Micro Economics : Energy Industry

The UK government had made concerted efforts over the years in developing a definite course of action for the Renewable energy industry in the UK in light of changing conditions of the industry. This was done in order to guide and determine the conditions of engagement while proposing future directions and decisions. The intentions of these high level overall plans were to provide clear goals for the relevant stakeholders including, regulators, generators, suppliers and consumers.

In 2007, Canada’s industries saved 2.1 billion U.S. dollars of energy costs (2007). All these numbers show Canada’s efforts in general public utilities.

The mining business is where the greater part of Australia’s economy originates from. Conservative politicians are unwilling to accept climate change, for the reason that they favour society’s values and aspects to be unchanged. A case which supports this notion is Australia’s and the United States rejecting to join other countries in partaking in the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol aims to unite countries to set limits on their greenhouse gas emissions, to suppress the destructive effects of climate change. The United States expresses that it will not participate in the international treaty due to; absence of sufficient supporting scientific evidence, large developing countries such as China or India aren’t partaking in the movement and reducing the greenhouse emissions would mean loss in their economy. Therefore, Australia and the United States will be more reluctant to adapting accepting climate change as it will negatively affect the industries that both countries originated from and have thrived on (Vanderheiden,

Australia’s carbon tax led to a drop in electricity sector emissions by as much as 17 million tons (9%). Many contend that the effects would have been more

The regulatory constraints on businesses from government have been subdued recent years. Fulfilling the function of the state, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government proposed a new climate policy that the government will put off the existing levy on emitters and set up fund with as much as $2.6 billion to subsidize the mining enterprises in cutting green-house gas emissions (Anderson, Scott 2014). The subsidy released the financial burden of carbon tax which cost BHP $77.5 million in 2013 (Financial Review 2014) as an enabler in mining industry (Conrad 1993).

Countries around the world have agreed that to avoid potentially dangerous climate change, global warming stay below 2 degrees C. This means that every country, including Australia will need to significantly increase their efforts to reduce emissions. Currently, Australia’s per capita emissions are among the highest in the world, however, there has been recent progress in decarbonising its economy. For example, greenhouse gas emissions have remained stable while economy size has almost doubled. (Pathways to deep carbonisation).

With the increasing Australia’s population the demand for reliable energy to support our power needs now and into the future is escalating, with majority of the Australia’s energy depending solely on coal power with concerns arising on whether this is the best option for Australia’s future or focus more on harnessing green renewable energy. This essay will argue that green energy is the best option over coal power, for the world and Australia’s future, such as solar and wind. The biggest challenge though will be finding a way in being able to harness the resources nature provides to support the growing demand.

Over the past 15 years there have been many meetings and agreements to reduce Australia's carbon emissions. These meetings and agreements have led to many different policies to achieve just that, however when Tony Abbott came into power most of them were scrapped or superseded. At the moment there is a few acts still in place such as the, Clean Energy Legislation Amendment Act 2012 and a few more. However these acts were implemented around 2012 meaning they are out of date with the new research. Therefore we need experts on who can create a plan that can reduce our carbon emissions to reach the targeted

As nations search for less carbon intensive forms of energy the demand for gas has grown rapidly worldwide in recent years. This significant increase in demand has led to a boom in world gas prices. In Australia, there are large reserves of unconventional natural gas compared to conventional natural gas. However, according to the Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics (BREE) there is enough conventional natural gas in Australia to supply all of Australia at current levels for more than 6130 years.

However, the Action Plan is not likely to produce 9.8 Mt in new reductions by 2020, as the government stated. For example, the government claimed that using Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account funds to subsidize electricity prices which would produce 3 Mt in emission reductions. We found no evidence to support this claim and concluded that subsidizing electricity rates is not an acceptable use of these funds. Fortunately, the government is no longer proposing to divert Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account funds in this way.

The purpose for the implementation of the carbon was to make polluters of carbon to pay accordingly to the amount of carbon they release in the atmosphere (Pazzano, 2012). However, it has affected families and unemployed people around Australia, as costs in household such as electricity and gas increased due to the policy (Robson, 2014). It was until July 2014, when Tony Abbott abolished the policy after several failed attempts, fulfilling its promise and becoming one of the best achievements the government has made. According to Griffiths (2014), the removal of the carbon tax will benefit the majority of households in Australia, saving hundreds of dollars in electricity and gas costs. However, Abbott’s promise has been condemned as only having a minor effect on household emission costs. This is evident in Thals’ (2015) article that Tony Abbott’s guarantee on lower household costs after the carbon tax repeal was an ambitious promise, as expectation the government had set out were not reached. But, Thals clarified that the Abbott government still fulfilled its promise, lessening the cost on household emissions (Thals, 2015). After the carbon tax repeal, Tony Abbott had announced a new climate change policy to replaced the carbon tax policy (Chang, 2014). The Direct Action policy by Tony Abbott is a carbon reduction

Whilst it may seem a “no-brainer” to cease investment in non-renewable power and transfer our effort, resources and investment into developing renewable energy sources, the reality is that we have become so reliant and dependent upon non-renewable energy – particularly fossil fuels – that we must continue to use, develop, and invest in such energy to maintain the living standards that we enjoy today. In our short to medium-term future, and in spite of our ever-increasing scientific knowledge about the environmental price that we pay in using non-renewable energy, we must continue to invest in it. Let me explain why.

In Australia, there is an emerging consensus that the government should take further actions to help mitigate and combat climate change. The current most accepted policy by government is the introduction of a carbon tax followed by an ETS in 2015. However we are focusing on the carbon tax in this essay and not the ETS. Here is a brief explanation of the dynamics of a carbon tax. A carbon tax is a tax on energy sources, which emit carbon dioxide (Co2). Therefore, carbon taxes address the problem of negative externality. Externalities are the subsequent effects when individual production or consumption of a particular good or service imposes costs or benefits on others. Therefore negative externalities are effects, which pose harm to others without their direct interaction (Basic Economics 2011). However, usual market practices and transactions do not reflect these cost and benefits in the prices involved in the transaction, or take into account in their transaction decision. Therefore this is a form of market failure. By imposing a cost on these negative externalities, the hidden cost can be addressed. Ultimately the purpose of a carbon tax is to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and therefore reduce

In regard to the existing policy models and theories, policymaking seems like driving a great car, with some best friends, on the perfect road, at a constant speed to some beautiful destinations. In practice, however, that is not the case. Policy practice is like driving an almost damaged car with a sick passenger, on a full of holes road, to uncertain destinations. That simple illustration from one of my class sessions reminds me of some challenging real-world policymaking I ever experienced. As a junior analyst at the office of Indonesian VP, I learned that regardless of the positive impacts, the VP’s energy conversion policy had to confront various uncertainties that made the policymaking was tough. Using that particular example, this essay highlights some of the uncertainties practical policymaking has to deal with. Some valuable lessons are discussed showing that policymaking needs not only careful analyses but also fast decision-making and strong leadership.

After Al gore’s visit to Australia he noticed that the Australian national government’s pledge to climate change by 20/20 (cutting 20% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and the closure of Hazelwood’s coal fire power plant), kept being put off as the Liberal Government continuously over turned decisions made by the Labour party. Al Gore decided then to take action on climate change in Australia himself resulting in a plan B to help reduce greenhouse emissions, so he turned to the state governments and city councils for