Wiki/Energy, Environment and Climate Change 2015 update

Draft Policy This is a draft policy which may still be under development and is not approved or endorsed by the party. Until such time as it is endorsed by the party, it does not represent the views or intentions of the party.

Preamble

A very large number of changes in a short time may destabilise our planet’s ecology and life support systems. Where credible threats exist, the wellbeing of future generations warrants a precautionary principle being applied. Accordingly, Pirate Party Australia proposes the following measures to address climate change and environmental degradation.

Climate change and renewable energy

It is increasingly clear that action within the political sphere will not match the required pace to address climate change. While Pirate Party Australia supports action by government, this should be supported by providing individuals with the tools to address climate change personally. We believe the emergence of ‘prosumers’ – energy users who produce their own power – should be encouraged. Community-generated power will soon become cheaper than traditional grid power, opening the way for grid defections which will increase exponentially as renewable prices continue to fall.

Human activity has increased the atmospheric concentration of heat-trapping gases to levels not seen for many hundreds of thousands of years, and the rise is accelerating.

By encouraging the democratisation of energy markets, Australia can harness the benefits and reduce the downsides. Pirate Party Australia will re-purpose funds currently allocated to the 'Direct Action' scheme in order to facilitate transformation of the power grid and investment in emerging technology including software and predictive analytics to manage community power and 'microgrids'. We will seek investment in alternative fuels and facilities for electric vehicles. Electric vehicle batteries play an important role by acting as 'dispatchable demand', helping to balance energy supply.

Citizen power should be supported by reform of the grid itself. Pirate Party Australia will support measures to improve efficiency and increase renewable energy target to around 50% by 2025. A fixed carbon price is also desirable as a way to reduce tax in other areas and also to provide the certainty needed for long-term technological investment. . A carbon price will also ensure polluters pay for the impact of coal use on water reserves, rivers, and public health..,.. To do otherwise is to embrace a principle of private gains and socialised losses, which Pirate Party opposes.

Pirate Party Australia will also require coal exporters to pay an offset levy of two dollars per tonne of thermal coal. A small levy will not shut down the coal industry, but it will provide funds sufficient to fully offset Australia’s exported carbon emissions through the UN Clean Development Mechanism. Clean Development funds offer an extremely cheap way to protect forests, improve technology in developing countries, and directly remove potent heat-trapping gases such as xxx from the atmosphere. Offsets have become so cheap in recent years that a two dollar levy will allow for a full offset of emissions at no cost to Australian taxpayers.

It’s time Australia had a cleaner, more advanced and more decentralised energy grid. In time, regulations should simplify as all measures outside of carbon pricing are phased out. Greater onsite generation will reduce demand spikes and will allow grids to adopt a ‘probabilistic’ (risk-based) model, which will significantly reduce long-term power prices. Prices will drop further still as replacement of coal power averts the need to manage the dead-weight costs of maintenance on our aging coal plants. A nationwide roll-out of renewable energy will also create thousands of skilled jobs and drive investment in Australia's regions.

Policies to drive renewable energy uptake represent an important economic reform.

Preserving Australia’s ecology

Management of our environment should be holistic and reflect the best available scientific knowledge. Cases such as the Murray-Darling system show that ecosystem management cannot be split across state borders and needs to be unified to properly manage the interconnections and complexity of ecosystems. Accordingly, we will press for the development of a comprehensive national Biodiversity Matrix to better classify land and ocean ecosystems. This will underpin a more scientific approach to land management, which can be further enhanced through expanded Federal environmental oversight conducted under an independent authority. A Biodiversity Matrix will also provide planners and general public with essential information about Australia’s progress in environmental management.

Pirate Party Australia urges a halt to coal seam gas (CSG) extraction on the grounds that it is being undertaken from a position of profound ignorance regarding its impacts on rivers, groundwater, and food security. Given the evidence of fugitive emissions leaks and other unforeseen impacts, a moratorium is necessary until more meaningful evidence is available to demonstrate that extraction can be done safely.

Questions of ecology and energy adjudicate between the rights of current and future generations. We need an open and scientific framework to help inform these difficult questions.

Offset and reduce carbon emissions

• Price carbon emissions and environmental harm
  • Restore a carbon tax with pricing set to the 2014-15 level and price increases fixed at CPI + 5% p/a.
  • Extend coverage to include heavy on-road transport.
  • Remove waste levy exemptions applying to coal power and abolish fossil fuel subsidies.
  • Levy thermal coal exporters $2 per tonne of exported coal to purchase carbon offsets through the UN clean development mechanism.
• Expand large-scale renewable energy.
  • Provide a final extension in the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target(LRET) to 80GwH by 2025.
  • Increase the number of renewable certificates offered for generation at peak periods to encourage baseload renewable generation.
  • Include waste-to-energy in LRET certificate allocations.
• Extend small and micro-grid renewable energy.
  • Engage Climate Change Authority to review power regulations and remove regulations which hamper decentralised grids.
  • Re-purpose $500 million funding from the 'Emissions Reduction Fund' (ERF) to sponsor research and development of micro-grid and power sharing technology, storage and portable generation.
  • Re-purpose remaining ERF resources to support adaptation of the grid to accommodate microgrids and reduce energy poverty.
• Undertake measures to improve energy efficiency.
  • Ensure non-residential buildings are subject to transparent disclosure of energy ratings, with performance-based standards applied to all retrofits and new buildings.
  • Allow Clean Energy Finance loans to be collected through utility meters, and extend loan availability to homeowners and landlords.
• Reduce emissions from liquid fuels.
  • Adopt EU 2020 vehicle fuel efficiency standards including the passenger vehicle target of 95g CO2/Km by 2023.
  • Form a panel of government and industry representatives to develop a plan for roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and development of an Australian standard for EV rechargers.
    • Offer assistance to private operators who wish to operate recharging stations through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
    • Create a corporation with joined State and Federal Government ownership to lease recharging sites on public land.
• Invest $50 million per year in long-term research to explore alternative ways of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Improve land management to protect biodiversity

• Expand the environmental oversight of the federal government to cover mining approvals, rivers and water areas, and national parks.
  • Provide independent statutory status to areas overseeing environmental approvals.
  • Ensure clear channels exist for local and community input, with autonomy devolved to regional communities and expert bodies in matters of purely local impact.
  • Provide $50 million to develop a biodiversity matrix to classify nationwide land and ocean ecosystems and species distribution.
    • Information collected will be published, and will inform land use changes, development approvals, and management of biodiversity issues and national parks.
• Expand and improve national parks.
  • Increase national park thresholds to cover 15% of land in Australia, with a representative sample of at least 80% of regional ecosystems protected in each bio-region.
  • Review national park legislation to remove restrictions on volunteerism and community engagement in improving parks.
  • Amend Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to insert specific requirements for accountability and monitoring of Recovery Plans.
• Increase resources to protect endangered species.
  • Provide additional funding of $100 million per year to sponsor community group projects creating sanctuaries, land management initiatives and endangered species plans.
  • Provide $50 million per year to support long-term research and adaptive management aimed at curbing feral cats and foxes.
  • Initial funding of $10 million per year will be deployed to fund regular updates of threatened species information - species reported as being at risk of extinction will be listed as “notifiable”.
• Protect agricultural and farming land.
  • Grant landowners rights to refuse exploitation of coal and coal seam gas deposits on land they own.
  • Permanently ban extraction and exploration of coal seam gas around water catchment areas and aquifers.
  • Apply a moratorium on new coal seam mines and additional use of existing mines in metropolitan areas, with periodical reviews to assess evidence and present recommendations on the scientific case for lifting or modifying the moratorium.
  • Ensure 'Green Army' resources are made available for reforestation and re-vegetation of marginal land.