Environmental Issues and Technical Options for Sustainability

This article discusses the range of environmental issues arising from electricity supply and technical options for addressing key environmental and wider sustainability issues, particularly the challenges of climate change. It also establishes priorities for these options through a multi-disciplinary technology assessment framework and incorporates them into sustainable energy scenarios.

Running head: ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
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1. Provide the range of environmental issues potentially arising from electricity supply
and use, and methods for assessing them
It has been found that global buildings are responsible for approximately consuming 40
per cent of the total world annual energy. This energy is used for the provision of heating,
cooling, lighting and air conditioning. The environmental damage that arise from the energy and
electricity supply include the occupational illness and the injuries in the energy supply industries,
injuries and public illness caused due to the effluents and the accidents concomitant with the
energy supply. In addition, there is immense damage caused to the human health, well-being of
the individuals and the safety issues that is associated with the ecological disruption and the
climatological processes and the conditions (Elliott 2012). Another problem that emerges due to
the supply of electricity and energy can be attributed to the social and the political conditions
along with the biogeophysical ones that demand another category of damages, and the social and
the political disruptions that are concomitant to the energy supply. It has been found that no
energy technology is potentially free from the environmental hazards. Secondly, it has been
found that the quantification of the external agents of the environment costs and is the residual
damages and the risks that arise after the control and it becomes difficult to conceptualize. There
is a great pressure on the human welfare that would improve the greatest impact of the human
welfare that would be associated with category of damages (Schweizer-Ries 2008). It has been
found that all energy sources have drawback from the perspective of the environment (Griggs et
al. 2013). Exploitation of the source of energy can culminate to undesirable and damaging by-
products that would drive the supply down of the other products. It is true that irrespective of the
safety measures, hazards will exist and there will be high chance for the occurrence of accidents.
The two worst forms of energy sources that have been identified are coal and biomass. The

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burning coal, the wood, or the residual product liberates harmful gases into the atmosphere.
These gases are carbon dioxides, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides and other impurities poses health
problems for the individuals. It has been reported that 70 per cent of the dust smoke emission, 67
per cent of the nitrogen oxide, 70 per cent of the carbon dioxide in China can be attributed to the
coal emission (Holden, Linnerud and Banister 2017). It has been found that during the act of coal
burning, mercury is liberated into the atmosphere and the mercury would enter the environment
as industrial air pollution from the factories once the coal is burnt. Since this is a global
pollutant, it disperses the pollutant in the globe that influences the five continents. It has been
found that the third of the US’s lakes were destroyed. The global environment degradation can
be attributed to the rise in the greenhouse gases that is more particularly to do with Carbon
dioxide (CO2) that makes it for the large contribution to the global warming. Co2 is liberated into
the environment and the fossil fuel is combusted for the use of energy. Among the different types
of fossil fuel present in the atmosphere coal is found to be responsible for releasing the Co2 into
the atmosphere and therefore contributes to the highest amount to global warming (Field and
Barros 2014). There has been a severe effect of the increase in the numerous and well-known
influence on the health of the human beings. In addition, it poses pressure on the forest
resources, water resources, coastal areas, natural areas and the agriculture. There is evident
regional pollution that is embodied in the acid rain that takes place when the SO2and the NOx
that are fused in the air and create acidic compounds that are taken into the atmosphere. Acid
deposition have been identified as the potential environmental problem that can jeopardize the
lives of the biological means.

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3. Describe technical options for addressing key environmental and wider sustainability
issues, in particular, the challenges of climate change
The policymakers need to understand the areas where they would need to make the
necessary amendments and seek solutions on what can be done in the present situation.
Improvements in the environment are related to the pricing incentives or the regulatory
intervention. There are regulations in the usage of water by reducing the amount of water that is
wasted. The recent incident concerning the reduction of water has been found to be most
pronounced in the countries that have eliminated their subsidies for the usage of water and the
applied charges on water so as to promote the culture of more careful water usage. The main
reductions in energy intensity are related to the OECD economies, marginal costs and the water
supply. The main reductions in the energy are not driven by the environmental policy that have
taken place during the major oil price shocks of the 1970s when there was an increase in the
price of energy. It has been found that the government regulations and the restrictions have the
potential in successfully minimizing the levels of the air pollutants, industrial pollution, cleaning
up the polluted surfaces and in phasing out of the CFCs. Direct intervention by the government
has been found to be useful in increasing the size and the number of natural areas in the OECD
countries. That have conserved or they have restricted on the use, protecting the ecosystem along
with the biodiversity. The government policies have the potential to facilitate changes that are
compatible for the environment and in other consumption patterns. This is true for developing
the organic agriculture and the environmentally sustainable agricultural practices along with the
rapid growth of which the OECD countries is partly due to the greater consumer demand and
also to the government support (Elliot 2012). There is a growing public access to the
environmental concern and the policy-making process that can influence individual consumption

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choices and increase the support for the environmental practices. At present, most of the
environmental problems have been dealt in an efficient manner. However in the future the
problems are likely to become complex and the resolution would require more difficult trade-offs
and deeper international co-operation (Field and Barros 2014). It has been found that the
potential effects have been quantitatively assessed. There needs to be the deployment of a ix of
policy instruments that would combine the robust regulatory framework along with different
instruments. They should be the incorporation of stronger pricing mechanisms that would
influence the behavior of the producers and the consumers, the voluntary agreements, eco-labels,
tradable permits and the information-based incentives, infrastructure provision and the land-use
regulation (Shariatzadeh, Mandal and Srivastava2015). There should be the elimination of
subsidies that are harmful for the environment. In addition, there should be more systematic use
of the environmental tax, charges and the economic instruments that would ensure that the prices
are right. A policy simulation needs to be undertaken to address the number of red light issues
that have been identified in the course of time. The simulation of the light combined with the
elimination of the subsidies in the place of OECD countries with the imposition of the tax on the
use of energy and tax on the use of chemicals. The effect of the environment on the policy mix
have been found to be substantial along with carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that are projected to
be 15 per cent lower in 2020 that is compared with the business like scenario. Whilst the sulphur
dioxide (Sox) emissions have been projected to be 9 per cent lower , nitrogen to the waterways
have been found to be 30 per cent lower and the methane emissions are 3 per cent lower (Peters
et al 2012). The policy package and the economic cost of securing the environmental benefits are
estimated to be marginal that would result in the total GDP level that would be less than the 1 per
cent in the OECD regions in 2020 than the usual business. Therefore, the overall GDP in the

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OECD regions is projected to grow by 60 per cent between 1995-2020 along with the policy
package as compared with the 61 per cent increase in the business as usual (Omer 2008).
There needs to be focus on the major environmental issues that face the OECD countries
and the strategy that needs to be identified are five inter-connected objective too intensify the
cost-effective and operational environmental policies that are in the context of sustainable
development. These are concerned with maintaining the integrity of the ecosystems through
efficient management of the natural resources. Next, it is concerned with the de-coupling of the
environmental pressures from the economic growth. Thirdly, it is concerned with improving the
information for decision-making and the incorporation of the indicators that would measure the
progress and in enhancing the quality of life (Field and Barros 2014). There should be
improvement of the governance and the cooperation and there is now global environmental
interdependence. The OECD environmental strategy have recognized that the challenges for the
next decade and the national actions taken by the countries to agree regarding the addressable of
the environmental issues that they face and the indicators that can be employed in assessing the
progress and the work of OECD that would be supportive (Ball 2014). There needs to be the
adoption of the Environmental Strategy . ecosystems can be managed and maintained through
strict implementation. Human pressures on the environment will not ease until there are strong
policy actions to protect the environment and maintain the essential services. There needs to be
national strategies for setting the price right and ensuring that full costs are taken into account in
case of the natural resources through policy instruments and market. For reducing the impact of
greenhouse gas and increasing carbon-dioxide-absorbing sinks, there needs to be the adoption of
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and continuing process in conjunction with
the international processes. There needs to timely ratification of the process and the broadest

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support from the international community.. There needs to be incentives for reducing the
emissions through the means of technological and social innovation, market-based instruments
through green tax reform and subsidy removal.Climate change adaptation and mitigation can be
addressed on all the three levels. These three level structuresare that Australia needs to identify
three or more than strategy policy areas or dimensions of sustainable development. This can be
done through managing the natural resources, sustainable consumption and production, living
spaces, global responsibility or the sustainable economic development. At the second level,
Australia can list the concrete objectives this may be done through the direct reference to climate
change, establishing the climate change mitigation programme, limiting the climate change and
enhancing the use of clean energy. Another strategy can be through the adaption to the adverse
effects of the climate change. Therefore at this stage a small set of priorities need to be
recognized. Then there is the third level that would be concerned with amore specific and
disaggregated list of aims and the concrete actions are laid out. A comprehensive set of actions
can be laid out or there can be deference to other description or the development of the concrete
plans at the sectoral level. Communities and people play a pivotal role in each of the three global
agendas. This would be done with the objective of benefiting from action and innovating and
leading with new ideas. This would involve the neighbors by galvanizing them to be part of
environmental issues that concerns the different groups. There should be people-centred
approach just like it was done in the Brazilian Climate Action on Agriculture (Panayotou 2016).
The goal in this case would be to increase the agricultural outputs through the succour of the
state commissions and state level interventions. This would be done by involving the civil
society. The people-centred approach to the climate change can be another effective way where
the farmers do not pursue adaptation, disaster risk and sustainable development but the aim

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would be to address the everything together to improve the livelihoods of the people.
Communities are critical agents in ushering in change for all the three agendas and the local
actors can drive the processes of policymaking at the higher level.
4. Establish priorities for these options through a multi-disciplinary technology assessment
framework and incorporate them into sustainable energy scenarios.
There needs to be the establishment of the of domestic policy responses to the
environment and climate change Thee needs to be the facilitation of dialogue and supporting the
analysis in the developmental, environmental and the social connections between the climate
change and the sustainability and that would contribute to the exchange of information on the
climate change policies. The idea would be to reduce the threats that are posed to the ecosystem
and the species with the aim of integrated physical planning activities and the different policies.
There should be de-coupling of the environmental pressures from the aspect of economic growth
to the continued economic growth that needs to be accompanied by improving the quality of the
environment. It should be made sure that the net effect of de-coupling across the economic
sectors would combine to ensure that the criteria of environmental sustainability are adequately
met (Rydin 2012). There needs to be recognition of the assimilative and the regenerative
capacity of the environment that would avoid the irreversible effects on the ecosystem and by
ensuring the substitution possibilities exist in case of the non-renewable resources. In the context
of agriculture, the ultimate challenge lies in steadily decreasing the negative environmental
impact on the agricultural production through ensuring that there is sufficient agricultural
production for feeding the world population. The government needs to ensure the costs that
includes both the environmental and the social like the pricing of the irrigation water, promotion

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of the sustainable farming systems, environmental sound farm management practices. There
needs to phase out or reform . There has been insufficient progress made in the direction of
addressing issues relating to the health and the environmental impact. There needs to be a
proactive approach in working towards the full internalization and effective environmental costs
on the transportation for planning to reduce the need to travel and therefore switching to eco-
friendly and sustainable modes of transport. Environmental degradation is increasing at a slow
rate compared to the economic growth and there is overall environmental degradation and
reduction in the intensity of energy by 20 per cent whilst there is an increase in the total energy
by 35 per cent (Panayotou 2016). In order to realize this total reductions the negative
environmental impact of energy use there needs to be transformation to significant changes in the
fuel mix through the greater replacement of the polluting fossil fuels through the ;alternative
means of renewable resources and the cleaner fuels. The use of the technological route to
sustainability is quite underdeveloped by incorporating the concept of decoupling of the
economic growth from the resource requirements. Earlier predictions have found that resource
exhaustion have been invalidated through technological processes. Once it has been decided by
the society the kind of transformations they wish to seek, they can respond to the development.
Such societal demand is necessary for technological feasibility and challenging the consumption
patterns of the developed country. It is necessary to understand that the changes in the
consumption patterns to move into the general directions. In the market economy, it can be seen
that prices play an important role in the determination of the consumption towards sustainability.
Presence of externalities and the market price do not ensure sufficient allocation of the resources
that needs to be corrected and internalized. There are commodities that lead to high level of
greenhouse gas emissions and can be priced to the way in which the cost will be imposed on

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climate change. The World Commission on Environmental and Development report have found
that needs of the future generation can be met through controlling the resource consumption of
the present generation (Winzer 2012). There is a difference between strong sustainability and
weak sustainability. In case of strong sustainability it allows the sustainability between the
natural capital and the produced capital. On the other hand, weak capital allows sustainability
through substitution. There remains concern about the transformation that has been proposed for
the employment, economic growth and income of the populations. Following the footsteps of the
Millennium Development, the idea would be to consolidate the protocols of the goal. It is
important to pay attention to the issues that concerns the quality of life and there should be
significant progress to keep a tab on the schools on whether they follow the appropriate
strategies. More attention needs to be paid to the compatibility and the coherence of the issues by
looking into the different dimensions. There needs to be an emphasis on the Millennium
Development as well as the human development. There should be recognition of heterogeneity
and conservation of the resources promoted by the different communities.
5. Assess the effectiveness of current and proposed Australian energy and climate policies
in driving the electricity industry towards more sustainable outcomes, with particular
climate change.
It has been found that the total emissions in Australia have remained constant in the last
25 years and the emissions in 2014 were found to be contributing to the 3 per cent below in
1990. Emissions have rose in the past 25 years and excluding the emission estimates it has been
found that this is quite problematic considering the emissions management and the performance.

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The concerted effort of the Australian government can be witnessed in the policy outcome
related to Australia that has led to a near complete failure in the reduction of the national
emissions for a brief period. It needs to be understood that Australia has a significant
decarbonization challenge that would meet the existing targets. However, the target set by the
country is currently in the weakest from the developed nations of the world. According to the
Climate Action Tracker Assessment, it has been found that Australia would reduce the veracity
of greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 that includes the land-use change,
land-use and the forestry by 2030. This target amounts to the equivalent of the range of 5 per
cent below to 5 per cent above the 1990 levels of the GHG emissions (Mudd 2010). Except for
Australia, all other countries like New Zealand and Canada have exhorted for the goals to be
accomplished by 2025 or 2030 that would be below the 1990 level. This demonstrates that
Australia’s commitment is not in conjunction with the majority of the interpretations for the fair
approach. Australia has the track record for participating in the global emissions reduction
agreement for meeting and beating the emissions reduction target whilst maintaining the
population growth. . Australia is one among the 191 countries that ratified the first commitment
during the period of the Kyoto Protocol (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2015). The
target was achieved by the country for the period of the Kyoto Protocol. It has been able to
achieve the target of limiting the emissions to 108 per cent of the 1990 levels for the period of
2008-2012. Australia is one of the 96 countries that amended the second commitment period of
the Kyoto Protocol. Australia is in the track of achieving the 2020 target of reducing the
emissions by 5 per cent below the 2000 levels. It has ratified the Paris Agreement that was done
during the 45th Parliament in November 2016 (Neves and Leal 2010). Australia made the 2030
target to reduce the emissions by 26-28 per cent that is below the 2005 levels amounting to

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halving per person emission and two-thirds of the reduction in the intensity of emission of the
economic activities. In this regard it can be considered as the strongest targets (Jordan and
Lenschow 2009). The progress of the emissions target in Australia is measured through the
cumulative emissions for the definite period. This is reflective of the cumulative emissions that
are liberated into the atmosphere over the time and not the emission in any one single year that
would determine the impact on the climate. Australia’s 2030 target Australia’s emissions
projections 2017 demonstrate that Australia has made progress since the inception of the earlier
emissions projections. The estimated emissions reduction over 2021 to 2030 has decreased by
120 Mt CO2 since the 2016 during the projections and the 1200 Mt CO2 of the 2014-15 (Chu,
Cui and Liu 2017). However, the task of emissions reduction does not include abatement that is
incurred from the measures of the development that includes the efficiency of the standards of
the vehicle or the National Energy Guarantee. The emissions projection have been found to be
making informed decision regarding the potential and future growth of Australia in the world
map. This uncertainty is increased due to furtherance into the future that is projected. The
projection of the emissions have substantially been revised downwards over the past considering
the factors that are lower compared to the demand for electricity, the faster than expected
technology change and the Global Financial Crisis. The projection of 2016 includes the
sensitivities that demonstrate the emissions and that it may change according to the different
assumptions and perceptions. Although there are historical correlations there has been improved
efficiency that would ensure the reduction in energy demand. This is manifested in the dominant
contribution for the minimization of the carbon emissions (Mudd 2010). Energy efficiency is
considered the outputs of energy for the specified system that includes the machine tool, motor,
firm, the industrial process and the entire economy. The evaluation of the energy inputs have

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raised concerns, as it is different energy carriers that are combined and there is a common
approach to sum the thermal content of each energy carrier. The National Energy Customer
Framework (NECF) is considered one of the final steps in the national energy reform process
that is agreed by the COAG. The NECF comprises of the of the implementation of steady
framework for the regulation of the retail supply of the gas and electricity. In Australia, the
implementation of the NECF is strived at the promotion of specific competition that would be
beneficial for the consumers through the creation of the efficiencies and reduction of the
regulatory burden of the energy businesses that is operative across the different jurisdictions that
occupy the national energy market. Key energy efficiencies in the Territory have led to the
improvement in the efficiency measures that are cost-effective and have led to the improvement
in the heating, lighting, space cooling, and refrigeration and standby power savings. There is
reduced demand for the energy that is due to the efficiency improvements that have been able to
improve the reliability of the networks through the peak loads and in lowering the energy supply
costs by deferring the requirement for the new investments in the networks and the generation of
capacity (Jordan and Lenschow 2009). Energy efficiency and the policies are coordinated at the
national level that is subsumed under the National Framework for Energy Efficiency. There has
been timely implementation of the energy efficiency reforms that emerged from the National
Partnership Agreement on Energy Efficiency and it is subject to cost benefit analysis. The ACT
Government has switched to low emission in the form of vehicles and it has already been
introduced in Australia’s first Green Vehicles stamp duty scheme that based on the
environmental performance (Ross and Dovers 2008). The ACT government has reviewed the
existing Green Vehicles scheme to assess in what ways it can be strengthened with the objective
of encouraging the people to adopt for clean and efficient vehicle to fulfill the demands. There

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has been new pricing and the regulatory policies that has been explored through the Transport
Pricing study 2011-2-12. There have been opportunities recognized for the reduced consumption
of fuel from the eco-driving. The push and pull measures have encouraged people to veer
towards public transport that do not lead to harmful consequences for the environment. The
Canberra Policy by the government of Australia have been helpful in catering to the travel
demand and in mitigating the impact of environmental hazards.

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