Any organization such as the Green Party claiming that man-made global warming is the biggest threat to the world should support nuclear power. This has been said today by Bryan Leyland, an energy consultant of Auckland, who is chair of the economic panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. He was responding to a statement over the weekend by Russel Norman, co-chair of the Greens about renewable energy sources.

PRIME Minister John Howard today revealed his strategy to increase uranium mining and prepare Australia for nuclear power. Mr Howard promised to remove restrictions on mining and processing uranium, to increase uranium exports and to overturn laws prohibiting nuclear activity..... "Policies or political platforms that seek to constrain the development of a safe and reliable Australian uranium industry - and which rule out the possibility of climate-friendly nuclear energy - are not really serious about addressing climate change."

A climate change expert has urged Australia to step away from the development of clean coal technology for power generation in favour of natural gas and nuclear energy. Jesse Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at the Rockefeller University in New York, has also bagged renewable fuels like solar and wind power saying while they may be renewable they were not really environmentally friendly. Mr Ausubel said he believed the push to develop clean coal technology would ultimately fail - because of the high cost involved and the problem of dealing with toxic waste products like sulphur and mercury.

THE visiting director of Rockefeller University's human environment program, Jesse Ausubel, believes renewable sources of energy are "environmentally criminal". Mr Ausubel got no argument on that score from the 1500 delegates at APPEA's annual oil and gas conference in Adelaide yesterday. He said he was not a climate change sceptic as "global warming is under way". But renewables were not the answer. Phasing out the coal industry over the next 20 to 30 years, increasing gas consumption and an eventual wholesale move into nuclear power is Mr Ausubel's answer.

"Prime Minister, when will the government seriously examine renewable energy and substantially increase the mandatory renewable energy target?" Mr Danby asked. But Mr Howard said he understood the eight Labor state and territory governments were planning to scrap MRET altogether. "I have been told in briefing sessions from officials representing the eight Labor state and territory jurisdictions of Australia that, in advocating the national emissions trading scheme which the eight Labor states and territories want, part of the package is a phase-out of mandatory renewable energy targets because they are incompatible with the notion of a national emissions trading scheme," Mr Howard told parliament. Later, he read from photocopies of a slide presentation of a March 21 briefing from state officials given to his task group on emissions trading.

Consumers could face larger bills, as energy companies invest billions of dollars in new projects, according to industry experts. Geothermal sources and wind farms are good options for some companies, while other suppliers insist coal-fired plants and natural gas powered production are more efficient and reliable.

Policymakers have settled on 'emissions trading' as their favorite global-warming fix. But it isn't working.

March 12, 2007 issue - Global warming isn't the only debate that may be over. Governments and policymakers around the world also seem to have settled on a solution. "A responsible approach to solving this crisis," Al Gore said recently at New York University's Law School, would be "to authorize the trading of emissions ... globally." Emissions trading, also called carbon trading, is being expanded in the European Union and Japan. And in many places where it's yet to take hold, like Sacramento, Sydney and Beijing, politicians are embracing it. Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank and Europe's foremost political expert on global warming, predicts that the value of carbon credits in circulation, now about $28 billion, will climb to $40 billion by 2010.

This should be great news for the environment, but many experts have their doubts. The notion that emissions trading is going to make a significant dent in global warming is deeply flawed, they say. Current emissions-trading schemes have proved to be little more than a shell game, allowing polluters in the developed world to shift the burden of making cuts onto factories in the developing world.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Those are the two key questions. I think there's an emerging consensus that we do have global warming. You can look at the data on that, and I think clearly we're in a period of warming. Where there does not appear to be a consensus, where it begins to break down, is the extent to which that's part of a normal cycle versus the extent to which it's caused by man, greenhouse gases, et cetera.

Australia's prime minister has backed an electricity and gas company study emphasizing nuclear and coal instead of renewable energy and energy efficiency. As Australia attempts to address greenhouse gas emissions and a need for more energy, Prime Minister John Howard said, The answer is a greater emphasis on clean coal and nuclear power.He was responding to a report by the Energy Supply Association of Australia that said hitting a goal for reducing global warming pollution by 2030 would cost $75 billion, and wind, solar and other non-polluting energy sources would not be enough. It recognizes that while renewables such as solar and wind have a role to play, and we have always argued that, they will not provide the fundamental answer, Howard said. The ESAA is a trade group of Australia's electricity and downstream gas industries, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The report said Australia should feed between 15 percent and 20 percent of its energy demand by nuclear reactors and rely on natural gas and coal for much of the rest. It is in the interests of the fossil fuel industry to claim that renewable energy and energy efficiency are no solution to climate change and that we must rely instead on an experimental and costly technology, said Christine Milne, a senator with the Green Party.

THE Prime Minister has welcomed a report which estimates it would cost tens of billions of dollars to meet targets on climate change, saying it backs his policy on endorsing a move towards nuclear power. Australia’s energy generation industry commissioned independent research to find the cheapest way to achieve substantial cuts to greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades. The report predicts a 30 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 - the amount necessary to meet scientists’ calls for reductions to combat climate change - would cost $75 billion in new infrastructure and could double the cost of electricity generation. “The answer is a greater emphasis on clean coal and nuclear power,” Mr Howard has said.

Supporters of Prime Minister John Howard's policy that Australia should introduce nuclear power are outnumbered by opponents, an opinion poll revealed Saturday. Howard on Friday urged state leaders to lift bans on expanding Australia's uranium industry and said the country needs to introduce nuclear power to meet its future energy needs. "Nuclear power is part of the solution both to Australia's energy and climate change challenges," Howard said, releasing a report on the uranium industry's potential. A respected Newspoll published in The Weekend Australian newspaper Saturday found just 35 percent of respondents supported the construction of nuclear power plants in Australia — down from 38 percent when a similar poll was conducted in May. A poll also showed opposition to nuclear power in Australia had edged down from 51 to 50 percent during the same period. The remainder are undecided.

An energy strategy covering New Zealand policy to 2050 and focusing on renewable and low-carbon generation has been revealed in draft form by the government. Focused on a ?sustainable, low emissions energy future,? the document highlights predictions of a 35% increase in energy demand and a 30% increase in emissions by 2030 under the current business as usual scenario in nuclear free New Zealand. The draft is a replacement for the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy which will form a subset of the new strategy document.

Electricity prices would be 10 to 20 per cent higher under the Government’s new environmentally sensitive energy strategy, an energy consultant says. Energy Minister David Parker challenged those figures but acknowledged there would be some increase to electricity consumers longer term as a result of the strategy. He released the draft energy strategy and accompanying papers yesterday saying the Government wanted all new energy generation to be renewable, unless other means were necessary for the security of electricity supply. The most likely renewable energy sources were wind, hydro, geothermal and wave and tidal power.

The Government’s energy strategy declares a preference for renewable energy and for emissions trading but comes with two major caveats. One is Energy Minister David Parker’s assurance yesterday that security of supply is paramount. Because of the variability from one year to another in how much rain and snow fall in the catchment of the hydro lakes, and because of the intermittent nature of wind power, that suggests a continuing major role - as Parker confirmed - for thermal generators. The other caveat relates to his oft-stated need to relate the stringency of any measures New Zealand adopts in the longer term to the pace of progress elsewhere in the world.

Wind farm developer NZ Windfarms is hopeful the Government's National Energy Strategy will boost the development of wind farms. But chief executive Chris Freear said the key question for his company would be how much it would help. The Government is releasing the draft strategy today outlining a direction for the long-term development of energy resources, including how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Government has already signalled it favours the development of renewable energy such as hydro and wind power to meet the growth in energy demand.

New Zealand's government plans to favor development of renewable energy sources for electricity generation to help reduce the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, according a draft strategy released today. The country, which already gets more than 60 percent of its power from dams and wind farms, has significant potential to meet more of its future needs from wind and geothermal sources, Energy Minister David Parker said in Wellington today. ``We want to maximize the proportion of energy that comes from our abundant renewable energy resources,'' he told journalists. ``New electricity generation should be renewable, except to the extent necessary to maintain security of supply.''

Sydney (dpa) - Australia could have 25 nuclear power stations meeting a third of electricity demand by 2050, the head of a panel set up by Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday............ He told local television that renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power could not replace the coal that Australia currently relies on for more than 80 per cent of its power generation.

The Australian Wind Energy Association says it is relieved the Labor Party has remained in government after the weekend’s state election. The association criticised the Liberal Party during the election because of its plans to scrap the Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET). Association chief executive Dominique La Fontaine says the result renews confidence in the industry, and more wind projects can go ahead.

A nationwide electricity savings drive will not reduce demand enough to significantly delay the need for new power generation, Trustpower says. Spokesman Graeme Purches said at the height of the 2001 power crisis, when the Government called on people to cut electricity consumption, the 10% savings target was barely managed. That was achieved with the aid of big power consumers, such as the Comalco aluminium smelter, significantly cutting production. “Businesses couldn’t sustain such production cuts like that over an extended period and remain in business,” he said. Mr Purches was responding to a call from anti-wind farm lobby group Rational Energy Debate to make conservation of energy the priority, allowing time for new technologies to develop and more serious debate. The group has called for all wind farm developments to be postponed until the pros and cons of wind power generation can be “independently and competently” assessed.

When it comes to addressing global warming and climate change, Liberals in Australia react to pressure from mining industry leaders, and Labor reacts to pressure from the various industries' unions. Ross Gittins reports.