The girls at St Katherine's

Celebrating the end of Ellen's University time and both girls' efforts through the year...

Now THAT is a hotel foyer - Guilin of course!

A short trip to Guilin in China

As part of my work for the International Energy Agency, I am off to Guilin for a few days for a workshop on energy efficiency.

I hope to not come into contact with the driver of this vehicle, who I spotted (well, his companion dummy, anyway) in Sydney in September...so many things are wrong with this picture.

And I complain about the screens in the lifts here at work...

My desk

Counting the ways that my standing desk works for me...

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Seville to Vancouver

Liveable cities and all that... and velo city in Vancouver, Canada in 2012...

Persuading in democracies

The climate change debate now focuses on why we did not take advantage of the clear majority for action in 2009 - and now in 2011 face a real problem building any majority for action in the USA and Australia. I still think that the cataclysmic approach does not work and that too many scientists (or their interpreters) became policy advocates - and that has meant that the science is increasingly questioned. I also understand the frustration that scientists had when they felt that their views were being ignored. The New Republic has a good overview of other views: in the end, it will become a classic case of public policy failure...

Simulating the future

As they say in this trailer, "your decisions change the face of the world", though I could do without the "either-or" approach. Surely it will be a clever mix of both. And hands-up who want to be the evil industrialists:

And yet, while Australia is all over the place on this issue...

Australia is at the start of a particularly dismal debate on the proposed emissions tax (which is still complex and difficult to explain to the general public). I am not optimistic for the outcome. China? Well, they may be cracking down on dissidents - sorry, harmonising society - but their carbon focus is undeniable. Reuters reports:

China will launch pilot emissions trading schemes in six provinces before 2013 and set up a nationwide trading platform by 2015, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said on Monday, citing a senior government official.
Sun Cuihua, the vice-director of the climate change department at the National Development and Reform Commission, told conference that the trading schemes will begin in the cities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Tianjin and the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong.
"We hope to roll out the pilot regional schemes before 2013 and scale up to a national scheme from 2015," she was quoted as saying.
China has pledged to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced per unit of GDP -- known as carbon intensity -- by 40-45 percent by the end of 2020, compared to 2005 levels.
To meet the target, the government said last month that it would cut energy intensity by 16 percent and carbon intensity by 17 percent over the 2011-2015 period.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said provinces and regions have already been issued local targets, but the figures have not yet been released to the public.
Sun said emissions trading would be based on provincial-level energy consumption targets, with Beijing expected to impose a gross national energy cap of 4 billion tonnes of standard coal by 2015.
Guangdong has already submitted plans to cap the energy use of cities in its heavily populated Pearl River Delta region and allow them to trade consumption permits with one another.

Meanwhile the crackdown continues...

From the Guardian, a group of concerned citizens are worried about the recent detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei:

We write as a matter of urgency regarding the arbitrary detention of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (Report, 7 April). We and many Chinese and other friends are very concerned at the Chinese government's behaviour towards its own citizens. Ai Weiwei's position is that he firmly believes in the freedom of speech and the right to speak up on behalf of others who have been brutally silenced for their efforts to change society for the better.
As an immediate priority we urge governments to exert strong pressure on China to treat its citizens with respect as a matter of basic justice and humanity. At this stage of China's development as a country taking an increasing part in world affairs, it is crucial that we make it clear that China's credibility in the world is at stake if it does not significantly improve its human rights record.
For example, another artist, Wu Yuren, was released in Beijing on 3 April after being detained for nearly 11 months without trial. His wife and child were left in a state of great anxiety for his safety and welfare and he had committed no crime. Liu Xiaobo has been handed an 11-year sentence as a writer who expressed the need for constitutional reform in the Chinese political system. He has effectively been removed from society for more than 10 years for expressing his views.
We are concerned that the same fate awaits Ai Weiwei. We urge the UK government to treat this case as an urgent priority and to press for his immediate release.

Not alarmed just prepared

Adaptation planning is one of the most difficult business cases to make: beyond the planning to the spending of money...but some Councils are doing pretty well. The ABC reports that

Lake Macquarie Council has been named a "Champion of Climate Adaptation" for its proactive response to planning for rising sea levels.The Council is one of only three organisations across Australia to receive the recognition, awarded by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
The Council's Sustainability Manager, Alice Howe says Lake Macquarie was one of the first Councils in the country to begin planning for rising sea levels.
"In relation to our sea level rise policy, we adopted that in August 2008," she said.
"That was two years before the State Government policy and was almost exactly the same measure, so we feel that we've provided a leading edge to the State Government in this area."
Council says its proactive approach to rising sea levels will ensure that the risk to property and residents is minimised.
Ms Howe says Council has time to plan for the impact.
"What we need to be doing is thinking about the long-term," she said.
"Making sure that the decisions that we make today, put us in a better position to deal with these impacts into the future.
"So I don't think people should be alarmed, but they certainly should be prepared."

Welcome to Seville

Not quite what I imagined seeing as I entered the airport at Seville in Spain for the Velo City conference...

A multiplication of agricultural houses...

The ABC reports:

The Wangaratta council has endorsed its draft rural land strategy.

Mayor Anthony Griffiths says the strategy will now be released for public comment.

He says the draft strategy is about ensuring agricultural land in rural areas is reserved for agriculture.

However, he says that does not mean a ban on building houses in rural areas.

"It's really aimed at ensuring the agricultural land in rural areas is reserved for agriculture," he said.

"Now a lot of people have read into that that we are actually prohibiting houses, in actual fact we are potentially opening up a bit more flexibility with houses, particularly houses that are needed for agricultural purposes."

Imagine being the cyclist...

the view at the bottom of 500 Collins...

Ponder this

Someone has got to do it...

At fairly late notice, I am off to Seville in Spain in two weeks  for the Velo City bike conference... as part of the development of a bid for Melbourne to host the 2014 conference.

This wind is blowing cold

This development is going to be interesting to follow: as the ABC notes extra responsibilities may mean either an even more patchwork approach than currently, or Councils unable to respond to the increased demands...

Planning Minister Matthew Guy has amended wind farm planning guidelines.

The amendment requires new wind farm planning applications to identify homes within two kilometres of turbines. It also includes new noise guidelines and makes local government the responsible planning authority for wind farms of all sizes.

Mr Guy says local councils will be offered assistance. "The Government has developed a working group within the department of planning and community development, to work with councils and with the MAV on wind farm issues," he said.

Rob Spence from the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) says local councils will need significantly more resources to deal with wind farm applications. "Our concern is the capacity of the councils to deal with this issue, given the technical skill and sort of financial requirements that the councils going to need to do an appropriate assessment."

Remind me how many economists were in the Federal Government?

The Age has just released a report showing the bargain that Cities for Climate Protection was compared to other highly fancied projects. Martin and I had to respond...

Dear Editor

Your front page of 15 Feb notes ‘Climate cash up in smoke’. There was certainly no smoke and no mirrors when it came to the highly successful and reputed Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program. CCP was an initiative of the internationally renowned ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability in the 1990s and was a worldwide program to secure the support and actions of cities and local governments.

In Australia the program started in 1997 and over a decade attracted the participation of 240 metropolitan and rural councils across the width and breadth of Australia covering over 85% of the population. CCP councils generated GHG reductions, financial savings and investments in low carbon programs and projects. The direct investment by the Federal Government in the CCP program was around $12m and not the $203m reported in The Age.

The difference can only be assumed to cover the Federal bureaucracy, funding of specific programs and projects sought by CCP councils and the cost no doubt of the plethora of reviews and evaluations of the program, each one indicating value for GHG reductions (18 m tonnes) and value for money through council investments in staff, programs and major projects.

The last (Wilkins 2008) review saw the demise of the program under the Rudd Labor Government which had became solely focused on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It is ironic to those of us in the Local Government sector that the Howard Government supported such a voluntary and action-based initiative under successive Ministers starting with Robert Hill and concluding with Malcolm Turnbull.

Such have been the twists and turns of successive Federal Governments and their leaders that the CCP approach to building political and community support for addressing the causes of climate change through real and direct action went up in smoke along with the GHG reductions in July 2009!

Yours

Martin Brennan

Wayne Wescott

Getting around might have just got more expensive...

The floods across Eastern Australia have one clear consequence (among others): they have savagely reduced the transport infrastructure that has been put into place over the last decade or so - a catch up of the previous decade's lack of investment. Now what? The ABC reports:

The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) estimates the floods will cost councils in excess of $1 billion. In Queensland, 51 of the 73 council areas have been disaster declared.

The fine balance of local and global action

The conclusion of a report on a new co-operative venture between cities in Brazil, Mexico and California is well-put:

Research suggests that, while the growing experimentation with subnational climate-change responses is a result of a growing disillusionment with the international process, it is reliant on continued forms of international cooperation. For example, in the case of California, Chiapas and Acre, cooperation has been spurred by the emergence of carbon offsetting, carbon markets and the idea of REDD, all of which stem from the international arena and without which any subnational cooperation would be unthinkable. Ironically, then, subnational action on climate change is reliant on both the failure and the success of international cooperation, and it is likely that the fine balance between these two extremes will dictate the nature and extent of future subnational cooperation in this field.