Melbourne

Five meetings today. Very busy but all of the meetings went very well. The first meeting was with Joel Grant, an advisor to Minister Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources, Energy and the Environment. We spoke about the politics surrounding the CPRS (carbon pollution reduction scheme) as well as the renewable energy target. You can argue about how the Rudd Government is handling the legislation that is going to implement the CPRS but they are doing one thing right. They have developed a fund that puts $500 million AUS into developing renewable energy. This fund is used to leverage other state money as well as private capital to commercialize and develop these technologies. Most importantly, the application process is technology neutral. It does not have a bias towards already developed technologies. In fact, because wind is already commercially viable, wind projects are ineligible for this type of investment.
My second meeting was with Professor Philip Adams. Professor Adams is the Director of Policy Studies at Monash University. Professor Adams has done modeling that looks at the economic impact on transforming the Australian economy away from the use of carbon fuels. His modeling is interesting in that it shows that ending the coal industry I Australia creates a “significant but not devastating” effect on the economy. He estimates that the net effect on GDP would be 3-4%. Interestingly, Professor Adams does not buy into the idea that this transformation is a job creator. He believes that the USA and Australia will always be at a disadvantage with other countries in manufacturing because of the cheaper labor costs which in turn makes it more difficult to create a significant number of jobs. He also believes that the cost benefit analysis shows that the costs of not doing anything to mitigate climate change far outweighs any transitional costs associated with mitigation.
My third meeting was with Sally Capp, the CEO for the Committee for Melbourne. The Committee is much like the St. Louis RCGA or the Regional Business Council. It operates as a not for profit and does everything that it can to promote Melbourne and business opportunities in the city. They have done a very interesting climate change report. The Committee makes specific recommendations for Melbourne in it acknowledgement of climate change. Clearly the Committee believes that there are opportunities that can be seized in the transition to carbon restricted world.
My fourth meeting was with Andrew Lawson. Andrew is Managing Director of MBD Biodiesel. If this company’s technology works, it could revolutionize energy generation. MBD captures carbon that is emitted from power plants and uses it to feed algae. The algae feed on the carbon and double its mass in about 8 hours. The alga is then harvested and is turned into Algae Meal or Algae Oil. The Meal is feed to cattle, either in a wet form within 7 days, or it is pelletized form. The Oil can be used in plastics or it can be used to create biofuels that power cars or jets. The great part is that the meal fed to cattle reduces the biologic release of methane (cow methane) and the biofuels emit less carbon than traditional fuels. So, the algae captures the carbon and creates by products that emit less carbon. Theoretically, the biofuels could be used to power fuel plants, allowing the carbon capture process work again. This biologic carbon capture is scalable and can be collocated with power plants. This technology is simple, does not alter the algae in any way and does not environmental harm. It is almost too good to be true.
My final meeting was with Tricia Caswell. Tricia has her own sustainability company and is the former Executive Director of the Australia Conservation Foundation. Tricia was a bit more pessimistic about the ability of the country to implement mitigation efforts. She believes that the CPRS as well as the Renewable Target will ultimately fail or be so watered down as to be insignificant.