During his visit to London, Michael Rann gave a public lecture to UCL students and staff and also a talk to Australian business interests in London. He presented a fascinating eco-modernist vision for how South Australia could support its local economy while contributing to a low carbon future. Part of this concerned extensive investment in renewable energy generation - particularly wind and solar but also 'hot rocks' or geothermal - together with distribution to other states. The aim is for South Australia to be the renewable energy hub for eastern seaboard of Australia. Already over 50% of the country's installed wind power capacity is in the state. This is in addition to a target for 33% of the state's power needs coming from renewables by 2020. The other half of the strategy is based on mining, particularly uranium mining. This interprets 'low carbon' as including nuclear power. There are massive uranium reserves in South Australia: 40% of the worlds known recoverable reserves. The strategy sees the exploitation of these reserves making an important contribution to decarbonising China, who is keen to import uranium for its nuclear power programme. The pair of talks spoke to an energetic and coherent energy/economic development vision for South Australia but also reminded me of the inevitable tensions and conflicts in the environmental agenda. Nuclear energy and uranium mining remain controversial. They raise a host of issues about land rights, local degradation, safe transit and waste disposal. So are all eco-modernist agendas necessarily environmentally friendly?
Yvonne Rydin
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