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Transitions to a Post-carbon Society: Scenarios for Western Australia

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Renewable Energy in the Service of Mankind Vol II

Abstract

Pathways towards a post-carbon society are being explored across all levels of government, within the scientific community and society in general. This chapter presents scenarios for cities and regions in Australia after the Age of Oil, particularly the energy-intensive state of Western Australia (WA). It argues that a post-carbon WA would ideally use technological and wider social choices to reduce carbon emissions close to zero. It focuses on policy requirements, institutional and governance arrangements and socio-technical systems to provide an industry-focussed renewable energy development plan that will help to balance ongoing and past emissions and lead to a low-carbon society.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These targets still fall well short of bringing the EU on a trajectory towards meeting their 2050 objective of reducing emissions by 80–95 % compared to 1990 levels.

  2. 2.

    In addition, a carbon price alone was not going to deliver structural changes to Australia’s economy. Despite the introduction of the carbon tax in 2012 emission-intensive industries such as mining, metals and energy continued to receive disproportionate protection, either through large government subsidies, emission exemptions or considerable funding for research into ‘clean technologies’ (e.g. carbon storage) [21, 22].

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Sharon Delmerge and Lauren O’Mahoney of the School of Arts, Navid Moheimani of the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Carol Warren and Alfred Tseng of the School of Management and Governance and Jonathon Whale and Tania Urmee of the School of Engineering and Information Technology that contributed to an earlier, longer version of this chapter. Their additional data will form the basis of future chapters. The authors overall are together developing a new interdisciplinary learning and teaching unit for Murdoch University undergraduate students to be called transitions to a post-carbon society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, 6150, Murdoch, Western Australia

    Martin Anda

  2. School of Management and Governance, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia

    Martin Brueckner & Yvonne Haigh

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  1. Martin Anda
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  2. Martin Brueckner
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  3. Yvonne Haigh
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Correspondence to Martin Anda .

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  1. Chairman, World Renewable Energy Congress, Brighton, United Kingdom

    Ali Sayigh

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Anda, M., Brueckner, M., Haigh, Y. (2016). Transitions to a Post-carbon Society: Scenarios for Western Australia. In: Sayigh, A. (eds) Renewable Energy in the Service of Mankind Vol II. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18215-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18215-5_13

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