At this Friday's session at10 am we will look at the Federal Government Emissions Reduction Fund, the current primary policy instrument the government uses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from various sectors/industries.

​In particular I thought we could have a look at several of the prescribed 'methods' the government allows to achieve GHG abatement (such as increasing soil carbon). If you want to do some preliminary reading I suggest you check out the relevant website (https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/ERF/About-the-Emissions-Reduction-Fund)

Also, as this is the last session before we have Cr Danny Claridge join us to discuss the council's revision of their (our) environment and climate change adaptation plans, I thought we could have a look at the primary targets/actions of the current plans. Here again are the links to these:

Climate change adaptation plan: https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Council-Documents/Other-Plans-Strategies/Climate-Change-Adaptation-plan#:~:text=How%20does%20the%20adaptation%20action,after%20eight%20years%20(2021).

Environment plan: https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Council-Documents/Other-Plans-Strategies/Environment-Strategy


John

As some will know, Cr Danny Claridge will be attending our session on 7 October to talk about the upcoming review of Council's environment and climate adaptation plans. Following are links to the current versions of the plan. Don't be put off by the words, I suggest you find the table of actions and focus on these.

Attached is a template that council has asked to be completed so that Cr Claridge has more of an idea of what we will want him to talk about. Could I ask that you have a look at the current plans and add your suggestions to the template. I need to get this away to council so could I please put a deadline on this of next Monday.

Benalla City’s Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan: https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Council-Documents/Other-Plans-Strategies/Climate-Change-Adaptation-plan

Benalla City’s environment plan: https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Council-Documents/Other-Plans-Strategies/Environment-Strategy 

PS: these links take you to the relevant council web pages where you can download PDF files of the plans.

John

​We've had several questions over time about how heat pumps work; these are used for more efficient heating/cooling (split system air conditioners), hot water systems and refrigerators. I've just come across an article from ABC news online which provides an explanation:   

Alan Pears "Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90 per cent. It's not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics"  ABC News, September 8, 2022. The article first appeared on The Conversation.  

​Alan Pears is a senior industry fellow at RMIT University and advises the Australian alliance for Productivity and Energy Efficiency Council and others on heat pumps.  =

Regards

John

Did you know that the minimum sustainability/energy saving standards for new houses and some renovations in most of Australia is 6 Star (out of 10).
 
But what does this mean?
 
At this session we will have a look at the rules and recommendations for achieving housing sustainability across a number of issues from climate, lot size & orientation, house orientation, passive house design, energy and water use and long-term livability and adaptability.
 
I’ve also previously mentioned that Benalla Council has budgeted for an update of its environment and climate change adaptation plans. I’ve contacted council to see if I can get someone to talk to us about these pieces of work at some future date, but in the meantime we can have a look at the existing plans and perhaps identify changes we think might be worthwhile.
 
I’ve also included below a link to a recent ABC online news article about the next Commonwealth budget including some non-economic (wellness) indicators.
 
Links
 
Sustainable house design case studies (Aust Govt): https://www.yourhome.gov.au/case-studies
 
Benalla City’s Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan: file:///C:/Users/lane_/Downloads/INFORMATION-Final-Climate-Chanage-Adaptation-Action-Plan-FINAL-15112012%20(1).pdf
 
Benalla City’s environment plan: file:///C:/Users/lane_/Downloads/document-Environment_Strategy_2016_20.pdf
 
ABC News 29 Aug 22 – GDP v Wellness: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/can-you-tax-tears-gdp-on-the-way-out-wellbeing-budgets/101380286
 
 
John Lane
Convenor

At the Sustainability Group's first session in August, we discussed the findings of two recently released Australian government periodic reports which provide updates on issues we have previously discussed.  These are the CSIRO ‘mega-trends’ report, which was first published in 2012, and the Environment department's 2021 edition of its State of the Environment report (generally published every five years).  In the CSIRO's view there are two key new mega-trends that did not feature in its 2012 report; the need to adapt to the impacts of climate change and significant changes to the geo-political environment in the Indo-Pacific region.  With the state of the environment report there was a general trend downwards in almost all categories which include 12 issues such as Antarctica and air quality through to marine and urban environments.

At our second session we took a dive into options to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  This is predicated on the expectation that achieving 'net zero' greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 only deals with emissions being produced today.  But if we want to return atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to levels to that which existed around the beginning of the industrial revolution, then we need to come up with techniques that remove large volumes of carbon dioxide from the air.  We looked at a variety of nature-based and 'mechanical' means of removing carbon dioxide from the air and either turning the carbon component into long-lived products (such as concrete), burying the gas in stable geological structures or improving the environment (such as increasing soil carbon).
​
John Lane

This Friday we have another Sustainability Group Session.

I thought that this week we could consider in more depth an issue that has briefly been part of previous discussions; carbon capture from the atmosphere.

We know that while the transition to renewable electrical power generation, together with the 'electrification of everything', is the main game, particularly in the short to medium term, there will be still some types of carbon emissions that won't be able to be 'electrified'. In addition, with the slower than needed reduction in emissions globally, removing carbon from the atmosphere is likely to be required in the medium to long term to eventually bring atmospheric carbon levels back to near pre-industrial times or some other satisfactory level. The need for carbon removal as part of the package of actions has been acknowledged in the recent IPCC working group 3 report.

Here's an information sheet on carbon capture generally for pre class reading, but at our session I'd like to discuss the pros and cons of the variety of carbon capture methods. These include:

• Agroforestry
• Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage
• Biochar
• Blue carbon
• Direct air capture
• Enhanced mineralisation
• Forestation
• Mass timber
• Ocean alkalinisation
• Soil carbon sequestration

Look forward to seeing you all on Friday.


John

Web reference:  https://www.american.edu/sis/centers/carbon-removal/fact-sheets.cfm

We have another sustainability session this Friday commencing at 10: am.

Two Australian government periodic reports have been released since we last met which update issues we have previously discussed. For this session I thought it might be of interest to look at changes since these reports were previously published. 

• CSIRO has updated its ‘mega-trends’ report last published in 2012 
• The Environment department has released the 2021 edition of its State of the Environment report (generally published every five years) 

 
These reports can be found at the following links:

• CSIRO Megatrends Report 2022: https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/data/Our-Future-World 
• Aust Govt SoE Report 2021: https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/ 

Also recommended -  recent articles which relate to topics we've covered:
ACF article - Matilda Bowra 'Nature is Everyone's Business'
Country News article - 'Quantifying Natural Capital' on farms  https://www.countrynews.com.au/livestock/quantifying-natural-capital/


John Lane

In our first July session, the Sustainability group began the preparation of an integrated sustainability index that attempts to integrate the social, environmental and economic elements of sustainability; a replacement for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is currently used in Australia which focuses only on economic indicators. The New Zealand government is preparing a draft Wellbeing Index. Our index is based on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the primary organising system. We had a go at drafting 'targets, measures, indexes and scores for these goals. We discovered it's not an easy task.

In our second session we looked at what was needed to achieve a net zero carbon energy system for Australia. We compared two approaches from advocates to 'electrify everything' on the understanding we will eventually achieve carbon-neutral electricity production. The first was a bottom up (household up) approach proposed by Rewiring Australia and the second was a top-down approach proposed by the Clean Energy Council. We then considered these pathways with the Federal government's policy it took to the last election. We found that the new government's policy generally matched the primary the steps each of the advocates propose.

​
John Lane

It’s timely with the sudden rise in energy costs overall, including electricity, to have a closer look at how we move to an energy system based on renewable electricity.
 
The transition has already begun with all levels; government, industry and household. But it doesn’t seem to be well coordinated.
 
We will focus on how two independent research/advocacy organisations propose the transition can occur; ‘Rewiring Australia’ considers the transformation from the bottom (household level) up, while the Clean Energy Council outlines steps needed from the top down.
 
We will then have a look at the new federal government’s policy (from its pre-election manifesto) called ‘Rewiring the nation’ to see how this lines up with the proposals by the two advocacy groups.
 
We will also spend a little more time working through the Sustainability Index that we worked on last session. Incidentally, there was some news recently that the federal government is to introduce a number of community well being indicators alongside the gross domestic (GDP) indicators.
 
I’ve also included links to two recent CSIRO/ECOS articles of relevance
 
Links
 
Rewiring Australia Organisation: https://www.rewiringaustralia.org/
Clean Energy Council – Energy Transformation: https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/advocacy-initiatives/energy-transformation/
 
ALP’s Energy transition policy: https://keystone-alp.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/prod/61a9693a3f3c53001f975017-PoweringAustralia.pdf/
 
CSIRO ECOS magazine

• Hydrogen: https://ecos.csiro.au/hydrogen-industry-australia/
• Food supply during extreme weather events: https://ecos.csiro.au/keeping-food-on-plates-during-extreme-weather-events/

 
 
John Lane
15 July 2022

The Sustainability Group met on the 4th and 18th of June.  At our first session we looked at various attempts to value biodiversity.  In Australia we generally measure our 'wealth' in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is a purely a measure of economic performance of various industry and service sectors within our economy.  Many people are concerned that this measure takes little or no account of environmental or social aspects of our society.  Some countries have begun moving away from GDP to a more comprehensive and inclusive measure of social wellbeing.  In our session we looked at some attempts at establishing systems for valuing environmental attributes.  Two we considered were the Wentworth Group system of environmental accounting and the United Nations 'system of environmental-economic accounting', the latter being worked on by the governments of Australia.

In our second session we had two topics to discuss.  The first dealt with the megatrends that the world is facing. Megatrends are macroeconomic and geostrategic forces that are shaping the world. Presently most pundits see the key issues we face in the long term as being clearly in the sustainability basket; climate change, natural resource scarcity, population growth, pollution, waste and a circular economy amongst others. Our second topic concerned the land use planning and development system, in particular how, and whether, it can protect good quality agricultural land from being converted to non-agricultural forms of land use.
​

John Lane

Theme: Valuing nature and biodiversity - Session Outline and Links

• The concept of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) is a cornerstone concept in ensuing development decisions don’t just favour economic or financial outcomes.
• We have well accepted means of valuing the ‘economic’ component of ESD, both at the big picture scale, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and at the small or project scale, such as financial viability.
• The fact that we don’t have an agreed ‘formula’ for valuing biodiversity, as we do for economic and financial accounting, most likely results in decisions that favour the measurable value (economic) over the unmeasurable value (biodiversity).
• But how do can we value biodiversity (a concept that includes nature, ecology, habitat and species)?
• There have been many by attempts research ecologists, natural resource economists and others to do this, either to integrate biodiversity into the GDP equation or at the development assessment level; but the fact is there is no one approach that has been taken up.
• This is strange given consideration of environmental impacts has been included in most development legislation for almost 50 years in some jurisdictions.
• Complications arise because of the ‘nature’ of nature itself.
• There is no real agreement on which component or combination of components of nature should be used in the value equation.
• Valuing nature can be considered at a species level (such as relative rarity), ecosystem level (such as intactness, or by type of ecological community), via the ecological services an area provides and other components.
• In the concept of valuing nature for ‘nature’s sake’ how can a value ‘index’ be crafted that can be reasonably compared the monetary index used in economic or financial valuations.
• Alternatively, is it OK to just value nature or its components in relation its usefulness or financial value to people?
• The following links provide a brief look into the work being done in the field of biodiversity valuation.
• Some of these try to measure the financial value of one or more environmental services (e.g. recreational fishing), others try to establish biodiversity valuation index not related to money or people (e.g. the ‘econd’), while others attempt to value a natural area in terms of its non-financial benefits to people.

Incidentally, the ABC published today (1 June 22) an article about the limitations of only relying on GDP to our wellbeing:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-01/gdp-figures-measure-growth-but-are-we-counting-the-wrong-thing/101111454
 
Primary links
 
United Nations – System of environmental – economic accounting: https://seea.un.org/
 
DAWE (Aust) – Environment – Economic Accounts: https://eea.environment.gov.au/
 
Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists – the ‘Econd’: https://wentworthgroup.org/programs/environmental-accounts/
 
https://wentworthgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Quick-Guide-for-Constructing-Regional-Scale-Environmental-Asset-Condition-Accounts.pdf
Secondary links
 
Wikipedia - Ecological economics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_economics
 
European Forests Institute - Valuing Biological Diversity of Forests: https://efi.int/sites/default/files/files/publication-bank/2018/ir_04.pdf
 
OECD – Choice Modelling: https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?doclanguage=en&cote=env/epoc/geei/bio(2001)3/final
 
Ecosystem Valuation Group – contingent valuation: https://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/contingent_valuation.htm#over
 
Oregon State University – Intrinsic value of biodiversity: https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2015/feb/conservation-needs-recognize-nature%E2%80%99s-intrinsic-value-researchers-say
 
Healthy Parks Healthy People (Victoria):
https://finalreport.rcvmhs.vic.gov.au/personal-stories-and-case-studies/healthy-parks-healthy-people/#:~:text=Healthy%20Parks%20Healthy%20People%20was,strong%20focus%20on%20mental%20health.
 
https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/-/media/project/pv/main/parks/documents/get-into-nature/healthy-parks-healthy-people/200507_hphp-framework_revised-final_compressed.pdf?la=en&rev=345c7e8418e04e58a135d2ae660cd281&hash=A05116EFF35BEE2AD9D21804CC0E06C48FB6C07C
 
Ecology Centre (USA) – Measuring the value of biodiversity: https://www.ecologycenter.us/natural-history-2/measuring-the-value-of-biodiversity.html

The Sustainability group met on 6 May and 20 May. Based on several articles, our 6 May session continued discussions on how best to achieve net zero carbon gasses emissions from landscapes, both urban and rural. We also considered whether disruptions and social disturbances, such as the war in the Ukraine, will create long-term impediments to meeting global emissions goals by 2050. At a local level, we considered the achievement of a local farmer at Warrenbayne who has been awarded carbon neutrality status under a Meat and Livestock Australia scheme. We also examined which sectors are the biggest carbon emitters in Australia and how these emissions have been tracking over time.

At out 20 May session we discussed the relatively new science that aims to determine how much human emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG) can be attributed to severe weather events and our future climate. Attribution science in this scenario makes extensive use of large-scale climate models called general circulation models that assess whether events are made more severe as a result of the presence of human generated GHG emissions. This is still a developing area of science and cannot be reliably used for all types of weather events. We also briefly considered the headline statements from the latest report from the Climate Mitigation working group of the Independent Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which confirmed that without immediate (by 2030) and deep cuts to global GHG emissions, keeping global warming within the 1.5c to 2.0c range is unlikely to be achieved.

John Lane

Theme: How climate models are used to attribute human induced climate change to severe weather events and future climate projections

• We frequently hear in the media comments about how climate change is making extreme weather events worse as well as how human activity is affecting our changing climate.
• Comments about recent bushfires, floods, coral bleaching, tropical storms and polar ice melt events are often stated as being made worse by human caused climate change
• But what is the veracity of these claims given extreme weather events are inherently variable and other natural factors influence climate change.
• In relatively recent times scientists have adopted and applied the concept of ‘attribution’ to specific weather events and future climate projections.
• In this context attribution science attempts to determine the extent that human activity has contributed to severe weather events and climate change.
• Using climate models, attribution science attempts to determine how the severity of an event or future climate projections has/will be changed by human impacts.
• Following are links to several articles and a nine minute video on the subjects of attribution science and climate modelling.
• If time permits, we could also consider the latest ‘headline statements from the IPCC working Group 111 – Mitigation of Climate Change. A link to these statements also follows.

 
 
Colombia University – Attribution science : https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/10/04/attribution-science-linking-climate-change-to-extreme-weather/
 
Verisk  - Attribution Science: https://www.air-worldwide.com/publications/air-currents/2020/the-new-science-of-event-attribution/
 
CSIRO ECOS – Climate change attribution to severe weather events: https://ecos.csiro.au/climate-change-attribution/
 
Pacific Institute for climate solutions - climate models video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkcrH9tYv8g
 
MIT – What are climate models: https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/climate-models
 
BOM’s climate models - http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/ahead/about/model/access.shtml
 
IPCC working group 111 headline statements from the April 2022 report: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/resources/spm-headline-statements/

This week's session will be held this Friday, 6 May, beginning at 9:30 am. The theme will be: 'Achieving net zero CO2 (equivalent) emissions by 2050 in a turbulent world' 
 
Background

The New Scientist article indicates that the Ukraine crisis has generated a scramble for resources that is jeopardising the thrust for renewables and accelerating the increase in atmospheric CO2. Alternatively, sanctions imposed on Russia's gas pipe line may pave the way for the exit from hydrocarbons as the critical energy source.  
 
The CSIRO ECOS (link: https://www.csiro.au/Newsletters/ECOS/2022-04 ) article discusses the method use to determine how to meaure climate change attribution to specific severe weather events.  

The Benalla Ensign article showcases a local farmer who has achieved carbon neutrality under a scheme promoted by Meat and Livestock Australia. 
 
Frank Dunin’s paper considers the difficulty of measuring the take up of carbon in wooded ecosystems. 
 
Introduction 

• Urban communities with high population density that sponsor high traffic and industrial activity lead to concentrated sources of trace gas emission. Of major concern are two carbon gases, CO2 and CH4 because of heating capacity and having relatively long residence time in the atmosphere. Does Urban Planning have a role in mitigating carbon emissions such as venting methane for energy generation or effecting appropriate drainage around industrial sites? 
• Rural landscapes are characterised by the presence of green vegetation for extended periods. This presence is supported by Photosynthesis entailing the assimilation of CO2 predominantly from the atmosphere. This capacity for CO2 assimilation has attracted industrial enterprises to offset their carbon emissions in striving towards carbon neutrality by 2050. Wooded ecosystems appeal as effective agents for this offset. The capacity for legitimate offset is being questioned in wooded communities as to their effectiveness and raises the question of "Is carbon neutrality achievable by 2050"?   
• Tom Crocker's contribution of land capability survey with perturbations through land management becomes a valuable asset to judge whether urban emissions can be balanced with rural assimilation.   
• Judging ecosystem efficacy to offset urban emission require understanding of carbon balance of these systems and how they are distributed across the landscape.  

Who are the big GHG emitters in Australia? 

• Key groupings of GHG emission sectors consist of: 
  • Electricity 
  • Stationary energy (except electricity) 
  • Transport 
  • Agriculture 
  • Fugitive emissions 
  • Industrial processes 
  • Waste 
  • Land use, and use change and forestry (LULUCF) 
• What do they each proportionally contribute to Australia’s total GHG emissions? 

https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-quarterly-update-march-2021   

• How does Australia’s GHG emissions compare to other nations? 
  • By volume: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions 
  • Per capita: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?type=shaded&view=map  

Attachments: 

• New Scientist article 
• ECOS article link: https://www.csiro.au/Newsletters/ECOS/2022-04  
• Ensign article  
• Frank’s paper 

John Lane

First apologies for not getting a Sustainability Group report into last month's newsletter. All my own forgetful self's fault!

In April the group had only one session due to the Good Friday holiday. However, Tom Crocker bravely volunteered to take our session on Friday April 1. No April fooling involved as Tom gave a terrific account of his family moving their farming properties to a more sustainable footing over the generations.

Tom showed us some great of maps of the area south west of Benalla and explained how management issues and their treatment varied between the eastern slopes of their properties to the adjacent plains and the lessons learnt along the way.

He also talked about how the area was described by the first Europeans surveying the area as being an almost 'park like' environment created by thousands of years of Aboriginal land management practices.

Additionally Tom provided some fascinating soil mapping undertaken by Dookie College produced by students under guidance who undertook what sounded like a 'line search' across the landscape taking soil samples at short regular intervals. The resulting soil maps have been used by many farmers since to plan their operations.

Finally, Tom pulled, not out of a hat, but out of a steel bucket, some really interesting Aboriginal artifacts picked up while ploughing. He showed beautiful examples of grinding and milling stones, as well as cutting stones. It was a great session. Thanks Tom.

John Lane

At our February sessions the Sustainability Group looked into the history of the sustainability concept and how it has developed since the 1980s.

We discussed various definitions and examples of sustainability including the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.

We also looked at examples of sustainability strategies at the Australian, State, local, industry and household level, noting that most of these only dealt some aspects, such as waste, unlike the comprehensive approach adopted by the United Nations.

We also discussed a number of cases where nations have begun to move away from a single economic focus of measuring our wellbeing (‘gross domestic product’) to including social and environmental components as well, such as Bhutan’s concept of ‘gross domestic happiness’.
​
John Lane

During November our focus, like that of the media, was on Australia’s poor performance at the COP26 in Glasgow.
​
In the lead up to COP26 we spent much time discussing the political “theatre” that took place between Scott Morrison and the Nationals to reach an agreement on Net Zero Emissions by 2050.
 
We studied an interesting article about the modelling behind the government’s “so called Plan” for emissions reduction, which revealed that the Prime Minister had got the Nationals to agree to a plan that supported fossil fuels over farmers.
 
The modelling showed that the government had been considering two scenarios. One that could see Australia increase its investment in domestic carbon sequestration, achieved primarily through increased revegetation of Australian land, which would boost income for farmers and result in Australia achieving full net zero emissions by  2050. However, the government and the National Party room chose a plan that cuts emissions by 85 percent by 2050 and leaves the fossil fuel industry better off.
 
We also had much discussion about what was happening at COP26 and, in particular, the issue of reducing the use of fossil fuels. We read an article about the “Fossil Fuelled 5”, wealthy countries that have amassed vast amounts of wealth from fossil fuels over centuries and are unwilling to give it up – when the wealth could be used to fund the transition to cleaner energy for developing countries.

The five wealthy countries nominated in the report as the “Fossil Fuelled 5” are the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and Australia. All of these countries plan to approve and subsidize new fossil fuel projects despite claiming to be leading the climate fight.
 
Freddie Daley, from the University of Sussex, and the author of the report “The Fossil Fuelled 5” says:
“Not only are these wealthy nations jeopardizing their own futures and the future of their citizens through this continued expansion, but they are condemning communities in the global south to a sate of perpetual crisis which they did the least to create. If these nations want to be climate pioneers, it is time they addressed the elephant in the room: fossil fuels.”
 
For many of our meetings throughout the last 12 months the politics of climate change was a major focus of our discussions and will no doubt be a major issue in the coming federal election.
 
After thirteen years as Convenor of the Sustainability group this will be my final report as we will be moving away from Benalla in the new year. However, the group will continue in 2022 as two current members have agreed to act as joint convenors.
 
John Lloyd

Over the last several weeks the media has been full of "Will the Prime Minister declare a target of Net Zero emissions by 2050, or will he not?"  And of course there has been the issue of the resistance from the Nationals.
​
The Nationals don't seem to have the support of the agriculture sector for their resistance as the major farming and livestock groups have set their own target for emissions reductions. It seems that the Nationals are more concerned about coal miners in NSW and Queensland, as the writing is certainly on the wall for the phasing out of coal.
 
We recently viewed a Foreign Correspondent program, "Old King Coal" , which looked at what was happening in Spain, where the government has declared an end to coal mining and coal fired energy.  The program interviewed some of the miners who had been able to take government funded early retirement and others who had moved to different government sponsored jobs. There was some criticism from former miners about this transition program.
 
We have often talked about the need for a national transition plan in Australia to help coal mining areas cope with the decline of coal mining. At our most recent session we discussed an article about what had happened in the Latrobe Valley with the sudden closure of the Hazelwood power station. The Victorian government established the Latrobe Valley Authority, with a $226 million rescue package designed to retrain workers and entice workers to the Valley. It seems that this transition plan has worked well, as the gloomy predictions for the Latrobe Valley following Hazelwood's closure have not eventuated, and there has been an increase in employment rates.  Members felt that what had happened in the Latrobe Valley could provide some guidance for a national transition plan.
 
John Lloyd

U3A members concerned about sustainability and climate change were among those supporting the Benalla Student Climate Change rally on Friday 21 May, Delfina and Brian proudly wearing their Grandparents for Climate Change T-Shirts!

Photos - Bev Lee/Bev Thornell

Victoria's Climate Change Strategy was released at the beginning of May and was a major topic of discussion at our session. While it was considered to have many positive aspects the general feeling from conservation groups was that it had not gone far enough. Dr Nicholas Aberle from Environment Victoria suggests that the climate goals are caught between politics and science. While the Victorian emission targets are politically bold, they are scientifically inadequate. He argues that we must encourage the government for taking responsibility and praise them for their leadership while also pointing out that we need to go much further, much faster, if we are to stay within the 1.5 degree warming limit.

And then of course there was the release of the Federal Budget which was severely criticised for being very light on climate and environmental issues. It seems that the government does not like to even use the word 'climate'. It just appears in two items in Budget Paper Number 2.

The budget allocated considerable money to fund new carbon capture and storage projects which aim to capture some CO2 at the point of emission and store it underground. The aim of this is to allow continued fossil fuel use with lower emissions, which demonstrates the priorities of the Federal government. Recent research into carbon capture and storage projects shows that the vast majority of projects fail.

There was much discussion about this and other aspects of the budget including its support for a 'gas fired recovery', which group members believe will not reduce emissions. Gas is sometimes described as emitting about half as much as coal when burned, but studies have shown its impact is much higher due to the leakage of methane during extraction and piping.

The world's leading energy authority, the International Energy Agency, issued a statement saying that rich countries like Australia have an obligation to reach net zero emissions earlier than 2050 if we are to meet the Paris target. The statement said that no new mines are needed, no new coal plants should be built and that no new natural gas fields are needed. Group members contrasted this with the continued support of the federal government for coal and gas. On the same day that the statement from the International Energy Agency was released the government announced it would be spending $600 million of tax-payer's money on a new gas fired plant in northern NSW.

Sometimes it is hard to come away from our sessions with any real hope that Australia will take effective action in relation to climate change.
​
John Lloyd

Due to Easter, we only had one session this month.

As many readers would be aware there has been much discussion in the media about the impacts of climate change, the decline of coal, the 'gas led' recovery and of course emission reduction targets.

Many members had watched the Four Corners program on the "Gas Led Recovery" and the issues presented during that program led to much discussion. A report from the Australian Energy Market Operator that declared "there will be no gas shortfall" also contributed to the discussion.

The topic of battery storage was also raised during these discussions and we read an article about some research conducted by the Australia Institute titled, "Renewables plus batteries offer Australia the same energy security as coal." This led to discussion about how battery storage can provide stability to the grid. Questions were raised about how long battery storage could maintain grid operation in the event of major breakdowns. This is something we need to explore a little further.
​
John Lloyd

Due to the building renovations Sustainability was unable to meet during February and our first session will be on Friday 5th March.

This year we have 17 people enrolled which is the largest the group has ever been over the thirteen years it has been operating.

Maybe this is an indication that sustainability and climate change are becoming important issues to a greater number of people.

It would be good to see that reflected throughout the Benalla community.

There has been a lot of talk about ‘green hydrogen’ as a major source of clean energy and members have been provided with two articles about Twiggy Forest’s ambitious plans to develop ‘green hydrogen’ and ‘green steel’.

I look forward to starting our meetings and to the interesting discussions about such issues
​
John Lloyd

This course aims to explore topics such as global warming and climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, clean energy options, the challenge of population growth, sustainable agricultural practices, water use, sustainable use of resources, sustainable and energy efficient building design and various economic and lifestyle issues.  

The first session of Sustainability in 2021 is scheduled in the U3A meeting room on Friday 19th February from 9.30 to 11.30 am.
 
John Lloyd 5765 2476

​Victorians seem to have done the right thing to suppress the Corona virus and it is looking hopeful for a reasonable Christmas.

This will be the final distribution of sustainability articles for this year as this Friday would have normally been the final meeting for the year.
 
Because it is the final email I have taken the liberty of attaching quite a few articles.

You may have heard the announcement from the Victorian government that the budget will include a major household energy efficiency package which is a very significant amount.
I have attached the media release from the Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio. 

Those of you who have known me for some time know about my passion for energy efficient and sustainable housing, so you won’t be surprised that I have included two articles on this issue.

Other articles include the ‘State of the Climate Report’, good news of renewable energy developments in NSW and of some major ‘green energy’ projects across Australia.
​
The final article is about how Australia could become isolated over its inaction on climate.
 
The Sustainability Zoom meeting on Friday will be the final one for this year. See the link below.
 
As this will probably be my final email for 2020, I would like to take the opportunity to wish everybody all the best for the coming festive season, and hope that we will be able to have face-to-face meetings in 2021.
 
The link for the Sustainability Zoom meeting at 10am this Friday, 20th November is:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79362106059?pwd=MWphTUpmT3RXTkV3QU1INmxCWkNrUT09
 
John

Reading List

Household Energy Efficiency Package
Media Release Lily D'Ambrosio Victorian Government  November 17, 2020

All-electric, self-sustaining homes for suburban Sydney
ARENA 15 October 2020
​
Should energy efficiency ratings be compulsory?
Penelope Thomas           The West Australian                      Mon, 19 October 2020

​Green giants: the massive projects that could make Australia a clean energy superpower
The Guardian            Environmental Investigations           Adam Morton            Sat 14 Nov 2020

NSW's coal heartland to host state's newest renewable energy zone
Peter Hannam                        Sydney Morning Herald                     November 16, 2020

Australia warned it could be isolated over climate inaction after Joe Biden victory
Adam Morton            The Guardian             Sun 8 Nov 2020

​State of the climate: five big issues from the report that will affect every Australian
The Guardian Environmental investigations           Graham Readfearn     Sat 14 Nov 2020