Essay by Eric Worrall

“It will take leadership from the top, with aggressive goals.”

Peter Dutton’s nuclear power push does not address the urgency of the climate crisis we now find ourselves in

Alan Finkel
Wed 19 Jun 2024 13.25 AEST

Temperatures are rising much faster than anticipated. We must respond with the following rapid solutions

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Yet, with all this in place, it is surprising to see that the transition to solar and wind power in Australia has flatlined. …

The problem? Barriers.

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The second category consists of social-license barriers such as landowner resistance, traditional owner negotiations, heritage requirements, and the outsized focus on protecting local biodiversity irrespective of global biodiversity benefits.

Combined, these systemic permitting barriers and the very tangible social license barriers constitute a “wicked problem” that will not be overcome with anything less than an intense and ambitious effort from the highest levels of government, supported by industry and communities.

What can governments do?

The goal must be to lower the barriers urgently. Governments must lead.

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It will take leadership from the top, with aggressive goals.

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Biodiversity regulations should also be overhauled to take into account the global benefit to biodiversity, not just the local benefit. …

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/19/peter-dutton-nuclear-power-plan-coalition-liberal-party-plant-sites-comment

Dr Finkel, the reason a heavy handed approach to the renewable social contract won’t work is power line companies need landowner cooperation.

Thousands of miles of incredibly valuable copper and steel support structures are a tempting target for thieves. It would be unimaginably expensive to mount constant patrols of power lines. Power companies need landowners to call the police when they spot metal thieves, not make them tea and biscuits.

Preventing metal theft without the cooperation of landowners would be a truly wicked problem. In Africa thieves have learned a new trick. They don’t steal the copper wires, which would trigger an instant SWAT team response, they steal the pylon support structures. That way the line keeps running, there is no immediate alarm on the control board, and the thieves are long gone by the time the next storm or strong wind knocks the power pylons over.

So quite apart from the outrage and distress ramming approvals through by force would do to society, there is the very practical problem that a society which has lost its cohesion cannot protect its energy infrastructure. Just look at the situation in South Africa if you want evidence of what could happen to Australia, were the Aussie government to go full fascist with energy infrastructure approvals.

And this is not even considering the greens who actually care about the environment, who would probably be out there dynamiting construction equipment if they lost access to legal means to stop the wholesale destruction of their beloved wilderness regions.

Obviously WUWT does not condone or encourage violence or sabotage – but you don’t have to be a genius to predict the likely consequences of trampling people’s rights, especially in sparsely policed rural regions of Australia. I’ve been to the countryside meetings and seen the anger, the only thing preventing that anger from boiling over right now is rural people are clinging to the hope there are civilised, legal means for them to redress the wrongs which are being done to them. Crush that hope at your peril.