Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures & tables
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Preface
- 1 Overview of energy production and use in Australia
- 2 Energy technologies and sustainable development
- 3 Energy, international environmental law and sustainable development
- 4 Predicting the RPP for any given year
- 5 Sustainable energy in the Australian electricity and gas sectors
- 6 State government initiatives on energy and the environment
- 7 A sustainable energy law future for Australia
- Appendix A Draft non-legally binding Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on Sustainable Energy Production and Consumption
- Appendix B Draft Protocol on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Index
4 - Predicting the RPP for any given year
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures & tables
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Preface
- 1 Overview of energy production and use in Australia
- 2 Energy technologies and sustainable development
- 3 Energy, international environmental law and sustainable development
- 4 Predicting the RPP for any given year
- 5 Sustainable energy in the Australian electricity and gas sectors
- 6 State government initiatives on energy and the environment
- 7 A sustainable energy law future for Australia
- Appendix A Draft non-legally binding Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on Sustainable Energy Production and Consumption
- Appendix B Draft Protocol on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, the impacts of climate change on Australia are considered and then the book turns to an analysis of the Australian government's response to climate change and the carbon emissions from the energy sector. Clearly, since the vast majority of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions derive from this sector, it is this sector which should be firmly under the Australian government's regulatory gaze. We conclude, after assessing all the available evidence, that the Australian government's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and to properly regulate emissions from the energy sector are not an appropriate, or environmentally responsible, response for ensuring the development of a sustainable energy framework for Australia. The environmental impacts of climate change are extremely serious, and in our view the Australian government could do far more, if it had the political will to do so, to control one of the most pressing global problems of our times.
Australia's vulnerability to climate change
The latest scientific data and predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) about the likely impacts of global climate change on Australia are sobering.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Energy Law and the Environment , pp. 78 - 111Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006