This is to draw your attention to the draft that is posted on the Lobbying/Advocacy working group page. Some of the material is not relevant to the state policy environment and will be edited out before the finalised  statement goes to candidates once they have declared for the Southern Highlands seat for the 24 March state election.

Ian Bowie General

 

Human-induced climate change is fundamentally linked to the ways in which we use energy, including energy embodied in the goods and services that we consume. Eighty per cent of all energy consumed globally is derived from fossil fuels (all of which cause greenhouse gas emission). Most of the rest is derived from renewable as well as non-renewable sources that have other dirty and/or dangerous by-products as well (data from energy tables for 2001 in www.earthtrends/wri/org). 
 

While the vast majority of the energy produced in Australia is exported we use a great deal of energy within Australia. Energy accounting is very difficult but data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (Energy in Australia, Canberra, 2006) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounts, CAT 4604.0, Canberra, 2001) suggests how we use energy here..
 

Fossil fuels account for almost all of the energy used in Australia. If we look beyond intermediate stages of production and distribution to where goods and services end up, almost thirty per cent of all the energy used in our country ends up in processed goods and services that are exported. About three quarters of the remainder is used directly or indirectly by households.
 

Less than a quarter of the energy used by households is energy consumed in homes in the form of electricity, gas and the like. Rather more is energy used by households for personal transport (much of which is by private motor vehicles). Half is energy that has been used in the production or distribution of goods and services that are consumed by household members, such as buildings, vehicles, food and the like (our consumption of imports is not included in this reckoning).
 

What this boils down to is that most of Australia’s use of greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels ends up as our own personal consumption. While nationally we must harness renewable sources of energy and become more efficient in converting and moving energy around our country, and while our governments and businesses need to cut their own use of energy, we as individuals must reduce our own consumption of energy.
 

As individuals we have to do more than just reduce our consumption of gas and electricity. We have to reduce our personal travel and our consumption of goods and services. Can we do this? Well, many people around the world live in comfort on much less energy than we consume in Australia (though many more in the world live in very little comfort for lack of access to energy).
 

The big question is: can we do this voluntarily and quickly? I don’t think so. The behavioural change needed is too big. We need leaders (rather than politicians) whom we can trust to bring about fundamental changes necessary to enable us to change, such as ensuring  that energy pricing reflects the full life-cycle costs to our environment of our using energy.
 

Ian Bowie

Ian Bowie General