SUS TAINABLE ENER G Y
shift what are currently seen as fringe lifestyle choices into the mainstream, with a minimum of coercion. One of the best options would be personal carbon budgets for both direct and embodied energy that would be tradeable, and which would contract over time. This Changes Everything highlights
no longer an option regardless of which path is taken. Divesting from fossil fuels is a critical part of the picture, and takes in five key areas: • The big banks (alternatives are Bank Australia or a credit union)
• Super fund (Future Super or Australian Ethical Super)
• Investment fund (Hunter Hall or Australian Ethical Investment)
• Mortgage (the broker Future Home Loans) Electricity suppliers (look at
alternatives to the big fossil fuel generators Origin, AGL and Energy Australia, such as the best eco-rated options Diamond Energy or Powershop) Scaled up, institutional divestment is
having a big impact, with 580 institutions controlling USD $3.4 trillion (AUD $4.6 trillion) dollars having so far divested. Big divestors include the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund in Norway, the City of Sydney, and two of the world’s largest pension funds, both located in California. These decisions are often being made for economic reasons, based on the risk of fossil investments turning into ‘stranded assets’ as the world economy rapidly shifts towards renewables. Personal actions include buying
green power, reducing electricity use, installing rooftop solar, choosing electric or fuel-efficient cars, and cutting back on driving and flying. A top priority for Australia is to discontinue its annual $7.7 billion of fossil fuel subsidies, of which $5.5 billion is in the form of the mining diesel rebate. The technological path towards
a non-fossil-fuel lifestyle is likely to involve solar and battery combinations
18 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
for domestic power, or solar-fed community-sized batteries such as the one being trialed at Alkimos Beach in Western Australia. A shift towards electric cars is being coupled with advancing plans to phase out the internal combustion engine such as Germany’s 2030 goal. However, the technological route alone is not enough.
HITTING THE BRAKES The 2007 Consuming Australia report produced for the Australian Conservation Foundation points out that thirty percent of household greenhouse gas emissions are linked to direct usage of resources such as electricity, fuel, and water, while the other seventy percent are associated with products and services consumed. An inconvenient truth is that the
consumer project and its associated industrial infrastructure are wildly at odds with the overriding need to radically cut greenhouse emissions. This is multiplied through the principle of planned obsolescence where products are designed to be replaced faster than is necessary. One way to tackle these embodied emissions is a more efficient use of resources via a circular economy that includes initiatives such as Repair Cafés and Libraries of Things, where a wide range of items can be borrowed for a modest charge. A more radical approach would be to
modify personal consumerist behaviour, changing the demand side of the fossil fuel production/consumption equation. This might involve simple living, frugality, and buying items secondhand where possible. The challenge is to quickly
how in the past action on climate change has been stymied by the dominant system of neoliberal capitalism. In contrast to endless economic growth, the solution is likely to lie in the de-growth movement and re-localisation. Resources are best stewarded through a social paradigm characterised by horizontal power structures, cooperation, the commons, and mutual aid networks, which in turn require the challenge of introducing a new economy. No matter how dire things look, it is
essential for us to continue implementing small and local solutions, if for no other reason simply because it feels better than being negative and cynical. American Indian activist Winona LaDuke speaks about her people’s prophecies when she says “This is a time when our people will have two roads ahead of us - one ‘miikina’ or path which is well worn, but scorched, and another path which is green. It will be our choice upon which path to embark.” n
RESOURCES This Changes Everything
www.thischangeseverything.org Market Forces (divestment)
www.marketforces.org.au GreenPower
www.greenpower.gov.au Consuming Australia
https://www.acf.org.au/sites/default/ files/resource/res_Atlas_Main_ Findings.pdf Repair Cafés
www.repaircafe.org
Connect with other readers & comment on this article at
www.livingnow.com.au
Martin Oliver is a writer and researcher based in Lismore.
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