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The Sustainable Hour no. 443 | Podcast notes
Our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 21 December 2022 are Liz Wade, who is a Good Grief facilitator, and Iain McIntyre from the Commons Social Change Library.
“What we really want is belonging and connection and care and to be together and be with nature and things like that. When we’re not able to have those things, we seek solace through mindless television watching and eating junk food and buying new things or a bigger house and competing with others around us, when what we really need to come back to is ‘what do I need in my heart?’ – these basic needs of belonging and connection and care.”
~ Elizabeth Wade, Good Grief facilitator
Liz Wade describes her work broadly as healing work for people and planet, while doing work in the areas of personal and group work, social and environmental justice activism, local community volunteering and last but definitely not least parenting two small children.
How we do this work is very important to Liz. She centres her work around the idea of cultivating a culture of collective care, and practises living lightly with love as she goes, always to the best of her ever growing skills and knowledge, with lots of listening and learning along the way.
For those who want to find out more about Liz’s work, you can find it here: Good Grief website
Liz’ personal blog: ~ Living Lightly With Love ~
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Iain McIntyre is a historian, writer and community radio producer who lives in Naarm (Melbourne). He has been involved in various environmental, housing and social justice campaigns since the late 1980s. For the last two years he has been part of building up the invaluable resource that is The Commons Social Change Library.
The Commons Library is a public library for the benefit of the Australian public, informing and equipping people to influence public policy and engage in political structures. The library collects, curates and distributes key lessons and resources of progressive movements around Australia and across the globe.
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As usual recently, we start today’s program with what is probably the starkest climate emergency warning of them all so far from the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres: “Collective action or collective suicide – it’s in our hands.”
Mik Aidt then presents a number of recent tv news clips all with the same warning about the extreme weather events that we’ll continue to experience in our country especially: 7News Australia, 9News Australia and ABC News – reporting on the new BOM and CSIRO Climate Report 2022.
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The music today is first Nat Barsh‘s ‘Hope’, then Formidable Vegetable Sound System‘s ‘Earth People Fair’ and the song rounding the hour and the year off is Missy Higgins‘ ‘The Difference’ along with a statement from Greta Thunberg.
We also play a clip from the podcast ‘How to talk about the end of the world’ where the American futurist author Alex Steffen talks about reasons for optimism.
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Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook this week is all about the year-end report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). It’s highly positive, saying that two negatives can make a positive. And it’s so constructive that Colin quotes it wholesale – it’s taking over the whole Global Outlook this week.
The two negatives are the global energy crisis and the Ukraine war. The IEA report says that they are currently driving a sharp acceleration in installations of renewable power, with total capacity growth worldwide set to almost double in the next five years.
Its figures show that renewables will overtake coal as the largest source of electricity generation inside this period and if that momentum continues it could keep alive the possibility of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
The report notes that energy security concerns caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has motivated countries worldwide – not just in Europe – to increasingly turn to renewables such as solar and wind to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, whose prices have spiked dramatically.
Global renewable power capacity is now expected to grow by 2400 gigawatts over the 2022-2027 period. That’s an amount equal to the entire power capacity of China today.
This expected increase is massive – 30 per cent higher than that was forecast just a year ago, and it highlights how quickly governments have thrown additional policy weight behind renewables.
As IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said at the report’s launch: “Renewables were already expanding quickly, but the global energy crisis has kicked them into an extraordinary new phase of even faster growth as countries seek to capitalise on their energy security benefits. This is a clear example of how the current energy crisis can be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure energy system. Renewables’ continued acceleration is critical to help keep the door open to limiting global warming to 1.5°C.”
The report found that the war in Ukraine is behind a huge shift to renewables in Europe where governments and businesses are scrambling to rapidly replace Russian gas with alternatives. The amount of renewable power capacity added in Europe in the 2022-27 period is forecast to be twice as high as in the previous, that’s current, five-year period.
It’s driven by a combination of energy security concerns and climate ambitions. And it’s forecast to accelerate as EU member states fast-track a number of policies already in the pipeline, by streamlining and reducing permit timelines, improving designs and improving incentive schemes to support rooftop solar.
Beyond Europe, the report found that the acceleration of renewable power growth in the next five years is driven by China, the US and India, which are all implementing policies more quickly than previously planned to combat the energy crisis.
In China, its 14th and most recent Five-Year Plan is expected to account for almost half of new global renewable power capacity additions over the 2022-2027 period.
Meanwhile, President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has provided support and long-term viability for the expansion of renewables in the US.
The report sees signs of diversification in global PV supply chains, with new policies in the United States and India expected to boost investment in solar manufacturing by as much as $25 billion over the 2022-2027 period.
While China remains the dominant player, and its capacity is likely to increase, its share in global manufacturing capacity is predicted to drop from 90 per cent today to 75 per cent by 2027, thanks to the expansion of the US and India’s input.
The report also predicted that global biofuel demand is expected to expand by 22 per cent over the forecast period.
The United States, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia and India make up 80 per cent of the expected global expansion in biofuel use, with all five countries having comprehensive policies to support growth.
The report also lays out an accelerated case in which renewable power capacity would grow a further 25 per cent on top of the main forecast.
In advanced economies, this faster growth would require various challenges to be tackled and a more rapid penetration of renewable electricity in the heating and transport sectors.
In emerging and developing economies, it would mean addressing policy and regulatory uncertainties, weak grid infrastructure and a lack of access to affordable financing that are all hampering new projects. But altogether, the outlook is extremely positive.
Not so the news of our carbon-neutral English football team, Forest Green Rovers which lost 4-0 to Derby County at the weekend.
But, as Colin says, the news in this final global report for the year is nearly all positive.
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We at The Sustainable Hour wish all our listeners the very best for The Festive Season – may it be a joyful low emissions period for you all. We’ll deliver our annual ‘musical year-roundup hour next week, and then be back on 1 February with our regular programming for the new year.
Rest assured that we’ll continue to talk with people who are making a difference in their own ways. We’ll continue to provide active hope and direction to everyone who is concerned about the climate crisis we face, but aren’t quite sure how they can turn this concern into action.
Please feel free to suggest people or projects that you come across that fit this criteria and we’ll do our best to get them on.
A huge debt of gratitude must go to our regular listeners who provide important feedback and suggestions and in the process make it all worthwhile for all of us.
Rest up, everyone – recharge those batteries so we return to cultivate a culture of collective care while helping the fossil fuel addicts with accepting that their time is up.
“We are approaching a precipice. And I would strongly suggest that those of us who have not yet been greenwashed out of our senses stand our ground. Do not let them drag us another inch closer to the edge. Not one inch. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line. This is where we stand our ground.”
~ Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist, on page 305 in ‘The Climate Book’
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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we
are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.
The traditional owners lived in harmony with the land. They nurtured it and thrived in often harsh conditions for millenia before they were invaded. Their land was then stolen from them – it wasn’t ceeded. It is becoming more and more obvious that, if we are to survive the climate emergency we are facing, we have much to learn from their land management practices.
Our battle for climate justice won’t be won until our First Nations brothers and sisters have their true justice. When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How disrespectful and unfair is that?
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7News Australia: CSIRO Climate Report 2022
9News Australia: Bleak warning that weather and climate extremes are accelerating
ABC News: BOM and CSIRO report shows climate is warming, making natural disasters more frequent
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Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour
Events in Victoria
The following is a collation of Victorian climate change events, activities, seminars, exhibitions, meetings and protests. Most are free, many ask for RSVP (which lets the organising group know how many to expect), some ask for donations to cover expenses, and a few require registration and fees. This calendar is provided as a free service by volunteers of the Victorian Climate Action Network. Information is as accurate as possible, but changes may occur.
Petitions
→ List of running petitions where we encourage you to add your name
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