The Australian says while they (and the US and Britain) spent years arguing about how to implement some form of carbon tax then destroyed any possibility of agreement at Copenhagen, Asian nations are ignoring all that and barrelling ahead creating cleantech.
While the [Australian] government has squandered the past two years debating ad nauseam what size its new tax should take, our Asian neighbours – who are overwhelmingly opposed to putting a price on carbon – have forged ahead with carbon reduction measures that play to their economic and geographic strengths.
The Philippines is the second largest producer of geothermal energy and is on track to be 60 per cent energy self-sufficient by next year. Thailand is well on its way to fulfilling its ambition to be the renewable energy hub of Southeast Asia with an aggressive embrace of biofuels. Vietnam has outlined plans to construct an additional 48 hydroelectric stations by 2020. The list goes on.
They conclude by saying Australia should do the same. Forget carbon tax schemes, and bukild cleantech instead, with biofuel from algae being a real good place to start.
Algae is one of carbon dioxide’s fiercest natural adversaries. Not only does the much-maligned green slime absorb CO2 at an incredible rate, it is able to be excreted in an environmentally friendly manner. Trials at JCU have found that cattle fed the algae-based feed are found to emit 20 per cent to 40 per cent less methane, while algae-based biofuel does not emit greenhouse gases during combustion.