A Future 62-Year Old’s Views on the Economy & the Climate

I’m the youngest blogger here – I recently turned 25. But I’ve been campaigning on environmental issues for the past 11 years, so I reckon I can give Ross Garnaut, a relative newcomer to climate politics, a run for his money when it comes to the amount of time I’ve spent thinking about climate change and the transition to a sustainable Australia.

Right now Kevin Rudd, Penny Wong & the rest of the government are paying close attention to Garnaut, a 62-year old economist. When climate change starts to hit Australia really hard, Ross Garnaut will be very old. I, on the other hand, will be halfway through my life. So, as a future 62-year old, I’d like them to listen to me too.

Since this is my first post, I’ll be brief. I don’t want to use up all my puns and clever lines at once, and I want to start off on a solid foundation. So I’ll turn to the serious business of the economy, building on Sophie Black’s post yesterday.

Right now, the global renewable energy market is worth around US$100 billion annually (UNEP, 2007). This is predicted to rise to US $750 billion in just ten years (Ernst & Young, 2007). Hmmm… 750 billion. That number is greater than the proposed bail-out cash for Wall St. So, since there will be all this money circulating around looking for investments in renewable energy and clean tech, maybe it’s a good idea for Australia to make the structural economic changes now to enable us to seize these opportunities and be proactive in building a new economy on a solid basis of clean energy and green jobs.

It’s clear that a new global economy is being shaped by the current nosedives and turns in the financial markets. It’s also clear that there will be winners and losers in this new economy. The winners will be the countries that invest now in the big economic opportunities of this century – renewable energy, clean technology, energy efficiency, and other ways of reducing emissions so our economies are no longer reliant on expensive and climate-destroying fossil-fuel energy like oil and coal.

It’s time for Kevin Rudd to guarantee our future prosperity by delivering carbon pollution reduction targets to drive our new economy. Garnaut’s targets are in the range of 10-25%. That’s clearly not enough – my fellow bloggers have outlined why.

I believe that Australia must reduce our emissions at least 50% by 2020 from 1990 levels to send a strong signal to the rest of the world that we will lead. Really, we need to reduce them as far and as fast as possible – a response commensurate to the scale of the problem – and aim to stabilise carbon concentrations between 300 – 350 ppm, as James Hansen stated earlier this year.

Australia is one of the richest, sunniest, windiest and most creative countries in the world. There is simply no excuse for us to remain an international laggard; and we will get laughed (or, more likely, booed) out of the UN Climate negotiations in Poznan this year if Penny Wong comes to the negotiating table with anything less than a 25% cut.

Building a new renewable energy economy is like taking out an insurance policy for our kids and grandkids, an insurance policy we need in tough economic times.

It’s interesting that so much attention is going to the bail out package right now. Wouldn’t it have been better to put regulations in place before the crisis, to stop it getting to this point in the first place? I’d like to think governments can learn a lesson from this situation by drawing the obvious analogy.

We have an opportunity right now to regulate our economy to reduce emissions to prevent future catastrophe and at the same time build an innovative green economy. And if we don’t do this now, not only will we be clear economic losers in a few short years, as what’s left of our renewable energy industry continues the drift to places with better incentives like China and California, there will be no-one there to bail us out when the climate crashes, and our economy along with it.

So bring the future forward, I say. Future 62-year olds of Australia, unite to demand a 50% by 2020 target. It’s time the government started listening to the future; not the past, and planning with us in mind.

Ps – If you’re a young person reading this and want to get involved with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, my Co-Director Amanda and I would love to have your help! You can email us at info@youthclimatecoalition.org.