Oz Environmental Follies Part The 2nd: Energy Minister Confirms Shift Away From Wind, Solar
The Morrison government will on Friday signal plans to shift investment from wind and solar to hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, lithium and advanced livestock feed supplements, as part of a “bottom up” strategy to reduce emissions by 2050.
Angus Taylor will use a speech to an economic thinktank to put some flesh on the bones of the Coalition’s much-vaunted technology roadmap. The emissions reduction minister will also declare Australia will take a technology-based long-term emissions reduction “strategy” to the United Nations-led climate talks in Glasgow at the end of this year. While not ruling out adopting a specific emissions reduction target, Taylor will contend the “top down” approach of countries proposing emissions reduction targets in the global climate framework has “failed” because countries are not delivering on their commitments.
EDIT
Taylor will say the looming technology investment roadmap will form the cornerstone of the government’s 2050 emissions reduction strategy, providing guidance to the public and the private sector on “what future energy and emissions-reduction technologies the government will prioritise”. He will say the government has already invested $10.4bn into clean technology projects with a value of $35bn, but declare “we are coming to an end of the value of these investments”.
“Wind and solar are economic as a source of pure energy at least, and the government should not crowd out private sector investment,” the minister will say. “We must move our investments to the next challenges – hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, lithium and advanced livestock feed supplements to name a few”. Taylor will say the roadmap will include “measurable economic goals for technology that will allow us to assess the cost curve for technologies and to give a clear signal for when a technology is commercial”.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/28/angus-taylor-to-announce-shift-in-climate-investment-away-from-wind-and-solar