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Kevin Rudd campaigned hard on the pledge in the 2007 election appealing to parents who spent large amounts of their time each day travelling to drop off children of different ages at schools and childcare centres.
Last month Education Minister Julia Gillard conceded that although she had delivered many commitments, she had fallen short in other areas, including building childcare centres on school grounds.
It is believed that Cabinet ditched the replacement scheme yesterday to focus instead on fixing the 50,000 homes that have had foil insulation installed, and carrying out safety inspections for another 150,000 other homes.
Assistant Climate Change Minister Greg Combet will not comment on the future of the replacement scheme.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner also declined to comment when questioned on Radio National this morning.
“I’m afraid that I can’t comment on Cabinet deliberations but we are focused very intently on dealing with the problems that have emerged with the home insulation program,” he said.
“[We are] dealing with the checking of people who are at risk and making sure that we fix those problems; that’s our key priority in this area and that’s what we’re going to continue to focus on.”
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says it is another example of the Government failing to keep its word.
“First of all the Government said there was going to be this program available, then when they suspended it they said that it would restart, now they’ve said that it’s not going to restart,” he told Fairfax radio.
“So you’ve had three different stories from this Government and everyone who’s relied on this Government at the earlier stages has been badly let down.”
Mr Abbott says the Government must compensate insulation companies.
“There’s also all the businesses that invested large amounts of money on the strength of what they thought was a commitment from the Government,” he said.
“The Government owes something to them as well and they’ve got to be appropriately looked after.”
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the Government has been considering scrapping the new scheme for a while.
“The Government’s been split for some time. Greg Combet has wanted to drop the program,” he said.
“The Prime Minister, for reasons of pride, has wanted to keep the pink batts program going.
“We know that it’s been a disaster; we think that Combet has stared the Prime Minister down with the evidence that this program is simply unsalvageable.
“Right now, we want a commitment that every one of the million homes will be inspected, so as we can find and fix 240,000 dangerous and dodgy roofs.”
Mr Hunt says the Government should release Dr Hawke’s report and there should be a judicial inquiry because the auditor-general’s inquiry is not enough.
“The auditor-general’s inquiry has excluded, at the Government’s request, an inspection into how the four deaths were linked or otherwise not linked to the program,” he said.
“But it’s absolutely clear there has been a pattern [of problems], which was warned about as far ago as February 18th last year.
“And it beggars belief that the auditor-general’s inquiry has ruled out the discussion of the causes and consequences of the program in contributing to these tragedies.”
Dear friend,
I’ve just come from Government House in Hobart where, in a truly historic moment, Nick McKim and Cassy O’Connor were sworn in as Australia’s first ever Greens Minister and Cabinet Secretary.
Please share this historic moment with us – watch this video and pass it on.
This is an exciting day in Green politics in Australia and we want to share it with all our supporters around the country because we know this would never have happened without your support.
A million Australians voted Green at the last Federal election, Greens hold balance of power in several parliaments around the country, we have a Greens Speaker in the ACT, and over one in five Tasmanians gave us their vote and their trust last month. Now, after building strength and credibility over 20 years, and after long negotiations, today is the day the Greens have made another breakthrough and joined Cabinet.
With two seats at the Cabinet table, we can deliver Green outcomes for all Tasmanians – reducing energy bills through energy efficiency upgrades, forging ahead with light rail in Hobart, and positioning Tasmania as a social, economic and environmental leader.
With direct influence in the Cabinet and direct control over parts of Tasmanian government departments, Nick and Cassy will be your voice at the heart of government for the first time in Australia’s history.
Please celebrate this moment with us and share it with your friends and family.
This is a great milestone in Green politics and very significant in the evolution of Australian politics.
Yours,
Christine
Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens
Even if some Chinese automotive analysts’ modest estimates are to be accepted — that in ten years time, the alternative vehicle segment of the Chinese vehicle market will only account for 10-20% of all sales — it will be a huge market nevertheless. And as China continues its rapid adoption of wind, solar and hydroelectricity, electric vehicles increasingly will become the renewable transportation choice.
The {Revitalization and Readjustment Program for the Automotive Industry}, which was issued on March 20, provides a three-year blueprint for the development of the Chinese alternative energy vehicle industry. The Automotive Industry Program anticipates that capacity to produce alternative energy vehicles (all electric, electric/hybrid, gas/hybrid and ethanol/methanol powered vehicles) will reach 500,000 units/year by 2011. The program anticipates that sales of alternative energy vehicles will account for approximately 5% to 10% of total vehicle sales in China in 2011. By 2012 the output value of alternative energy vehicles is expected to reach 500 billion Yuan [~US $75 billion].
In addition to subsidies for the purchase of alternative energy vehicles, the Automotive Industry Program will support the establishment of model programs in large and mid-sized cities throughout China for the preferential purchase of alternative energy vehicles for public transportation (including taxis) and for vehicles used by government offices, health care, mail and other public facilities. The Automotive Industry Program also will support the development of charging stations within Chinese cities (a trend that the state-owned sector already is pursuing vigorously). The Chinese government anticipates investing some 10 billion Yuan [US $1.46 billion] in technological research and development in the industry in order to achieve world-class levels of market penetration, technology and manufacturing.
The {Development Plan for Alternative Energy Vehicles}, which was expected to be issued by the end of March 2010, was delayed and will not be released until at least July, 2010. We know that the plan will include connection standards for electric vehicle recharging, subsidies to encourage alternative vehicle purchases by Chinese consumers and measures to encourage the development of a robust auto parts industry. (With respect to subsidies, there appears to be a consensus that any vehicle that conserves energy—all electric or hybrid vehicles and natural gas, ethanol, methanol or fuel cell-powered vehicles—will be eligible for a subsidy of between 3000 Yuan and 60,000 Yuan, approximately US $400 to $8,700).
In China, industry is rapidly ramping up to build a large number of alternative energy vehicles. The ten most significant Chinese car manufacturers, including the China FAW Group Corporation, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, SAIC Motor Corporation Ltd, Changan Automotive, Chery Automotive, Brilliance Automotive, Tianjin Qingyuan Automotive, BYD Auto, Geely Holding Group, and JAC Motors, all have projects underway to develop or expand capacity to build alternative energy vehicles.
According to Miao Yu, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, who is regarded as one of the most authoritative voices in the Chinese government on the automotive industry, there are more than 40 Chinese companies that have alternative energy vehicles in production or under development.
As one example, in March, the South Zhuzhou Electric Vehicle Research Institute Co., Ltd, a part of the publicly trade China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation Ltd. (SH 610766), and the Liaoning Zhuguang Automotive Group Joint Stock Co. entered into a joint venture agreement with the goal of building the largest alternative energy vehicle production center in China. When complete — in approximately two years — the joint venture company expects to have the capacity to build 10,000 cars/year and another 20,000 sets of alternative energy electronic drive systems and other key components for alternative energy vehicles.
The infrastructure that will be required to support the alternative energy vehicle industry in China is being developed by some of the largest state-owned enterprises, including the State Grid Corporation, which is concentrating on building out electric vehicle recharging capacity; Sinopec, which is focusing on developing infrastructure for natural gas and hybrid vehicles; PetroChina, which is developing ethanol capacity and CNOOC, which is also concentrating on developing charging stations at existing gas stations. Asia Cassava Resources Holdings Limited (HK 00841), the largest exporter of dried cassava chips from Thailand to China, has become an important part of China’s ethanol supply chain. Among its customers is COFCO, the diversified food products company, whose businesses now include ethanol refining using cassava chips as the feedstock.
The obstacles to the full-scale development of the Chinese alternative vehicle industry are tremendous market opportunities for Western companies who control key technologies, which are crucial to the industry. The relative paucity of intellectual property controlled by the Chinese alternative energy industry requires the Chinese to rely on foreign companies for battery and other key technologies.
This is good news for U.S. companies, such as A123 Systems, a pioneer in lithium ion battery technology, who will benefit from the ramp up in alternative vehicle production in China. In December 2009, A123 Systems, shortly after its own IPO, entered into a joint venture with SAIC Motor Corporation Ltd, a publicly issued (SH 600104) Chinese automobile manufacturer to develop lithium ion batteries in China. As another example of the opportunities that the development of the Chinese alternative energy car industry affords U.S. companies, China presently does not have a domestic supplier of battery separators for electric vehicles—one of the key components of lithium batteries, which accounts for some 30% of the cost of each battery.
Celgard, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Polypore International, Inc. (NYSE: PPO), which recently hosted President Obama at its North Carolina plant, and Exxon-Mobile Chemical are two U.S. companies in the microfiber battery separator industry that will benefit from the Chinese ramp up of electric vehicle production, much as American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) has benefited from the explosive growth in China’s indigenous wind turbine industry.
Lou Schwartz, a lawyer and China specialist who focuses his work on the energy and metals sectors in the People’s Republic of China, is a frequent contributor to Renewable Energy World. Through China Strategies, LLC, Lou provides clients research and analysis, due diligence, merger and acquisition, private equity investment and other support for trade and investment in China’s burgeoning energy and metals industries. Lou earned degrees in East Asian Studies from Michigan and Harvard and a J.D. from George Washington University. He can be reached at lou@chinastrategiesllc.com.
Lynn Morris
30th March, 2010
According to Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, ‘for good or ill, we live in an age of interdependence, and we must manage it collectively’. Nowhere is that observation more applicable than in dealing with climate change.
Lifestyles led by people in the developed world caused and continue to exacerbate climate change, the effects of which are felt globally.
Figures produced by the New Economics Foundation show that before the average UK citizen is six months old they will be responsible for the same carbon dioxide emissions as a Tanzanian generates in their entire lifetime.
Indeed, Africa as a whole is responsible for less than four percent of global carbon emissions. But it is developing nations that suffer first and are most vulnerable.
‘West Africa is obliged to respond to a situation we are not responsible for and that is a source of iniquity,’ says Professor Isabelle Niang, co-ordinator for UNESCO’s adaptation to climate and coastal change project in West Africa.
Banc d’Arguin
But it is not a one-way street, and climate change impacts in developing countries will also be felt in the developed world.
Mauritania’s Banc d’Arguin is an area of flat low-lying ground about the size of Gambia where the Sahara meets the Atlantic. Sea level rise already witnessed along this coastline will have dramatic effects on bird populations in Europe.
The Banc is a unique environment with particularly abundant marine life because of nutrient-rich water brought to the surface by a coastal upwelling. Every year the national park supports millions of migratory birds. For a third of these birds this is the final destination in their migration but for others it is merely a rest point.
‘It’s the most important crossroads for migratory shore birds in the whole Atlantic. They really need this staging point to refuel: without it they would not reach further south and they could not reach Europe,’ says Antonio Arujo of the Fondation Internationale du Banc d’Arguin.
Birds affected
But the ecology of the area is changing. The distribution of sea grass, which needs to be covered and uncovered by the tide twice a day, is affected by rising sea levels. In areas where eel grass used to grow the water now is too deep to support it.
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The sea grass beds are home to invertebrates – food for the birds. In addition, nesting sites on shrinking islands are repeatedly being washed out by the rising tides.
‘If the Banc d’Arguin can’t accomplish its functions as it is doing now whole populations of wading birds will probably disappear from the Palearctic,’ says Arujo.
‘There is no point England spending millions conserving the Wash if some of that money is not helping preserve the Banc d’Arguin. If the Banc disappears all the efforts made in the Wash will make no sense,’ he adds.
Migration decline
A fall in the UK’s bird population is already being noticed. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) noted a decrease in the numbers of birds that migrate between the UK and Africa.
Of 36 migrant species, for which it holds long term data, the RSPB found 21 have declined significantly. And studies show that pattern is being repeated across Europe.
Fishing problems
The waters off the Banc d’Arguin are the site of another struggle for survival – that of fish. Fishing is a hugely important industry for West Africa and its waters are plied not only by local fleets but those from the EU, China, Korea and many other countries.
Egill Hauksson, a geophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, said the rate of quakes in the region was ”probably … picking up again” after a relative lull that lasted more than 10 years.
”What it means is that we are going to have more earthquakes than in the average year. With more earthquakes, we’re bound to have more bigger ones. But there are always fewer of those than the smaller ones.”
Scientists, however, have not been able to identify reasons that fully explain the increase.
Many of the earthquakes this year have been aftershocks to a 7.2 temblor that rattled the Mexicali area earlier this month. The border region had experienced smaller quakes before the big one. And there have been more than 1000 aftershocks, including more than a dozen that registered higher than 5.0.
The Mexicali quake was the region’s largest since one of 7.3 in the Mojave Desert in 1992. Despite their size, neither quake did catastrophic damage because they occurred in relatively remote areas far from large population centres.
In California, scientists say one of their biggest concerns remains the San Andreas fault, which has produced some of the state’s largest earthquakes. Experts have said the San Andreas is overdue for an eruption. State officials have also often noted that only about one in six Californians has earthquake insurance.
Los Angeles Times
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