To construct this pipeline across the Kimberley is likely to cost $1.5 Billion. Thousands of gas-fracking wells would be required to underspin such a pipeline. This would mean an industrialised landscape from near Fitzroy Crossing to Broome. The Kimberley would look like the Texas oil and gas fields.
Methane (CH4): Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices, land use and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills.
However, with a near-term commitment to cut emissions by just 26 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, Australia's ambition is considered insufficient by almost any measure.
Labor is calling for stronger 2030 targets, although the opposition won't say what those targets should be until after the Glasgow conference.
Others have been clearer. The Business Council of Australia has backflipped on earlier calls to go slow on climate action and is now calling for a 46-per-cent cut by 2030.
Some in the government have called for stronger targets too. Liberal MP Dave Sharma, for example, suggested a 2035 target of at least 40 per cent, which pulls off the neat trick of implying that the government needs to exceed its 2030 target without explicitly repudiating it.
Australia has been smashed with criticism, labelled “completely irresponsible” as the nation’s reputation repeatedly cops it in global headlines.
Australia has been labelled “completely irresponsible” and called out for digging “dark holes of poison for itself” as global leaders meet for critical climate talks.
The G20 summit in Rome finished without many concrete commitments on emissions reduction. Now Prime Minister Scott Morrison faces the COP26 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed more than 120 world leaders to historic climate talks in Scotland on Monday with the stark warning: “It’s one minute to midnight, and we need to act now.”
He will use the opportunity to warn leaders in a speech tha
The G20 members including China, India and Western nations collectively emit nearly 80 per cent of global carbon emissions, but campaigners’ hopes for more decisive action heading in to COP26 were dashed.
But this year's ratchet mechanism has even more significance.
In August, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its starkest warning yet.
It found that on our current trajectory, we would heat the world by 1.5C by about 2030 — less than a decade from now.
According to the UN, the current targets will result in the world warming by 2.7C by the end of the century.
For that reason, countries like Australia — that have so far failed to lift their 2030 targets — this year have been the focus of sustained criticism.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-31/cop26-is-our-best-chance-to-stop-global-warming/100567010
The world is on track to hit 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100 despite stronger emissions reduction targets, the United Nations has said on the eve of global climate talks.
The annual UN Emissions Gap report, released today, compares our current trajectory with where we need to be to keep warming to well below 2C, as per the Paris Agreement.
Despite 120 countries strengthening their emissions reduction targets as of September 30 this year, the report authors said this was still not enough to avoid dangerous warming.
To get on the "least cost pathway" to limiting warming to between 1.5C and 2C, they said the targets needed to cut a further 28 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases per year, beyond that
This effectively amounted to halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the authors said.
The report projected 2021 emissions had bounced back to just shy of 2019's record levels.
But Mark Howden from the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute said the data used was a few months old and he thought 2021 emissions would actually hit a new record high.
"It's a bit sad, but I think they've actually understated it," Professor Howden said.
"We've seen a firming up of emissions that are going to be higher post-COVID than before."
A separate report from the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), released yesterday, found that global average atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record high of 413.2 parts per million in 2020 — higher than at any other time in the past 2 million years.
Today's report comes as countries prepare to head to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, which has been dubbed the world's "last best chance" to cap warming below 1.5-2C.
Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year 2020 and the world is "way off track" on capping rising temperatures, the United Nations says, ahead of climate talks in Glasgow aimed at averting dangerous levels of global warming.
A report by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showed carbon dioxide levels surged to 413.2 parts per million in 2020, rising more than the average rate over the last decade despite a temporary dip in emissions during COVID-19 lockdowns.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the current rate of increase in heat-trapping gases would result in temperature rises "far in excess" of the 2015 Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average this century.
"We are way off track," he said.
"We need to revisit our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life."
Mr Taalas then called for a "dramatic increase" in commitments at the COP26 conference beginning on Sunday.
The Glasgow climate talks have been labelled the world's last best chance to cap global warming at the 1.5-2 degrees Celsius upper limit set out in the Paris Agreement.
Using the projections of governments around the world, the UN report noted that fossil fuels would be generated at a rate almost three times higher than what's needed to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"The research is clear," said Ploy Achakulwisut, a lead author on the report.
"Global coal, oil, and gas production must start declining immediately and steeply to be consistent with limiting long-term warming to 1.5C."
More than 130 countries have announced plans to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, but the report shows those commitments aren't matched by plans when it comes to fossil fuel production.
"This discrepancy points to the urgent need for net-zero pledges to be translated into action to wind down fossil fuel production," said Mans Nilsson, from the Stockholm Environment Institute in his foreword to the report.
This discrepancy — the chasm between countries' projected fossil fuel production and the level needed to cap global warming at certain levels — is called the 'production gap'.
The report measures the impact of extracted fossil fuels by how much carbon dioxide they would emit when burned.
According to the analysis, global carbon dioxide emissions of about 19 gigatonnes per year (GtCO2/yr) by 2040 would be consistent with limiting warming to 2C. For the ideal 1.5C — which is the preferred goal under the Paris Agreement — it would be about 12 GtCO2/yr.
But actual global production is estimated to reach 35 GtCO2/yr or more by 2040, based on countries' plans and projections.
Compiling plans and projections from around the world, the report found that by 2030, the world is expected to produce 110 per cent more than what is possible if we want to limit warming to 1.5C.
That discrepancy grows to 190 per cent by 2040.
The figures also well exceed the hard limit in the Paris Agreement of 2C.
By 2030, the world is expected to exceed that limit by 45 per cent, and 89 per cent by 2040.
Despite Australia's small population, it is one of the world's heaviest hitters when you take into account the emissions caused by fossil fuels produced onshore and exported overseas.
Looking at emissions that way, Australia is the sixth-worst polluter in the world. We are the biggest exporter of coal and the world's second-biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
"It is imperative that fossil fuel-producing nations recognise their role and responsibility in closing the production gap and steering us towards a safe climate future," Mr Nilsson said.
According to the report, the production gap around the world is exacerbated by government funding.
It found that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, G20 governments have poured more than $US300 billion ($400 billion) into the fossil fuel sector — more than has been put into clean energy.
The report singles out Australia for its support for fossil fuels, including its "gas-led recovery", which involves subsidising large new gas basins.
"Australia is still the dinosaur," said Malte Meinshausen, a professor of climate science at the University of Melbourne.
"We still have programs where taxpayers' [money] goes largely into fossil fuels, and the gas-led recovery is a prime example."
Australia's production of coal is forecast to rise 4 per cent by 2030. Gas production is forecast to increase by 12 per cent and oil by 32 per cent.
UN Environment Program executive director Inger Andersen said the Glasgow climate conference next month was a crucial moment for the world to reverse this trend.
"At COP26 and beyond, the world's governments must take immediate steps to address the production gap, while ensuring that this transition occurs in a just and equitable manner," she said.
Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said Australia had reduced emissions faster than "every other major commodity exporting nation in the world".
"Our gas-fired recovery is one of the key elements to ensure Australians are not faced with the energy issue occurring in Europe and the UK right now," he said.
"As you have more and more renewables come into your electricity system, you need to have the gas to provide the balance needed to keep prices low and the lights on."
The largest ever battery in the Kimberley was successfully installed at the Broome Boulevard to support the Broome utility grid during periods of intermittent cloud coverage The operation executed by four local Broome businesses; Gen Off Grid, H&M Tracey, Lift N Rigg & Roadline Civil Contractors
A perfect early Broome morning was the setting for the successful delivery of the Kimberley’s largest battery. The operation executed by four local Broome businesses, the battery was lifted into place by the local Lift'N'Rig team, in support of the GenOffGrid & H&M Tracey installed solar & battery system at the Broome Boulevard.
The trial is seen as groundbreaking and a potential blueprint for energy systems around Australia.
It was late June and the electricity system servicing the small town, 1,300 kilometres north of Perth, had just undergone a remarkable transformation.
For the first time, Onslow's power demand was being met entirely from the energy generated by the sun.
The fleet of heavy and noisy gas-fired turbines that were the mainstay of Onslow's needs had been switched off.
In something of a eureka moment for energy watchers, solar backed by large-scale batteries successfully ran an electricity network for 80 minutes.
But that it had not been achieved until this year, and could not stay up for longer, highlighted the difficulties of going 100 per cent renewable, energy watchers said.
Kimberley Calling - A Frack Free Kimberley Concert
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