for those that are interested an article from the smh around what the UK are doing with renewables. The bit relevant for WAG -
.......half the country would be given over to growing energy crops or sequestering carbon through, for example, biochar.............
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May 21, 2011 SMH by Paddy Manning
Britain plans to halve emissions by 2027, while our politicians squabble over a 5 per cent cut.
NO, YOU don't have to live in a cave to tackle climate change. Just look at Britain, where the coalition government led by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron this week bound itself to halve greenhouse gas emissions against 1990 levels by 2027 - the most ambitious target in the developed world.
Read it and weep. As Australian politics sinks deeper into a sleazy mire, making progress impossible, dear old Blighty - amid a crippling recession and austerity cuts - is lighting a path to a clean economy.
Britain, with 62 million people, emits about 574 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year (say nine tonnes a head). That should drop to roughly 380 million tonnes a year by 2023-27. Advertisement: Story continues below
Australia, population 22 million, pumped out 543 million tonnes last year (25 tonnes a head) and we're kidding ourselves that cutting 2000 levels of 556 million tonnes a year by 5 per cent to 528 million tonnes by 2020, is tough.
They are so far ahead. Scotland this week proposed to go 100 per cent renewable by 2020. An indication of the forward thinking in Britain was last month's Australian tour of scientist Peter Harper, research director at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales and co-ordinator of Zero Carbon Britain 2030 - an attempt, like the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan 2020, to define the problem - stopping dangerous climate change - and find real solutions.
Harper spoke perfect sense, reminding us that physical reality trumps political reality. Rapid decarbonisation is needed.
Rather than forecasting based on present trends, ZCB jumps to 2030 and ''back-casts'' from a fully decarbonised, modern Britain that works in terms of energy, food and water.
Between us and that 2030 society, we must cross an abyss - how? ''A lot of short-term decarbonisation measures are actually nonsense,'' says Harper, citing the switch from coal to gas. ''Funnily enough, although the situation is urgent, we're sort of saying, don't panic. Let's have a measured debate about how we're going to do these things.'' What does ZCB 2030 look like? There are two processes: a ''power-down'' in which energy demand halves through fairly conventional measures such as improving building energy efficiency and increasing public transport.
The ''power up'' shifts Britain from fossil fuels to renewables - half being offshore wind, effectively an unlimited resource in Britain, like solar in Australia. Reliability would be enhanced by a ''super-grid'' connecting the continent, where Europe's north (wind) complements the south (solar). The lights stay on.
Transport fuels are tougher - the plan makes do with biodiesel and limited hydrogen. Domestic aviation switches to rail and long-haul air miles reduce to a third.
Half the country would be given over to growing energy crops or sequestering carbon through, for example, biochar. Diet would change, but ZCB says it would improve - less red meat, more grains, fresh fruit and vegetables. It turns out the two food pyramids - carbon footprint and nutritional value - are almost exactly the same, turned upside down.
With a population rising to 70 million, Britain could be almost entirely self-sufficient in food and energy - without nukes or clean coal - by 2030 and save on rising oil and gas prices - and health costs.
Back home, we wonder how Coalition environment spokesman Greg Hunt might fashion Australia's likely next climate policy to suit arch-sceptic Hugh Morgan, president of the Lavoisier Society and key member of the Coalition's business advisory group on climate. It's beyond a joke.
(20min delay)