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
5 - Sustainable energy in the Australian electricity and gas sectors
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
The restructuring of electricity and gas markets is a worldwide phenomenon driven by broader programs of microeconomic reform. Since the 1970s, governments, driven by free market economics, have endorsed the introduction of competition in various sectors of the economy, including transport, telecommunications, water, gas, electricity, health services and prisons.
Extensive international research indicates that electricity restructuring has had indisputably serious environmental consequences. These include measurable increases in air pollution from sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, and a marked escalation in greenhouse gas emissions. In this chapter, the restructuring of the electricity market in Australia and its environmental implications are reviewed. The principal concern is the correlation between the restructuring of the electricity market and increased greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the legal measures that should be enacted to counteract this phenomenon. The current status of the gas market in Australia is assessed.
Given these well-documented environmental impacts, there is cause for concern about the future sustainability of the planet unless energy policies, including electricity restructuring, actively counteract these impacts. As mentioned in chapter 3, energy policy, which provides a framework for regulatory activity, cannot be developed in isolation. It must incorporate the principles contained in the international framework for ecologically sustainable development (ESD).
Given what is known about the environmental consequences of electricity restructuring, it is argued that it is impossible to develop energy policy, and subsequent energy law frameworks, without reference to ESD.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Energy Law and the Environment , pp. 112 - 138Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006