What Is Your 2020 Vision ?  

Posted by Big Gav in , ,

Kevin Rudd has taken the unusual, but I think admirable (and seemingly popular), step of convening a national summit to map out Australia's long term future and is looking for ideas on a range of issues that will be impacted by peak oil (particularly population, sustainability, climate change and water and security and international relations).

A website will soon be established allowing all Australians to make submissions on each of the policy areas, so I thought I'd open it up for suggestions - what would (or will) you propose in a submission ?

My top 5 suggestions :

* increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) to 30%
* introduce a carbon tax, starting off a low base and increasing until coal fired power has a similar cost to wind or concentrated solar power today
* increase fuel efficiency standards for vehicles
* rebuild / expand the national rail system for freight haulage
* modernise and expand public transport systems in major cities

KEVIN RUDD will ask 1000 of the "best and brightest brains" to map out a strategy for Australia's long-term future in areas ranging from the economy and the environment to the arts and health.

The Prime Minister said yesterday a two-day Australia 2020 summit in Parliament House in April would bring together talented people from outside government to look beyond the usual short-term focus of politics and policymaking. The aim would be to come up with policies to help meet challenges Australia faced over the next decade and beyond. "For too long Australian policymaking has been focused on short-term outcomes dictated by the electoral cycle," Mr Rudd said. "If Australia is to effectively confront the challenges of the future, we need to develop an agreed national direction that looks at the next 10 years and beyond." ...

The Government has identified 10 areas it will ask the summit to tackle. These are: directions for the economy; infrastructure; environmental issues including population, sustainability, climate change and water; rural Australia; national health strategy; strengthening communities; indigenous Australia; the arts; the future of government; and Australia's security and international relations.

Mr Rudd said Australia's three-year electoral cycle meant policymaking usually focused too much on the short term. He wanted to generate a focus on the longer term and to bring people from outside politics and government into national planning and policy formulation. "Government, irrespective of its political persuasion, does not have a monopoly on policy wisdom," he said. "To thrive and prosper in the future we need to draw on the range of talents, ideas and energy from across the Australian community."

The summit will be asked to produce policy options. The Government will announce by the end of the year which ones it accepts.

More at The Australian (who seem surprisingly supportive).

1 comments

Commentary most likely to appear at TOD :

http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/3589

Post a Comment

Statistics

Locations of visitors to this page

blogspot visitor
Stat Counter

Total Pageviews

Ads

Books

Followers

Blog Archive

Labels

australia (619) global warming (423) solar power (397) peak oil (355) renewable energy (302) electric vehicles (250) wind power (194) ocean energy (165) csp (159) solar thermal power (145) geothermal energy (144) energy storage (142) smart grids (140) oil (139) solar pv (138) tidal power (137) coal seam gas (131) nuclear power (129) china (120) lng (117) iraq (113) geothermal power (112) green buildings (110) natural gas (110) agriculture (91) oil price (80) biofuel (78) wave power (73) smart meters (72) coal (70) uk (69) electricity grid (67) energy efficiency (64) google (58) internet (50) surveillance (50) bicycle (49) big brother (49) shale gas (49) food prices (48) tesla (46) thin film solar (42) biomimicry (40) canada (40) scotland (38) ocean power (37) politics (37) shale oil (37) new zealand (35) air transport (34) algae (34) water (34) arctic ice (33) concentrating solar power (33) saudi arabia (33) queensland (32) california (31) credit crunch (31) bioplastic (30) offshore wind power (30) population (30) cogeneration (28) geoengineering (28) batteries (26) drought (26) resource wars (26) woodside (26) censorship (25) cleantech (25) bruce sterling (24) ctl (23) limits to growth (23) carbon tax (22) economics (22) exxon (22) lithium (22) buckminster fuller (21) distributed manufacturing (21) iraq oil law (21) coal to liquids (20) indonesia (20) origin energy (20) brightsource (19) rail transport (19) ultracapacitor (19) santos (18) ausra (17) collapse (17) electric bikes (17) michael klare (17) atlantis (16) cellulosic ethanol (16) iceland (16) lithium ion batteries (16) mapping (16) ucg (16) bees (15) concentrating solar thermal power (15) ethanol (15) geodynamics (15) psychology (15) al gore (14) brazil (14) bucky fuller (14) carbon emissions (14) fertiliser (14) matthew simmons (14) ambient energy (13) biodiesel (13) investment (13) kenya (13) public transport (13) big oil (12) biochar (12) chile (12) cities (12) desertec (12) internet of things (12) otec (12) texas (12) victoria (12) antarctica (11) cradle to cradle (11) energy policy (11) hybrid car (11) terra preta (11) tinfoil (11) toyota (11) amory lovins (10) fabber (10) gazprom (10) goldman sachs (10) gtl (10) severn estuary (10) volt (10) afghanistan (9) alaska (9) biomass (9) carbon trading (9) distributed generation (9) esolar (9) four day week (9) fuel cells (9) jeremy leggett (9) methane hydrates (9) pge (9) sweden (9) arrow energy (8) bolivia (8) eroei (8) fish (8) floating offshore wind power (8) guerilla gardening (8) linc energy (8) methane (8) nanosolar (8) natural gas pipelines (8) pentland firth (8) saul griffith (8) stirling engine (8) us elections (8) western australia (8) airborne wind turbines (7) bloom energy (7) boeing (7) chp (7) climategate (7) copenhagen (7) scenario planning (7) vinod khosla (7) apocaphilia (6) ceramic fuel cells (6) cigs (6) futurism (6) jatropha (6) nigeria (6) ocean acidification (6) relocalisation (6) somalia (6) t boone pickens (6) local currencies (5) space based solar power (5) varanus island (5) garbage (4) global energy grid (4) kevin kelly (4) low temperature geothermal power (4) oled (4) tim flannery (4) v2g (4) club of rome (3) norman borlaug (2) peak oil portfolio (1)