Why the Middle East conflict could reignite the Climate Wars | The Business | ABC NEWS
As nations around the world position themselves for continuing oil supply disruptions, some might be wondering where the intense focus on fossil fuels leaves momentum for the global energy transition.
In Australia, the Middle East war has already prompted some state premiers to float tapping new oil deposits and build new fuel refineries.
Senior international fellow at the Smart Energy Council and former principal advisor to Kevin Rudd when he was Australia’s ambassador to the US Thom Woodroofe says the ideas put forward to drill for more oil are “completely charlatan arguments”.
“This stuff takes time and costs a hell of a lot of money…it’s far cheaper for Australia to import this stuff from overseas, particularly from Asia, which is the whole reason why we do it,” he says.
“None of that (drilling) is necessarily going to help us in the short term….if you look at oil-rich countries like Norway, one of the most oil-rich countries in the world, they’re down to 20 days supply, and that’s because of all the contracts that they’ve locked in.”
Mr Woodroofe, who has a new book out titled “Power, Prosperity and Planet: Climate and energy policy for all” says despite the political focus being on oil and fuel supply, Australian households are taking up renewable energy, “not from a point of ideology, but from a point of what matters to them and their hip pocket.”
He says the government should be looking at practical policy ideas to meet middle Australia, and he says he hopes the federal budget will “be a new chapter in our own approach from one that’s been largely to date about guaranteeing supply to hopefully one now about building at the national level the kind of resilience that will make us less susceptible to these kind of swings and shocks in the future.”
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