at least be grateful that hasn't happened again. But it's frightening to think that this is only the start of what climate change will bring unless we act to stop it.

Warmest September Ever

Following hot on the heels of the warmest August on record, September 2014 was the warmest September so far.

The way things are going, it looks like 2014 may become the hottest year we've ever experienced.

The "Value" of Coal

I've talked a bit about divestment - the idea of getting money out of fossil fuels.

Part of the reason is to make an ethical stand. But the other part is pure finance - taking money out of something that's losing value.

This chart is an example of what I'm talking about. It shows how Australia's coal companies have been losing value and dropping in share price over the past couple of years.

I'm no financial analyst, but to me they seem to past their 'best before' date.

In related news, this Saturday is Divestment Day - a day for taking money out of banks that still invest in fossil fuels.

(Of course, you could do it any day you like, but it's fun to make a special day.)

PS. I was surprised at how much these companies had collapsed in the past few years, so I checked up each company on the Australian Stock Exchange website. It's shocking stuff.

New Hope Corporation (NHC)
Whitehaven Coal (WHC)
Aquila Resources (delisted) High of $11.07 - Jan 2012 $5.85 - Sold at $3.40
Yancoal (YAL)
Cockatoo Coal (COK)
Bandanna (BND)
Carabella (delisted) High of $2.50 - Jan 2012 $1.10 - Sold at 45c
NuCoal (NCR)
MetroCoal (MTE)
Stanmore (SMR)

Australia V The World

Australia is the most polluting country - in greenhouse gas per person - according to this series of carbon infographics.

Another graphic compared progress from 1990 to 2012. For Australia it was
1990: 274 million tonnes of carbon pollution
2012: 433 million tonnes of carbon pollution (ouch!)

Amongst this gloomy news, there were also some upsides. One is the progress of countries initiating renewable energy targets.

Let's hope Australia doesn't fall out of this group when the government reviews the renewable energy target this year.

No Advantage in Fossil Fuels

Sometimes we get told that investing in fossil fuels has some economic benefit. But does it?

The Climate Proofing your Investments report finds that it's no more profitable than investing in non fossil fuel companies.

The difference with fossil fuel investments is risk of what finance people call "stranded assets". Basically it means that as the world moves away from fossil fuels the value of those companies drops. After all, a coal mine isn't worth as much if people aren't buying coal.

Anyway, it's a risk you don't have to worry about - unless you, you bank or your superannuation fund is investing in fossil fuels - which they probably are.

PS. Ben Caldecott, from Oxford University is speaking at Southbank, Brisbane this Thursday night, for those interested in the finance aspect. (Or hear his interview on ABC's Radio National.)

If the invisible was visible

If we could see greenhouse emissions, there would be a lot more action on climate change. That's the theory of David Holmes. So here's what Australia's daily carbon emissions would look like (if CO₂ wasn't invisible).

A few years ago Eastern Australia experienced a dust storm - and the sky went orange. It was all anyone was talking about. Perhaps if carbon dioxide was purple, we'd see more action on climate change.

This graphic was done by Carbon Visuals, the same people who did the Carbon Quilt.

How hot will you get?

The Guardian's new interactive guide shows you what temperature increases you (or your child) can expect to see in your (or their) lifetime.

Adding these kind of temps to last summer is a sobering exercise, but that's not the whole story.

4°C of warming brought the planet an ice age to what we have today. That's a lot of energy, and that's what causes climate change. Drought and bushfires become harsher, extra energy fuels hurricanes and cyclones, and polar ice melts to cause sea level rise.

Often people talk about taking environmental action to leave a better world for our grandchildren. Having seen this data, we can probably now remove "grand" from that sentence. If we don't get serious about this soon, it's our own children who will face the consequences.

Save 75% on fuel - Go electric

Recently, I showed the increasing sales of electric vehicles. I guess one of the reasons is the savings on fuel costs.

This stat is from America, and would vary slightly from one location to another. But it's still a massive saving.

Aussie Heatwaves - Longer, Hotter and More Frequent

Recently, there's been something of a heatwave in Australia. This is how hot it was at 6pm on Tuesday.

It was so hot that organisers postponed play in the Australian Open. Even native Australian animals seek relief from the heat.

The Climate Council's new report on heatwaves can be summarised with the following graphic.

Still amazes me that Australia isn't doing more about climate change.

UPDATE: Will climate change mean the end of the Australian Open.
How solar helps keep the electricity on during heatwaves.

Australia's Hottest Ever Year

This the heat map for 2013 - Australia's hottest year on record. I can't find a single dot of blue (cold) and there's barely an area of average temperature.

The warm temperature were consistent across the country with each location experiencing either a record heat, or something "very much above average". Of course, there is the occasional cold day, but these are few and far between. Also, they are not as cold as the hot days are hot. Here is each day of 2013, compared to average.

So to summarise, Australia set 6 records in the first week of the year, added a new hot colour to the weather map, saw Sydney hit 46°C, had the hottest month ever, saw some high temperatures in what was called the Angry Summer, saw the hottest September turn into the hottest spring, which included an unusually early bushfire.

On reflection it's not a huge surprise that it turned out to be the hottest year. Perhaps it's time to act on global warming.

UPDATE: The Climate Council and Climate Institute have each produced infogrphics about the various records that have been set in Australia this past year.

Hottest Australian Spring

2013 was the hottest spring in Australia. September was the hottest ever September, and the other two months were also well above average.

No part of the country was colder than average, and only a tiny bit was at average temperature. Almost the entire nation experience temperature well above average. And it wasn't just the areas that had the bushfire.