Mixed Greens: Warming? Global cooling the real concern, says Abbott advisor

Tony Abbott’s hyper conservative chief business advisor, Maurice Newman, has called for Australians to refocus their climate concerns, warning that our obsessional focus on anthropogenic global warming has left the nation “ill prepared” to deal with the prospect of global cooling. Newman, who has considerable form in climate scepticism, has authored an op-ed – published Thursday in The Australian – criticising “green gesture politics”, which he likened to “primitive civilisations offering up sacrifices to appease the gods”.

In Newman’s bizarro world of global cooling, “cheap electricity will be critical, yet distorted price signals caused by renewable energy policies are driving out reliable baseload generators. Attracting fresh investment will be difficult, expensive and slow.” Hmmm, sounds sort of familiar in a topsy turvy way… Newman also trots out that old favourite myth of climate sceptics that global warming has paused – for a period he claims is coming up to nearly 18 years. “But the political establishment is deaf to this,” he writes. “Having put all our eggs in one basket and having made science a religion, it bravely persists with its global warming narrative, ignoring at its peril and ours, the clear warnings being given by Mother Nature.”

Qld Galilee coal project approval slammed as ‘economic train wreck’

The Queensland government’s decision to approve the North Galilee Basin Rail Project – part of the redevelopment of a massive coal deposit in the Galilee Basin – has been criticised by The Australia Institute, not for its environmental impact, but for its potential impact on other parts of the state’s coal industry and wider economy. “The negative economic consequences of developing the Galilee Basin have been ignored by the Queensland Government,” said TAI researcher Mark Ogge in a statement on Thursday. “This has all the signs of an economic train wreck for the state, yet the Government has failed to undertake the basic due diligence of Cost Benefit Analysis.”

Ogge argues that the development of mega-mines like Adani’s Carmichael Project would put huge downward pressure on already weak global coal prices, further driving down global prices and causing mine closures and costing jobs in the Surat and Bowen Basin coal mines. TAI’s statement also notes that the economic modelling commissioned by another Galilee Project, Clive Palmer’s China First mine, showed that project alone would destroy at least 3000 jobs in other industries, and $1.3 billion in manufacturing activity alone.

Enphase taps NZ solar market

Australian-based Enphase Energy has announced it is partnering with New Zealand company YHI Ltd to distribute its microinverter-based solar PV system to the NZ installer market. YHI will ship Enphase’s products from six warehouses throughout NZ. Enphase, which has an Asia-Pacific Design and Engineering Centre based in Christchurch, is now exporting its PV systems to 12 countries in total. Nathan Dunn, Enphase’s Asia-Pacific managing director, said the New Zealand solar market held great potential for the company’s product, including its “inherent preference for quality.”

Dyesol in new global distribution deal

ASX-listed Dyesol Limited has signed an agreement with Nasdaq-listed science and technology company Sigma-Aldrich, for the global distribution of Dyesol’s entire portfolio of dye solar cell (DSC) and solid state DSC (ssDSC) materials. The deal is expected to provide the Australian company with greater global exposure in an increasingly competitive and rapidly growing DSC market. The agreement also extends a previous alliance focused on organo-metallic dyes and brings greater exposure to Dyesol’s complete line of products.