If I'm reading that correctly, the Germans are gung-ho on renewables - but their government see gas as a CRITICAL part of the picture as they phase out nuclear and coal.
So talk that the whole world is turning off coal and gas, and that Australia is dragging its heels, is just nonsense.
Boris Johnson might even tell our visiting PM about what they are doing in the UK. For example: "a new clean gas-fired power station with carbon capture technology in Scotland. Carbon capture and storage technology, which removes the pollutants created by burning fossil fuels, could help secure a long-term role for gas in electricity generation."
Maybe Boris might let our PM know that in the UK, 98% of gas production comes from offshore fields.
And yet here in Australia we have the Yarra Council 'getting off gas' in the next nine years. It makes a nice headline for the greens but in reality it exposes ratepayers to higher costs. Local Government has always attracted a lot of well meaning but severely under-qualified people to warm its seats - and they spend hours debating new toilet blocks and whether people need an application to plant artificial grass outside their homes. When the rest of the world is building new gas stations based on evidence of need, it seems criminal that Ma and Pa Kettle on Yarra Council can be allowed to dictate energy policy.
Yarra Council and opponents of PEP 11 need to look past their own recycling bins at what's happening in the real world.
Our largest aluminium plant has had to shut down on three occasions recently so that there was enough power for Sydney homes. Where were the renewables in this case? Clearly they couldn't keep the lights on in Sydney without business sacrificing its consumption.
And while Joe Biden knows how to get a good headline on green politics, I suspect that behind closed doors he is a lot more pragmatic. Sure, go ahead and stop exploration in highly sensitive wilderness areas (in the same ScoMo would stop exploration through the coral of the Great Barrier Reef).
But as the story below shows, gas is not just doing a might job bringing down emissions, the world's largest economies are red hot on its future. So too are most of the Labor Party because they know that if they win government, they need to make sure the lights stay on and homeowners don't go broke paying their bills.
(20min delay)