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Made in America: how Biden's climate package is fuelling the global drive to net zero

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australia’s energy transition.

Key Points:

This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australia’s energy transition.
Just over a year since US President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, it’s becoming clear this strangely named piece of legislation could have a powerful impact in spurring the global transition to net zero emissions by 2050.

The IRA changes the landscape

Passage of the IRA, in August 2022, ensured a swathe of green technologies would benefit from tax credits, loans, customer rebates and other incentives.
The IRA is all carrot, no stick.
To free-market economists who ask why government should invest in private sector industries, the answer is that the green energy transition is not natural.
Read more:
Too hard basket: why climate change is defeating our political system

Industrial policy to protect the climate

More than climate policy, it is industrial policy, replete with made-in-America provisions.
Companies are more likely to obtain tax credits if they employ unionised labour, train apprentices and set up shop in states that are transitioning out of fossil fuels.
Similarly, wind and solar projects will earn tax credits only if half of their manufactured components are made in America.
Yet while America’s strongest allies are also alarmed by the challenge from China, they are disturbed by aspects of the IRA.

Why the IRA challenges Australia

In Australia, before the IRA was legislated, the Morrison government provided a A$1.25 billion loan to Iluka Resources to fund construction of an integrated rare-earths refinery in Western Australia.
But Australia risks being left behind in the race to build clean energy industries.
Here's what the hype is all about
The IRA, however, brings Australia many potential benefits.
Australia can also build new industrial processes and supply chains so that we earn more from decarbonised metallic iron, aluminium and nitrogenous fertiliser.

Highlights - BUDG-ITRE – Vote on the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) – 09.10.23 - Committee on Budgets

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Zero, Commission, Policy, STEP, EUR, Investment, RRF, Recovery, Strategic technology plan, ITRE, BUDG, Renewable energy, Film industry, EU

The STEP platform should streamline various existing European programmes and funds.

Key Points:

The STEP platform should streamline various existing European programmes and funds.
Several programmes and funds should be reinforced with a total of EUR 10 billion.
The STEP platform should streamline various existing European programmes and funds.
Together with incentives under cohesion policy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), this should lead to up to EUR 160 billion in new investments.

Australia's emissions must decline more steeply to reach climate commitment: OECD

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Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Zero, Gaps, Workforce, Technology, Democracy, Organization, Social security in Australia, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development controversy, Education, Economy, Policy, Chalmers, OECD, Goal, Carbon, Government, Development, Renewable energy, Uranium mining

The OECD also suggests broadening the scope of Australia’s so-called Safeguard Mechanism, which at present regulates the emissions of Australia’s 215 biggest polluting facilities.

Key Points:

The OECD also suggests broadening the scope of Australia’s so-called Safeguard Mechanism, which at present regulates the emissions of Australia’s 215 biggest polluting facilities.
It awards Australia a score on carbon pricing well below the OECD average and even further below that of the top OECD performers.
The OECD is a forum of 38 mainly high-income countries, including Australia, that describe themselves as committed to democracy and market economies.
Declining productivity, declining competitiveness
The OECD finds signs of “reduced competitive intensity” in product markets, as well as falling labour mobility.

Introducing The Conversation's new climate series, Getting to Zero

Retrieved on:

Monday, October 2, 2023

Australia, like many other countries, has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 – just 27 years from now.

Key Points:

Australia, like many other countries, has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 – just 27 years from now.
Drawing on some of Australia’s leading experts on climate change, the series shows how the net zero transition will challenge not only local and global politics but our economy, financial systems and planning schemes.
These are just some of the articles that will appear in our Getting to Zero series.
The transition to net zero will stand or fall on the support it wins from the Australian public.

Too hard basket: why climate change is defeating our political system

Retrieved on:

Sunday, October 1, 2023

When I was first asked to write an opening piece in The Conversation’s series on climate change and the energy transition, I wanted to say no.

Key Points:

When I was first asked to write an opening piece in The Conversation’s series on climate change and the energy transition, I wanted to say no.
It may already be too late to save the world as we know it.
Or should I write “be under threat” instead of “likely be gone”, to soften the story?
The focus on rising temperatures itself makes the future seem more benign than it’s likely to be.

The Albanese government’s softly-softly response

In his 2023 Intergenerational Report Treasurer Jim Chalmers included climate change as one of the five major forces affecting future wellbeing.
It’s one among many, and the emphasis is on the economic opportunities and jobs offered by the energy transformation.
Chief Climate Councillor Tim Flannery said:
Climate dwarfs everything else in this report.
In The New Daily, Michael Pascoe asked, “What is Albanese hiding?
The Labor government’s response to the greatest emergency we face seems set on slow, as if we have time for an incremental response with little disruption to daily life and it’s OK to keep subsidising fossil fuels and approving new gas and coal projects.

Government can and must act

All this after four decades of neoliberalism in which both the federal and state governments have surrendered capacity to the private sector.
But as the COVID crisis showed us, when faced with an emergency our governments can act decisively and put the lives of people ahead of the interests of business.
A report from the Centre for Independent Studies claimed voters born after 1996 were the most progressive since the Second World War.
As the electoral weight shifts away from the old baby boomers Labor’s federal future is likely to be as a minority government with support from Greens and independents who will demand bolder action.

Why we struggle to face facts

Elliot from “Burnt Norton”, the first of his “Four Quartets”:
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.
Time past and time future What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present.

The road is long and time is short, but Australia's pace towards net zero is quickening

Retrieved on:

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Coal has been mined here for more than 200 years, providing generations of people with good livelihoods and lives.

Key Points:

Coal has been mined here for more than 200 years, providing generations of people with good livelihoods and lives.
The Hunter is developing a clean manufacturing precinct, and state and federal governments are investing heavily in the effort.
Even in the Hunter, with its long fossil fuel history, change is in the air.
The road is long and time is short, but our pace is quickening.
Last week, the US Treasury advised that financial institutions’ net zero plans should be in line with a 1.5℃ pathway.
The progress in technology in that time demonstrated potential to bring emissions to net zero over a decade faster than previously shown.
With a clear view of what is needed to bring homes to net zero, other states and the federal government can follow its lead.
The Net Zero Authority – created in July to help “seize the opportunities of Australia’s net zero transformation” – is the layer of connective tissue that will help these precincts succeed.

NZ's Green Party is 'filling the void on the left' as voters grow frustrated with Labour's centrist shift

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

With a 14.2% share in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll, up by 1.9 percentage points since the previous poll, that is more than half the Labour Party’s 26.5%.

Key Points:

With a 14.2% share in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll, up by 1.9 percentage points since the previous poll, that is more than half the Labour Party’s 26.5%.
The gain seems to have come from voters unimpressed by Labour’s centrist shift under leader Chris Hipkins, which leaves the Greens to fill a wider void on the left.
The party can claim policy success in several areas – environment and climate, housing quality, family and sexual violence prevention.

Distinctive party rules

Changes to the party constitution in May last year scrapped the requirement for a male co-leader.
The Greens’ 2023 party list reflects both new talent and greater ethnic diversity than in the past.
Far more than any other political party (save Te Pāti Māori), the distinctive leadership structure and decision-making rules allow the Greens to give effect to their commitments to te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi, gender equity and grassroots democracy.

Policy success

If getting the policy architecture in place to facilitate implementation is one measure of political success, then the Greens have achieved credible action on many fronts.
Getting the 2019 Zero Carbon Act across the line with cross-party support, with the subsequent setting up of the Climate Change Commission, was certainly a success.
Ultimately, the Greens’ policy positions on a range of issues are more radical than the outcomes that have been achieved under the Labour government.

Ending poverty and tax reform

However, there is no question the Greens have shifted the terms of the debate on poverty in Aotearoa.
The party’s Ending Poverty Together policy proposes an income guarantee that would ensure everyone, including students, receives at least NZ$385 a week after tax.
Its reconfigured tax structure claims to benefit an estimated 95% of all tax payers, a much broader group than National’s proposed tax cuts would affect.
While the details of the Greens’ tax policy would undoubtedly need refining, the potential to eliminate poverty and ensure free dental care for all offers a glimpse of what truly transformational policy can look like.

Future direction

At 14.2% in the polls, the party is closing in on its highest ever level of 15%, reached in 2017 in a TVNZ poll.
If current polling holds up and translates into a significantly expanded caucus, it may allow the Greens to more actively pursue their ideals.
This leaves a void on the left for the Greens to fill, while further eroding Labour’s base.

How climate assemblies can help Canada tackle the climate crisis

Retrieved on:

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Knowledge, Zero, Learning, Climate, Human, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Failure, Democracy, Policy, Knowledge Network, Climate change, Research, Carbon, Government, Citizenship, Population, Weather, Renewable energy, Oil

What is needed, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is an urgent, integrated effort to reduce carbon emissions while adapting to the impacts of climate change.

Key Points:

What is needed, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is an urgent, integrated effort to reduce carbon emissions while adapting to the impacts of climate change.
Unfortunately, Canada has consistently failed to make a significant contribution to this broader effort.
We argue that climate assemblies can be a powerful tool in moving past these limitations and driving meaningful action on climate policy, if designed and executed thoughtfully.

Canada and the climate crisis

The challenges of climate policy are exacerbated by Canada’s political context as an oil and gas producing country.
Additionally, when it comes to climate policy, many Canadians lack confidence in their provincial and federal governments, and are pessimistic that sufficient progress will be made in the near future.

Climate assemblies

Read more:
Citizens' assemblies: how to bring the wisdom of the public to bear on the climate emergency
For example, Scotland’s Climate Assembly brought together 106 individuals from 2020-21 to deliberate about how Scotland could address the climate emergency in an equitable and effective manner.
Read more:
How to make climate action popular
Climate assemblies can have many positive outcomes.
Unfortunately, not all climate assemblies to date have had a pronounced impact on policy and broader public engagement.
However, recent research by the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies has distilled many lessons aimed at making climate assemblies more impactful.

Leveraging climate assemblies in Canada

While Canada has a rich tradition of employing public assemblies on topics like electoral reform, climate assemblies have not yet garnered much use.
Important exceptions are the assemblies that were part of the Alberta Climate Dialogue initiative, including the Citizens’ Panel on Edmonton’s Energy and Climate Challenges.
For example, municipal governments could use climate assemblies to assess local impacts of different climate change scenarios and develop comprehensive resilience strategies.
Climate assemblies could be tasked with scrutinizing missed climate targets and critically appraising proposed remedial actions.

Article - What is the EU doing to reduce air pollution?

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Key Points:

The Conservatives have seized on cars as a political wedge – it's a bet on public turning against climate action

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

This is not the first time politicians have used cars to sell themselves to voters.

Key Points:

This is not the first time politicians have used cars to sell themselves to voters.
The cultural and economic importance of cars may have waned, but they remain important enough for politicians to use for electoral gain.
And it reveals a new tactic from the political right to maintain relevance as the climate crisis unfolds.

What’s changed since 1997?

In the lead-up to 2023, there has similarly been a lot of direct action by protesters against cars.
Then, as now, a Conservative government lurching from crisis to crisis has sought popular issues to revive its fortunes.
In 1997, the Tories were embroiled in a series of corruption scandals and nurturing an internal war over the EU.

Because of these changes, Sunak’s championing of motorists today works differently to the Mondeo man appeal in 1997. Then, both major parties agreed on the social and economic value of the car and sought to sideline and undermine the road protest campaigns. Both shored up this pro-car ideology and competed over who could best serve it.

Two pro-car parties

In practice, there remains little difference between the two parties on the question of cars.
Both assume that society will continue to be dominated by cars, but both have introduced enough (modest) policies to limit car use and promote alternatives.
To actively promote cars now requires a clearer affirmation and creates the possibility of using it as a wedge issue to attack the opposition with.
This rhetoric also borrows from populists undermining climate policy more generally, because the political logic of promoting cars is now one of backlash which claims “the people” have lost out from the various anti-car initiatives of both parties.