AUSTRALIA  

Australia now gets nearly 80% of its power from coal plants. Almost 2% comes from wind power; 2.3% comes from solar energy. Until Kevin Rudd became the new prime minister of Australia in November 2007, Australia was the only significant nation not to have signed the Kyoto Protocol along with the USA. Ratification came into effect in March 2008 and Australia has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% of 2000 (not 1990) levels by 2050. However half of those reductions would come from imported permits and it is not expected that emissions will begin falling until around 2030. The so-called 2020 target of 5% reduction (in itself not very ambitious) would be achieved by importing carbon permits from developing countries. Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are among the highest in the world at about 28 tonnes per capita. Although Australia has no nuclear power stations, it has almost 40% of the world's known uranium reserves, of which it supplies only 19% of the world market.

Australia is a small greenhouse gas polluter in global terms, but one of the worst per capita because it relies heavily for its electricity on its abundant reserves of coal, which also make it the world's largest exporter of the polluting fuel. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. link         

April 28 2013: Australia’s abundant coal could be worthless. If the world's governments fulfil their agreement to act on climate change, Australia’s huge coal industry is a speculative bubble ripe for financial implosion. The warning that much of the nation's coal reserves will become worthless as the world hits carbon emission limits comes after banking giant Citi also warned Australian investors that fossil fuel companies could do little to avoid the future loss of value. A recent report by Carbon Tracker found that at least two-thirds of existing fossil fuel reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet existing internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for "dangerous" climate change. The new report shows Australian coal reserves owned by listed companies alone are equivalent to 25% of the global carbon budget for the fuel to 2050. link

April 5 2013: More than one million homes now have solar power. More than two million Australians are now getting cheaper power and saving some half a billion dollars a year on their electricity bills, because of their switch to solar power. The number of Australian homes with solar power systems has passed the one million mark, according to figures from the Clean Energy Regulator that confirm the milestone was reached in March. "It is remarkable when you think that just five years ago in 2008 there were only about 20,000 systems installed across the entire country," said David Green, chief executive of Clean Energy Council.  link

• Overview of renewables and Carbon Tax
• Drought plagues Australia
  
• Solar Power
• Wind Power
• What coal means to Australia / Carbon Capture
• Other news

Currently, 8% of Australia's electricity comes from renewable sources, including hydroelectric generators built late last century, according to the private Clean Energy Council. But climate change Minister Penny Wong told the Senate that even with one-fifth of Australia's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020, the nation's carbon gas emissions are projected to be 20% higher than 2000 levels. link

March 2013: Australia commits to 20% renewables by 2020. The Australian Government's Climate Change Authority has committed to maintaining its renewable energy target (RET) of 20% of the nation's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020. The Government also emphasizes that 20% is only a minimum target, and leaves "the way open for improvements in energy efficiency to deliver a higher share of renewable energy. Since the Labor party was elected into office in late 2007, over 2 GW of large-scale renewable energy projects have been completed in addition to nearly a million rooftop solar PV systems and over half a million solar and heat-pump water systems.  link

November 2012: Australia looks ahead to renewable future. Renewable energy sources could rapidly expand to provide 40% of Australia's energy needs by 2035 and 85% by 2050 and virtually eliminate coal-fired power stations, according to the latest energy white paper. The transformation from coal dependency to renewable energy would require more than A$200 billion of investment in new power plants. But Australia remains firmly attached to carbon capture and storage (CCS) and its booming gas sector. Under the 85% by 2050 scenario, modeling sees fossil-fuel-fired with CCS contributing 29% to the energy mix, large-scale solar 16%, wind energy and household solar PV 13% each, geothermal energy 9%, and hydroelectricity and bioenergy 5%. link

December 2010: In 2010, renewables contributed 8.67% (21,751GW) of Australia's energy supply. Of this, hydropower accounted for 60%, wind for 23%, bioenergy for 12% and solar for 2%. Over 100,000 rooftop solar systems were installed, more than the previous 10 years combined. (Australia has a renewable target of 20% by 2020.) 

February 2010: Australia group rolls out plan for 100% renewable energy by 2020   A report to be released in the first half of 2010 finds that Australia can use solar and wind power to produce 100% of its electricity in 10 years using technologies that are available now. The study is being compiled by the Victoria–based advocacy group Beyond Zero Emissions and is based on the research of engineers and scientists. "We have concluded that there are no technological impediments to transforming Australia’s stationary energy sector to zero emissions over the next 10 years," said Matthew Wright, executive director of Beyond Zero Emissions. Wright concedes that the plan is ambitious. At the same time, he says, it is "totally feasible," despite the price tag. The cost of quitting carbon entirely is estimated at around $36 billion per year, or up to 3.5 percent of Australia's annual GDP. link  

Australia's renewable energy future is online here  

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May 2012: Carbon tax to raise $25 billion. Australia’s Climate Change Minister expects to raise $24.8 billion in the first four years from  the 500 biggest polluters which account for 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Companies will be charged $25 per ton of carbon produced, rising 2.5% for the next two years. Many exceptions have been made for industries, such as granting three years of free permits for energy intensive exporters like aluminum and steel, and funds to clean up coal. The goal is for renewable energy to supply 40% of Australia's energy by 2050, up from 10% from 2011. link  [June 15: The number of companies expected to be affected by the carbon tax has been almost halved, suggesting Prime Minister Gillard is keen to mitigate the economic impact of the controversial policy. link]

October 2011: Carbon tax bill passes. Australia's lower house of parliament has narrowly passed (74 votes for and 72 against) a bill for a controversial carbon tax. It is expected to pass the Senate with the help of the Greens next month. The legislation would force about 500 of the biggest polluters to pay for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. The tax is central to the government's strategy to combat climate change, but the opposition says it will cause job losses and raise the cost of living.  link  
Carbon dioxide emissions would be taxed at A$23 beginning July 2012 covering the country's biggest 500 companies. In 2015, a market-based trading scheme will be introduced. The aim is to cut 159m tonnes of carbon pollution by 2020, reducing emissions by 5% below 2000 levels. Apart from the European Union, only New Zealand currently imposes a national carbon tax.  link  (60% of Australians say they oppose the tax; after the next election in 2013, a defeat for the government would possibly lead to a repeal of the tax. A vote on the bill will take place October 12 2011.)  

The Big Dry.  Australia is the most arid continent on Earth and perpetually struggles with water scarcity problems that will only worsen as the planetary temperature rises. About two-thirds of Australia receives less than 20 inches of rain a year, and only 10% of the continent receives more than 40 inches. Presently in what is known locally as the "Big Dry", Australia is in the grip of its worst drought in a century which has been causing devastation in the country. More than 10,000 Australian farming families have had to leave their land as a result of the country's ongoing drought. link  South Australia, Australia's driest state, has decided to buy in water supplies amid fears it will run out in 2009. In December 2008, the government of South Australia said it had spent tens of millions of dollars to ensure Adelaide (Australia's fifth-largest city) and the state had enough water. South Australia, which already receives the least rainfall of any Australian state, is experiencing the worst drought in a thousand years according to scientific experts. The state's water security minister said she had purchased 61 billion gallons of extra water for 2009. link

January 2011: Extreme weather part of Australia’s future. Global Change Professor Peter Grace from the Queensland University of Technology says Australia will see a higher incidence of extreme weather events like the flooding in Queensland, saying greenhouse gases and global warning are contributing factors, whether people want to accept it or not. He says it will not happen tomorrow, but it will happen in years to come and people will come to know major flooding.  Since late December 2010, more than 70 towns and cities across Queensland have been flooded and more than 200,000 people have been affected. link

August  2010: First Australian territory to take GHG emissions seriously. Australia's smallest self-governing territory, the Australian Capital Territory, announced plans to enact tough energy laws on greenhouse gas emissions. A new bill aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40% of its 1990 levels by 2020 and become carbon neutral by 2060. link

July  2010: Australia's five largest cities to spend $13.2bn on desalination plants. The plants are scheduled to be up and running in two years and will draw up to 30% of their water from the ocean. Critics argue that desalination will add to the very climate change that is aggravating the country's water shortage, and urge better water management and conservation.  link
Desalination plants necessary for Australia. Desalination plants could supply about one-third of the country's water in the next two years, according to estimates. Since the 1970s, southwest Australia has seen declines of up to 20% in its annual rainfall. In the past decade, a drought said to be the worst in  more than 100 years parched much of the country 
and forced state and local agencies to look to alternate sources of water. Through analysis of snowfall in Antarctica, scientists have pegged climate change as a cause of the extreme weather, and predict that water shortages will only intensify in the future.  link  

October 2009: Climate change threatens Australia's coastal lifestyle, report warns. With 80% of Australians living along the coast, a government environmental committee warns that thousands of miles of Australia's coastline are under threat from rising sea levels. A new report into the effects of climate change on Australia's vast coastline is forcing the country to consider the unthinkable: life away from the surf. The report does not say the government should force people to move inland, but proposes that an independent group look into whether the government could - and should - do just that. link
   

Australia has an estimated 1,031MW of installed photovoltaic (PV) power as of August 2011, contributing an estimated 2.3% of total electricity production. Growth in the amount of installed PV capacity in Australia has been dramatic with a 10-fold increase between 2009 and 2011. October 2012: According to the Australian Clean Energy Regulator (ACER), there is now just under 2GW of solar capacity installed on domestic roofs. More than 858,000 homes in Australia are equipped with solar photovoltaic panels and more than 600,000 have solar thermal panels. link

October 2012: 10MW solar farm announced. Australia has flicked the switch on its first utility-scale solar farm. The farm takes the title of the largest solar facility in the country, consisting of 150,000 thin film photovoltaic modules across a 50-acre site. The $50m project will provide electricity to power a nearby desalination plant in the south west of the country and hopes to avoid 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year and provide energy to the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant, which provides drinking water in Perth and the rest of south-west Australia. There are plans in the pipeline to quadruple the size to 40MW. link

Photovoltaic in Australia. In the mid 1990s Australia was the 4th largest world manufacturer of PV cells, but has since lost out to locations with cost advantage, such as China or strong local (and government) support, such as Germany. The situation in Australia has changed dramatically since 2007 with renewed government support for solar deployment programs. More than 22MW of PV was installed in 2008 representing an 80% increase on 2007 levels and increasing installed capacity in Australia to 104.5MW.While much of the newly installed capacity is grid-connected, the largest installed capacity of PV in Australia is for off-grid industrial and agricultural use. link

July 2012: Solar alone could supply Victoria with energy. Victoria could capture enough energy from the sun to meet its electricity needs twice over and trails other parts of the world in harnessing wind power, says the national Climate Commission. It is estimated that Victoria receives at least 2500 petajoules of usable solar energy - more than double the amount consumed across the state in 2009-10, when demand for electricity peaked. On wind power, the commission says installed generation is only a fraction of what could be harnessed. It contrasts the state with Denmark, which is more densely populated and has similar onshore wind speeds but in 2010 had seven times more wind energy. link

January 2011: A 100MW solar farm to be built in New South Wales,  Australia's most populous state. Covering about 200 hectares and generating enough energy to power 20,000 homes, the farm will avoid the generation of 150,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. link

As of October 2010, there were 52 wind farms in Australia with a generating capacity of 1,880 MW, close to 2% of Australia's national electricity demand. Half of generation can be found in South Australia. Wind comprises approximately 23% of renewables.

February 2013: Wind energy now cheaper than coal. Wind is now cheaper than fossil fuels in producing electricity in Australia according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Relying on fossil fuels to produce electricity is getting more expensive because of the government's price on carbon emissions imposed last year, higher financing costs and rising natural gas prices, BNEF (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) said. The cost of wind generation has fallen by 10% since 2011 on lower equipment expenses, while the cost of solar power has dropped by 29%.  link

August 2011: New 600MW farm announced. South Australia already has 534 turbines installed producing 1,150MW of wind-generating capacity, which is more than 21% of the state's total electricity generation."  A 600MW farm will catapult the state towards a target of 33% of renewable-energy generation by 2020 according to South Australia Premier Mike Rann. The project should be complete by the end of 2015. (pictured, Wattle Point 91MW wind farm) link

August 2010: Southern hemisphere's largest wind farm. The largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere will be built in Australia at Macarthur near Hamilton, 260km west of Melbourne, Victoria. The 420 MW Macarthur Wind Farm will have the capacity to power more than 220,000 average Victorian homes and abate more than 1.7 million tons of greenhouse gases every year, the equivalent of taking more than 420,000 cars off the road each year. link

January 2012: Australians want wind, but politics and media get in the way. A new study found that 83% of Australians supported wind, with only 14% opposed. Interestingly, it found the opposite for coal, which is opposed by 65% of people. Gas was intermediate between the two. link

Australia, already the world biggest coal exporter (see here), plans to double its coal exports by 2030. According to Greenleft, a radical independent news source, PM Kevin Rudd has presented the illusion of an effective response to climate change, which steers the middle ground between big business and green groups. However in practice, he is just as pro-coal as his predecessor, John Howard. link [Kevin Rudd was replaced as party leader in June 201 by Julia Gillard.] 
August 2012: Indonesia becomes lead exporter - link

With an increasing population and demand for energy expanding, Australia is very dependent upon coal. As a primary producer, user and the world’s leading exporter, its coal industry is very powerful and has one of the world's biggest public-private R&D efforts to make carbon capture and storage (CCS) a commercial reality. But, in the same way the US flagship CCS project FutureGen folded because of rising costs, some high-profile Australian projects have already been canned. The IEA (International Energy Agency) said several industrial-size pilot CCS projects planned for Europe, North America and Australia are making “slow progress” and if they fail to materialise soon, it will be at least 2030 before CCS can contribute meaningfully to greenhouse-gas reduction.  link

Black coal is Australia’s largest single export commodity, and the world’s 4th largest producer behind China, the USA and India. Black coal reserves are estimated to be sustained for 100 years. Brown coal, a lesser quality coal, has 400 years of reserves. Production of black coal totalled over 325 million tons in 2008. Over 70% of exports go to Asia. Both  black and brown coal account for over 83% of electricity generation in Australia. link 

Almost 98% of coal exported by Australia is extracted from mines present in the Bowen Basin in Queensland and the Hunter Valley basins in New South Wales. Western Australia also has some mines producing coal situated south of Perth. Some lower grade lignite coal is also found in Victoria. link   However Australia's coal industry has become a victim of its own success. In its rush to meet growing Chinese demand, producers churned out more and more coal, and miners are now stuck with more than they can sell. (May 2013)  link

CCS projects in Australia: Decreasing CO2 emissions from major stationary sources is firmly on the Australian agenda and carbon capture and storage is seen as a vital part of the national mitigation portfolio. There are now a number of CCS demonstration projects underway or planned and several major commercial CCS projects proposed for Australia. link 
December 2012 - The coal industry says it has made a giant step forward with the opening of Australia's first 'clean coal' carbon capture plant in Biloela, central Queensland, a 30MW plant. While capturing 85% of CO2 gases, the operators still seek somewhere to store the gas. link

A growing population is another source of future problems for Australia. Currently 21 million people live in Australia, The Optimum Population Trust, an environmental organization in England whose concern is with the impact of population growth on the environment, determined that at the current standard of living (as determined by the WWF's Living Planet Report 2002), the optimum population for Australia is 10 million and at a lower standard of living it is 21 million – where it stands today.  Government estimates that the population will increase by 53% by 2050 (to 33 million). 

Australia’s population – what is sustainable?  link
February 2009: Australia faces collapse as climate change kicks in.  link  
Country profile from Renewable Energy World