Milton Catelin, Chief Executive, WCI
Election time in Australia; today is the final day of the 2010 campaign. An election was due this year but the circumstances under which it has come about were not anticipated at all, even by the most seasoned of political commentators. Kevin Rudd’s fall from the top job after having such a strong start was a surprise and it was under these circumstances that Australian history was made with the first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
It has been a chaotic campaign and one that has seemingly left many in the electorate disillusioned and no clear front-runner between either Labor’s Julia Gillard or the conservative Coalition’s Tony Abbott. The latest poll has put them at 50-50.
While the result of the election is unclear, what has become clear is the importance of energy and climate policy to the political landscape in Australia – firstly with the protracted discussions on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), then the mining tax and now with announcements from both parties of proposed cuts in support for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, currently running neck and neck in the Australian election.
The Coalition has said it will cut funding to the CCS Flagship Program, a A$2 billion programme that was set to provide support for the first 2-4 industrial-scale CCS projects (the Australian black coal industry has stepped up too, with direct investment of A$1 billion through its COAL21 Fund). Both Labor and the Coalition have now announced plans to cut funding for the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI). Tony Abbott has stated he intends to scrap the Institute altogether; the latest from Labor has been that it will cut $45 million from the Institute’s A$100 million annual funding. All of this is a worry for not just for CCS but for those concerned about climate change.
While economies everywhere are tightening belts, it shows short-termism in making significant cuts, if not eradicating, programmes to seriously tackle the long-term challenge of climate change. To date, Australia has been demonstrating global leadership on climate change by establishing the GCCSI – an initiative aimed at accelerating the worldwide commercial deployment of at-scale CCS.
CCS technology is the only currently available technology that allows very deep cuts to be made in CO2 emissions to atmosphere from fossil fuels at the scale needed. Failure to widely deploy CCS will seriously hamper international efforts to address climate change.
CCS will be needed alongside other low carbon technologies to meet the climate challenge, while maintaining energy security and meeting growing energy demand. For CCS to be a victim of the economic culls, to varying degrees by both parties, is a disappointment.
We will be watching with interest the results of the election this weekend and hoping that a turbulent time in Australian politics does not translate into a turbulent time for CCS.
Photos: Julia Gillard facebook and www.tonyabbott.com.au
