Obama’s flexible fix to climate change as dirty power dominates in Oz

For many years I used to spend part of the summer in the gorgeous Laurentides region of Quebec, an hour west of Montreal …

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THE SATURDAY PAPER …

• Filthy secrets shroud Aust’s emissions reduction plans Weak regulation is increasing Australia’s carbon emissions and allowing dirty power stations to survive.

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Carbon dioxide emissions for May and June were up by an annualised 1.2 per cent, or about two million tonnes. The figures represented a sharp acceleration in the trend to higher emissions that has been apparent since the Abbott government scrapped the carbon price. The cause wasn’t increased demand; it was that Australia’s electricity grid was getting more of its power from coal. Generation from hydro was down and other renewables were flat – investment in wind and solar has been moribund due to the uncertainty about the future of the renewable energy target. Generation from gas also was down, ironically because the demand for it in a decarbonising world had pushed global prices up. (Gas produces about half the CO2 of black coal.) Conversely, coal prices were down so usage had gone up, and it had gone up most sharply for the dirtiest, brown coal. From a low point of 72.6 per cent of total generation last July, coal’s share of emissions was back up to 76.3 per cent …