thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

The latest version of the New Zealand Energy Strategy to 2050 was released at 11am on Thursday October 11th. The full document is available for download (as a 112page PDF document) over at this address.

On pages 7 & 8 – the Minister of Energy – David Parker makes these bold statements in the foreword.

“The quest for sustainability is a defining issue of the 21st century. It has taken on a new urgency because of the scale of the environmental challenge the world faces. Traditional patterns of development and fast growing populations have put a huge strain on our planet. This government has put sustainability high on its agenda. In doing so, it has issued a call to action to make New Zealand a truly sustainable nation.

Becoming truly sustainable is not only the right thing to aspire to – it’s also the smart thing to do. In a world that cares about sustainability, positioning New Zealand as sustainable is critical to our common future. It is fundamental to New Zealand’s ability to achieve our economic transformation objectives to ensure our future prosperity and international competitiveness. Making New Zealand sustainable can also stimulate new kinds of business opportunities to transform our abundant natural resources into higher value products, while protecting the environment.”

and a few paragraphs later…..

“The government has set a target for 90 per cent of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2025. Increasing the proportion of renewable electricity is an affordable option for New Zealand, using current technology and our indigenous resources, and it is the best choice for a sustainable economy and environment.

Initiatives to increase the proportion of renewable energy used in transport, in the form of biofuels and electricity, will also help reduce New Zealand’s reliance on imported fossil fuels. This will increase the resilience of our transport system and economy to sudden disruptions in oil supply, as well as longer-term concerns about global oil supplies and price uncertainty.

The New Zealand Energy Strategy, and the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy in particular, will also help us to become more energy efficient in our homes, working places and in transport.

Improving the way we use energy makes good sense in terms of improved comfort, lower costs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Moving to a secure and low emissions energy system will also require changes in the way energy services such as electricity, heat and motive power are produced and delivered. Many of the actions in the New Zealand Energy Strategy will ensure that New Zealand is well positioned to take up opportunities provided by emerging low carbon technologies when they are available, cost effective and applicable to New Zealand.

We are determined to become a truly sustainable nation, and even a carbon neutral nation. This strategy maps out an ambitious but achievable pathway for the reduction of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.”

One early decision based on this strategy is that (Government owned SOE) Genesis Energy’s $500 million gas-fired power station planned for Rodney will no longer go ahead. Shareprices in Trustpower and Contact Energy have gone up.

From page 18 Strategic Leadership

“In support of this principle, and providing time for the full introduction of a price on greenhouse gas emissions, the government’s view is that there should not be a need for any new baseload fossil fuel generation investment for the next ten years. The government expects all generators, including state-owned enterprises, to take its views into account when considering new generation investments, and the government will advise state-owned enterprises that it expects them to follow this guidance.

For transport, the government has taken an in-principle decision to set a target of halving domestic transport emissions per capita by 2040 relative to 2007 emissions. The key areas for action are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by using alternative renewable fuels, significantly increasing vehicle efficiency, using more efficient modes of transport, and travel demand management through smarter planning.

The government is committed to building momentum in the uptake of electric vehicles and has taken an in-principle decision that New Zealand will be one of the first countries in the world to widely deploy electric cars. This will also make New Zealand more resilient to international oil price uncertainty and risks of supply disruptions. The introduction of biofuels will also increase the diversity of transport fuels.”

Might also be a good time to check this Radio NZ interview with David King -Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, talks about climate change with Kim Hill Current (current Podcasts here -duration: 32?44?) File Size:15.3MB, Date: (Sat, 06 Oct 2007 08:30:00 +1300)

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20071006-0830-Sir_David_King-064.mp3

I need to finish the report fully before making any comments. In the meantime I’m hoping for some better coverage over here at RSS Energy Feed or here for web, both from the NZ Herald.

Finally – here is an informed piece on the rugby by Inky. Hat tip to Public Address for pointing that out.

What to do about Burma? Did you know that the military have ruled there since 1962. 50million people need your help.

Here is a video on Burma’s Secret War which has been on Youtube since November ’06. It was made by undercover journalist Evan Williams and broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK.

Documentary: SHAN, Burma Here is news of another upcoming documentary.

“Using film that has been captured over the past eight years and in full production over the past two years, the film is certainly going to lead the way for next years documentary lineup and standards.

Shot entirely in Burma and alongside of the Shan State Army (SSA), one of the last remaining ethnic groups still battling the government regime, this film will take the viewer inside a world never seen before.

From the original obstacles of getting in, hiding from government patrols, to the SSAs daily life of hiding and running, dry season battles and the civilian village life that follows every step”

Consider also this view from from Michael

“The current military junta, with the Orwellian name of SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Committee), has been in control since 1988 when it cancelled the results of a democratic election and proceeded to kill and jail thousands. 

The symbol of the struggle, Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced Ong Sawn Sue Chee), has not been killed because she is the daughter of Burma’s equivalent of George Washington, the national hero Aung San who led the revolution for Burma’s independence after WWII. Educated in Britain and once having worked with the U.N., Suu Kyi’s character has been shaped by her father’s fierce belief in a free, democratic Burma, and by the nonviolence of Gandhi. (She got to know Gandhi’s story intimately when her mother was Burmese ambassador to India.)

The current crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations demands solidarity.  It will be difficult for governments to put pressure on the military unless China can be persuaded to threaten to cut off their lucrative natural gas contracts with Burma.”

I wondered if the oil and gas resources offer much leverage. According to the Energyfiles while there are good supplies of gas the overall forecast for oil is not that high. However other reports suggest differently.

“Myanmar (formerly Burma) was one of the first countries ever to produce oil (if not the first) from hand-dug wells hundreds of years ago. Production over a few barrels per day began in 1889 and has been erratic through the years declining to almost nothing for a period after World War 2.”

Here is an Indian perspective reported in the AsiaTimes

“Mukherjee, during recent visits to Thailand and South Korea, expanded a bit on New Delhi’s thinking. He said that India does not have any problems dealing with military regimes as it considers such issues “internal matters”.

New Delhi has to deal with four military-ruled states in its region – Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand and Myanmar. This is apart from communist-ruled China, Mukherjee said.”

Later on in the same article though  – Oil & Gas does come up – $600m p.a is still a large enough number to be concerned about.

Energy-hungry India and China are in competition over the massive Shwe natural gas development project, in which ONGC and India’s utility Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) are partners under the majority stakeholder, South Korea’s Daewoo.

Irked by delays in implementing the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India pipeline, and with strategic support from China at international forums, Myanmar has inked a memorandum of understanding with PetroChina to supply 6.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas from Block A of the Shwe gas fields in the Bay of Bengal for over 30 years. PetroChina is the listed subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.

The advent of China as an end-user creates an awkward situation as India will effectively be supplying gas to China, its biggest competitor for oil and gas.

Shwe is expected to generate up to $600 million in revenue every year for Myanmar over the next two decades.’

Unlike India, we do not share a border with Burma however, as a member country of the ARF forum of ASEAN there may be ways that we can use that connection to give hope to the people of Burma. It seems like the current crisis is exactly what the ARF forum was designed to do according to this note I found there.

“In recognition of security interdependence in the Asia-Pacific region, ASEAN established the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994. The ARF’s agenda aims to evolve in three broad stages, namely the promotion of confidence building, development of preventive diplomacy and elaboration of approaches to conflicts.

The present participants in the ARF include: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Democratic Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea (ROK), Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Viet Nam.”

Must be time to check out what else can be done. Free Burma.