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Hepburn Wind is one of Australia's largest community renewable energy schemes. Hepburn Wind/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

The federal election campaign has highlighted the very different visions of Australia’s renewable energy future held by the major parties. The Coalition government supports the present Renewable Energy Target (RET) of 33,000 gigawatt-hours from large-scale projects in 2020, which it negotiated with the Labor opposition in 2015.

It’s expected to deliver just over a 23% contribution of renewables to the Australian electricity sector in 2020. There is, most likely, only one more federal election before then.

For the longer term, the Coalition proposes no change to this target before 2030 which, given future demand growth, might well see renewables' contribution to Australian electricity supply actually fall.

By comparison, Labor has a target of 50% renewable electricity by 2030 and the Greens a 90% target. Complicating the situation further are the ambitious targets of some state and territory governments.

Targets require means to actually achieve them. The RET is a target, but also a mechanism based around trading in Renewable Energy Certificates. Meeting the agreed 2020 target requires new renewable energy generation to provide these certificates.

The Clean Energy Council estimates that an additional 6,000 megawatts of new renewable generation, requiring around A$10 billion of investment, will be required by 2020.

The new generation and investment required to meet Labor or the Greens' far more ambitious 2030 targets is, of course, far greater.

Energy for the people

Community renewable energy (CRE) may have a key role to play. Community energy can involve supply-side projects such as renewable energy installations and storage, and demand-side projects such as community education, energy efficiency and demand management.

In short, community renewable energy revolves around community ownership, participation, and consequent benefits from community-scale renewable energy projects.

Why would these small-scale projects matter for reaching ambitious renewable energy targets? Surely large industry players are better placed to develop renewables than the community?

Perhaps, but the transition to a renewable energy future will almost certainly require high levels of social consensus and engagement, and community renewable energy can play a key role in building this.

The 2016 edition of the highly authoritative Renewables Global Status Report has just been released, and includes a special chapter on CRE.

If we consider industrialised countries with major progress on renewable energy over the past few decades and ambitious future targets, community energy seems to have played a key role in a number of them.

For example, Denmark has already nearly reached its 50% target for renewable electricity by 2020 and was a pioneer in community energy, beginning in the late 1970s.

Germany reached 32% renewable electricity in 2015 with a target of 40% to 45% by 2025, and has some 850 energy cooperatives. Almost half of its installed capacity is owned by households, communities and farmers.

Community ownership has become a well-established part of the renewable energy sector, and to the energy transition in western countries such as Germany, Denmark, Britain and, increasingly, the United States.

But it is still a fairly new concept to Australia.

Australia’s Renewable Energy Target

One reason for this may be the design of our RET itself.

It is actually two schemes: one specifically tailored for households and small business, and the other for far larger-scale projects.

As a result, Australia’s renewable landscape is characterised by large utility-sized projects, mostly wind, hydro and bioenergy. Large-scale solar now looks to be taking off too.

At the other end of the spectrum are some 1.5 million household solar photovoltaic (PV) systems; indeed, Australia has the most household PV systems per person in the world.

Community renewable projects, by comparison, are usually mid-sized. They lack the economics of larger renewable projects, and the targeted RET support and simple PV grid connection available to households.

Do we need them given the community’s enthusiastic embrace of household PV? Well, not all households have a roof to call their own on which they can install a PV system. For example, 14% of Australians live in apartments. There are also other promising renewable opportunities such as mid-sized wind and biomass projects whose deployment is generally beyond the capabilities of individuals.

Australia’s small but growing community movement with over 70 groups and more than 30 operating projects, would certainly seem to highlight the opportunity that now presents itself here – and raises the question of what governments might do to assist them.

Building support

International experience highlights that a range of policy support and other initiatives are a prerequisite for community energy success. Communities often lack the funding, knowledge, capacities or network to organise and construct a project. Specific support for community energy can help reduce risks, build community capability and increase the economic viability of these projects.

Indeed, it is interesting to note that recently announced, more market-focused, changes to the German Renewable Energy Act are being widely criticised because of their likely adverse impacts on community renewable energy.

In Australia, Labor has pledged A$98.7 million and the Greens a total of A$265.2 million to support CRE projects ahead of the election.

Both commitments include support to provide local groups with technical, legal and administrative expertise as seen in so-called “community powerhouses”, which are modelled on the Moreland Energy Foundation. Funding for a network of these new support organisations could help to leverage the efforts of community members, local governments and private business towards CRE projects.

The Greens' plan also comprises a range of other initiatives such as tax incentives to support the emerging community renewable energy sector.

The Coalition, by comparison, has pledged A$5 million for grants of up to A$15,000 to community groups to install rooftop PV, solar hot water, other small-scale renewables, and battery energy storage systems, as part of their Solar Communities program.

This might seem strange given the opportunity for CRE to create rural and regional investment and jobs. The Green Tea Party movement in the United States highlights that even the most conservative can get behind community renewables.

Importantly, experience in Australia and elsewhere shows that we need to revisit electricity market arrangements, including regulations governing connection and network tariffs, to facilitate CRE. Our research (just accepted for publication in the Journal of Energy Research & Social Science) has also highlighted that local governments can play a key role in supporting community engagement with renewable energy.

Given the opportunity to spread the benefits of renewables more broadly across the community, we really need all levels of government to get involved.

Iain MacGill is a Joint Director of UNSW Australia's Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets. The Centre has received funding from a range of government sources including the Australian Research Council and ARENA. Iain is a member of the ARENA Advisory Panel which provides advice to support the development and selection of projects and initiatives for funding by ARENA. Iain is part of a project funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living exploring opportunties to facilitate community renewable energy in Australia. He contributes unpaid expert advice to a number of government organisations, industry associations and not-for-profit groups in the clean energy area within Australia and internationally.

Franziska Mey is a PhD candidate at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science at UNSW Australia. She has received a research grant from the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living as part of the Engaged Communities Program exploring opportunities to facilitate community renewable energy in Australia. Franziska Mey is also Director of the Community Power Agency a not for profit organisation dedicated to growing the community energy sector in Australia.

Eight universities across northern England join forces to form a scientific powerhouse at the launch of a five-year, £16m global food research programme.

Dark bordered beauty moths have declined by over 90% at their last stronghold near York due to sheep grazing and habitat loss

The dark bordered beauty moth is heading towards extinction at its last site in England, new research has found.

The tiny, rare insect is now found only on Strensall Common, an area of protected lowland heath near York, having been lost from Newham Bog in Northumberland. But scientists have found that even in its last stronghold numbers have plunged by over 90% in the last seven years, with only 50-100 thought to remain.

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Pilot Bertrand Piccard has just completed the first ever Atlantic crossing by solar plane, from New York to Seville, in the latest leg of the first solar flight around the world. We look back at some highlights so far

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Cook et al. (2013) has remained the most-read paper in Environmental Research Letters for most of the past 3 years

In 2013, a team of citizen science volunteers who collaborate on the climate myth debunking website SkepticalScience.com published a paper finding a 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming in peer-reviewed research. Over the past 3 years, that paper has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. For perspective, that’s 4 times more than the second-most downloaded paper in the Institute of Physics journals (which includes Environmental Research Letters, where the 97% consensus paper was published).

The statistic reveals a remarkable level of interest for a peer-reviewed scientific paper. Over a three-year period, the study has been downloaded an average of 440 times per day, and the pace has hardly slowed. Over the past year, the download rate has remained high, at 415 per day.

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EPA has been reviewing lead and copper rule since 2010 but has yet to make changes even as its own scientists have criticized current regulations

Changes to laws that protect Americans’ drinking water are still at least six months away, the US Environmental Protection Agency has said, despite the ongoing lead crisis in Flint and calls for reform from lawmakers and public health groups.

The EPA has been reviewing the lead and copper rule, part of the Safe Drinking Water Act, since roughly 2010. The rule is supposed to ensure high levels of lead don’t seep into drinking water, but has been the subject of criticism for years by scientists who feel it has not adequately protected the public.

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Heavy rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday causes flooding in parts of London and the surrounding area as the polls open on EU referendum day. Red flood warnings have been issued for parts of south-east London as a month’s rainfall is expected on Thursday. Footage posted on social media shows disruption to commuters and travel across the city

• Torrential rain and flooding in London and south-east on referendum day

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A six-month-old male Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo hides in its mother’s pouch at Perth zoo. The joey is the first of the endangered species – which originates from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea – to be born at the zoo in 36 years and is one of only 15 male tree kangaroos in the breeding program globally

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Solar Impulse 2 lands in Seville, four days after setting off New York, using solar panels and batteries to finish latest leg of its round-the-world journey

Solar Impulse 2 has completed the first ever crossing of the Atlantic by a solar-powered aeroplane, landing in Spain early on Thursday morning.

The four-day trip, which started in New York, was the latest leg of a round-the-world journey due to end in Abu Dhabi.

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Sandy, Bedfordshire A queen hit the bullseye – a 2.8cm hole in our nestbox – and there is a clearly active colony of tree bumblebees in residence

Since the start of the millennium, a new tune for summer has been spreading north. It was first picked up in Wiltshire; within a decade, it had reached southern Scotland. I can hear it from the bathroom, the bedroom, or standing under the eaves at the back door. The sound is not discernibly different from that made by the maker’s nearest relatives, though the animal’s habits certainly are.

We know this newbie as the tree bumblebee. Common on the continent, it flew the Channel, as wild creatures are apt to do, though we rarely understand why they choose a certain time to move. Most bumblebees nest underground. The tree bumblebee, with a taste for high living, has taken to birdboxes.

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Wherever you are in the world, if you are running or participating in food waste projects we’d like to hear from you

Almost $1 trillion in food is thrown away, lost or wasted every year worldwide - roughly one third of all food produced for human consumption. Food such as fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food.

Around half of us go by the date label printed on the packaging of food and will often throw away food that is safe to eat. According to the Waste Resources Action Programme (Wrap), an organisation that promotes sustainability, we throw away 4.2m tonnes of food every year in the UK, which, aside from the financial costs, has a huge impact on the environment.

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Antimatter isn't just a great plot device for sci-fi stories. It's at the heart of one of the great mysteries in modern physics - why our universe has stuff in it.

The growth of border fences in Central and Eastern Europe in recent years is a "major threat" to wildlife, according to a new study.

How a shipping container became a last sanctuary for one of the world's most endangered amphibians, the mountain chicken frog.

It's quiet out there, too quiet. Outback image from wwww.shutterstock.com

There’s a deafening silence in the ongoing Australian election campaign over the environment. Polling shows increasing public support for greater action on climate change but debate has been mostly missing.

And despite some blows traded over the Great Barrier Reef, the wider environment has made almost no appearance. But this hasn’t always been the case.

From the origins of the environmental movement in the 1970s to the 2007 climate change election that toppled Liberal prime minister John Howard, the environment has been a key battleground, and it could become one again.

Green origins

The environment first emerged as a voting platform in the 1970s, in the wake of controversial proposals to dam Lake Pedder. The United Tasmania Group - a precursor to the Australian Greens party - was formed to oppose the project.

Were it not for the mysterious disappearance of a plane carrying environmental activist Brenda Hean in September 1972, the election that brought us Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam might have had more of a green tinge. Hean’s plan was to sky-write “Save Lake Pedder” over Canberra.

According to Hugh Morgan - former president of the Minerals Council, the Business Council, and the climate-denying Lavoisier Group - the first indication that environmentalism had arrived as a major political force in Australia was the Whitlam Labor Party caucus’s 1975 debate over uranium mining and nuclear power.

But it was not until the 1983 election, with incumbent Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser facing off against Labor leader Bob Hawke, that the environment became politically salient with another Tasmanian dam.

After losing the Lake Pedder battle in 1972, the green campaigners were older, wiser and more determined in their fight to stop the Franklin dam.

Fraser offered the Tasmanian government a A$500m coal-fired power station instead of the dam, but was rejected.

Labor said it would use federal powers to forbid the dam if elected. It did so, and won the inevitable High Court case.

Hawke and Paul Keating, prime minister from 1991, prioritised financial and political changes (bringing down tariffs, floating the dollar) over environmental challenges. However, the issues of logging and uranium wouldn’t go away, and were joined first by ozone and then carbon dioxide.

In 1984, with a tight election looming, Hawke failed to make the Queensland government’s refusal to nominate forests for World Heritage listing an issue.

Labor won the 1987 and 1990 elections, and environmentalists’ preferences helped them squeak home on both occasions. Climate change hardly rated a mention.

Conned by greenies?

With their rising power, both sides of politics initially courted green voters. But this tactic quickly fell out of favour, first with the Liberals and then with Labor. In 1992 the Greens, despairing of being able to influence either of the big parties, formed their own.

By late 1992, Keating was lashing out at green groups, saying:

…the green movement was extremist and not listened to any more … The environmental lobbies have no moral lien over the environment. The issue belongs to the Government, to the nation.

It’s perhaps unsurprising then that, according to a source of scholar Joan Staples, Keating reportedly walked into an election planning meeting and announced that “the environment will NOT be one of the priority issues in this election.”

A “bomb” planted on a railway line in northwest Tasmania two days before the 1993 federal election suggested otherwise (it didn’t have a detonator). While media and politician accused “ecoterrorists”; Bob Brown suggested at the time and since that it was a setup to thwart public favour for the Greens.

Nothing changed under the next three year’s of Keating’s government. Another source of Joan Staples recalled that when Keating met green groups before the 1996 election, he walked into the meeting room and pointed at each representative, saying: “Don’t like you. Don’t like you. Don’t know who you are. Don’t like you. She’s alright.”

Despite climbing greenhouse emissions and international pressure on Australia, the environment didn’t feature in the 1998 or 2001 elections, and made only a small but perhaps crucial appearance in 2004 around forestry.

The greatest moral challenge

Liberal prime minister John Howard was unable to ignore the environment three years later. Upon becoming opposition leader in late 2006, Kevin Rudd made climate change not just an issue but “the greatest moral challenge of our generation”.

Howard, who had already tried to keep climate change in a box by reaching for the nuclear option, the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate and even emissions trading, had no effective reply.

The 2007 federal election, at which Howard became only the second sitting prime minster to lose his seat, has been called, with some justification, “the first climate change election”.

Despite the blood and ink spilt over climate change, it was strangely absent from the 2010 campaign, from which Labor prime minister Julia Gillard eventually emerged victorious. As Laura Tingle has said “it [climate change] wasn’t really something that ever really featured … it just wasn’t there”.

In truth, Gillard had floated a much-derided Citizen’s Assembly ahead of the election. Three years later, despite opposition leader Tony Abbott proclaiming the 2013 poll as a carbon tax referendum, researcher Myra Gurney has found climate change actually rated surprisingly few mentions.

Why the silence?

Besides international positions on climate change, there are any number of local environmental flashpoints that could blow up any day – the Carmichael mine, fracking in New South Wales, or something currently regarded as trivial.
“The environment” has been around as political issue for more than 30 years, and isn’t going to go away, as the environmental and social stresses grow, and the institutional responses lead to “creative self-destruction”.

No doubt both parties will fall over themselves to spruik their support for renewable energy, which is akin to motherhood and apple pie.

What is striking about the history of climate change and federal politics is just how quiet politicians become once they get into campaign mode and face scrutiny for the specifics of their policy proposals.

Perhaps they simply have no answers to awkward questions of what we do to replace our fossil fuel infrastructure and the power of the fossil fuel lobby.

Marc Hudson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Australia's Renewable Energy Target was reduced in 2015. Wind turbine image from www.shutterstock.com

With the Australian federal election just over a week away, it’s a good time to review the key milestones in Australian climate policy since the last federal election in September 2013.

After winning office, the Abbott government successfully repealed the “carbon tax”. However, an eclectic group of senators banded together to thwart attempts to remove other elements of Julia Gillard’s carbon price package, including several influential climate change agencies.

Heading into the July 2 election, both parties are clear on their climate policy platforms, committing to distinct approaches to meet international and domestic obligations.

Labor has pledged to establish two emissions trading schemes and achieve a goal of 50% renewables by 2030. While the Coalition, under prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, is standing by its Direct Action plan and the pursuit of technological innovation.

The timeline below highlights Australian climate policy interventions from the past three years. A more comprehensive survey of the climate and clean air policy landscape since the last election is detailed in a working paper from the Australian-German Climate and Energy College.

The timeline below is best viewed on a full screen browser window. To navigate, click on the arrow on the right to move forward (and on the left to move back).

Annabelle Workman receives funding to undertake her PhD through a Strategic Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship. She has been an employee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, and is affiliated with the Climate and Health Alliance.

Anita Talberg is on an Australian Postgraduate Award PhD scholarship.

If tests of the 100m-long barrier that collects rubbish on the sea’s surface are successful, it could be deployed at a larger scale in the ‘great Pacific garbage patch’

A bid to clear the Pacific of its plastic debris has moved a step closer with the launch of the biggest prototype clean-up boom yet by the Dutch environment minister at a port in The Hague.

On Thursday the 100m-long barrier will be towed 20km out to sea for a year of sensor-monitored tests, before being scaled up for real-life trials off the Japanese coast at the end of next year.

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Some conservationists say endangered birds at the South African reserve take priority, but others argue that locally the big cat is rarer

A leopard killed dozens of endangered penguins at a nature reserve outside Cape Town earlier this month, prompting a renewed debate about how best to protect South Africa’s threatened species.

Ranger Cuan McGeorge found the bloodied, lifeless bodies of 33 African penguins on 11 June scattered across Stony Point, a reserve at the sleepy holiday town of Betty’s Bay that protects one of just four mainland breeding sites.

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The zero-fuel aeroplane, Solar Impulse, is aiming to complete its Atlantic crossing on Thursday with a landing in Seville.

Plans to open a new mine have been criticised by local residents and NGOs for contradicting government commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and phase out coal, reports ENDS

A new surface coal mine could be created on the scenic Northumberland coast if an application is approved next month.

Banks Mining wants to create a three million tonne (Mt) opencast mine which will operate for seven years from an area of 250 hectares at Druridge Bay, between Widdrington and Cresswell.

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