Environmental Challenge Diocesan response

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Environmental Challenge- Diocesan response

• Anglican Diocese of Newcastle Synod

Peter Scaife
17 October 2008
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International perspective

• Human activity is having a major adverse impact
  on the worlds biosphere
• loss of species (habitat destruction, invasive
  species)
• stresses on renewable resources (fresh water,
  forests, fisheries)
• greenhouse gas emissions (GGE), leading to
  climate change
• Current high consumption lifestyle in developed
  countries is widely acknowledged as unsustainable
• continuing population growth in developing
  countries who aspire to similar consumption
• rapid economic growth in China and India (37 of
  world population)
• if all countries consumed at USA rate, would
  require 5 worlds
• global fresh water consumption 7.5 million
  million tonnes (1200 tonnes per
  person)

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International perspective

• Greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) are a dominant
  concern
• only issue that affects all countries,
  independent of emissions from any particular
  country
• global GGE of 30 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent
  in 2007
• China now produces more GGE than the USA
  however, per capita emissions are much lower (4 t
  CO2-e for China, 21 t CO2-e for USA)
• Urbanisation is rapidly increasing, particularly
  in developing countries
• 19 mega-cities with 10 million or more, 22 cities
  with 5-10 million, and 370 cities with 1-5
  million
• 90 of future global population growth will occur
  in cities
• In 20 years, 1.1 billion extra people in Asian
  cities
• Major challenge for maintaining ecosystems

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Glacier Melt
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
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Australia State of Environment

• Australia faces all of the international issues,
  with differences in emphasis due to climate,
  geography, unique ecosystems, lifestyle, etc
• High annual energy consumption/GGE emissions
  (2006)
• 5600 PJ (equivalent to 130 Mt of oil, or 200 Mt
  of coal) Australia has major reserves of all
  energy resources, except oil
• 576 Mt CO2-e
• Most of Southern Australia has ongoing water
  shortages
• reductions in rainfall (30) in many southern
  areas of Australia, leading to major reductions
  in runoff (50)
• particularly in Murray Darling basin, also Perth
  and Melbourne
• increasing use of water to support human activity
  is having a devastating impact upon the natural
  environment

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Australia State of Environment

• For a developed nation, comparatively high
  population growth (due to immigration)
• increases the challenge to reduce absolute levels
  of materials consumption, GGEs and habitat
  destruction
• Ongoing (and increasing) impacts on habitats and
  biodiversity
• loss of 75 of rainforests, 50 of all forests,
  90 of temperate woodlands and mallee, 99 of
  south-eastern Australia's temperate lowland
  grasslands, inter alia
• Biodiversity loss continues as a result of
• habitat fragmentation
• weed invasion
• introduction of exotic animals (rabbits, foxes,
  cane toads)
• logging, farming, urban development

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Average Australian - energy

• Annual energy consumption 270 GJ (2006)
• equivalent to 10 t of coal
• 41 coal, 35 oil, 19 natural gas, 5 renewables
• solar and wind only 0.15
• fossil energy to provide the majority of energy
  for next 20-30 years
• Residential use 21 GJ
• 52 electricity, 30 natural gas, 14 wood
• 33 water heating, 20 refrigeration/freezer, 7
  TV/Video/PC, 6 cooking, 8 lights
• Transport 58 GJ
• Road transport 80, air transport 12
• Cars are 55 of all transport energy use

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Average Australian GGE

• Australia has a (mainly) coal based electricity
  sector, high car use, and a large agricultural
  sector
• high level of annual emissions per person 27t
  CO2-e
• Sources of emissions
• 19t from stationary energy and transport
• 9.5t from electricity and gas (13 direct
  consumer use)
• 3.8t from transport (7 direct consumer use)
• 1.4t from industry (non-energy, eg cement
  production)
• 4t from agriculture
• 1.8t from land-use change and forestry
• Most emissions are from indirect sources

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Average Australian - water

• Water consumption (direct and indirect)
• 1,500,000 litres of water each year (average for
  all products and services) cf USA 2,500,000, and
  China 700,000
• of which 60-80,000 litres per year are for
  household use
• most water is used for agricultural products
• Large quantities of fresh water are used in
  foods, products and services
• Food (litres/kg) wheat 1000, rice 1500, beef
  16000
• Other (litres) cotton t shirt 2000, 1 sheet A4
  paper 10, cup
  of coffee 140, 1kg steel 3-4, 1kg aluminium 36
• Important to consider water use in products and
  services, as well as in household consumption

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Average Australian materials

• Uses 200 tonnes of materials each year
• excluding water, but including soil loss
• Material intensive lifestyle
• (per year) steel 360 kg, cement 500 kg, paper 180
  kg, glass 40 kg
• Waste generated per person annually (2002-3)
• 1.62 t (27 municipal, 29 industrial, 42
  construction)
• 0.75 t are recycled (only 30 of municipal waste
  is recycled)
• increase in waste generated, but a decline in
  waste to landfill
• Major e-waste challenge
• in 2006, 1.5 M computers to landfill (additional
  5.3 M in storage)
• each year 2.4 M computers and 1 M TVs are
  purchased

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Technology

• Technological development has provided the means
  for our current lifestyle
• New technologies are an important part of the
  solution many new developments occurring,
  worldwide
• more efficient consumable goods, buildings, cars
• The single most frequent failure in the history
  of forecasting has been grossly underestimating
  the impact of technologies
• Peter Schwartz from The Art of the Long View
• Costs and efficiencies of technologies depend on
  learning rate ( reduction in capital cost for a
  doubling of world installed capacity)
• as more use of a technology occurs, improvements
  are made
• RD can lead to step changes

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Technology - computer chip example (1/100,000
in 30 years)
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Technology - electricity

• Increase in efficiency of coal fired electricity
  generation (25 by 2020) reduces GGE and water
  consumption
• possible 50 improvement by 2050 (direct coal
  fuel cell)
• Reduction in cost of solar thermal (CST) and PV
  generation
• CST is predicted to compete with coal base load
  power by 2020 in southern areas of USA and Europe
  
• PV is high cost, but has a 20 learning rate
• Wind generation already very competitive if price
  of carbon dioxide emissions is gt40/tonne
• wind generation has a learning rate of around 8
• Wind and PV installed capacity are growing
  rapidly worldwide (25 and 40 respectively per
  annum)

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Technology - transport

• Cars are still basically dependent on internal
  combustion engines
• well developed, fuel consumption as low as 4
  litres/100 km
• Hybrid cars now provide an alternative at
  reasonable cost
• 4 litres/100 km best fuel economy/less
  pollution, in urban driving
• smaller internal combustion engines - base load
• supercapacitors - acceleration
• advanced batteries - energy storage and levelling
• regenerative braking - energy recovery
• good test bed for key components of an all
  electric car
• Emerging technology electric cars
• By 2020, Israel plans to eliminate fossil fuelled
  cars in urban areas

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Technology - water

• Most appropriate initial response is water
  efficiency
• Harvest stormwater
• domestic tanks (back to the future!) 1 in 6 of
  households in 2004, larger facilities for
  communal use aquifer injection
• Reuse treated sewage for lower grade use (eg
  industrial)
• could be treated to potable standard if
  acceptable to community
• Only 7 of sewage reused in Australia
• Increase capture of water from rivers
• Desalination of sea water
• costs decreasing, 2 year lead time, uses
  electricity 3.2 kWh/kl, compared to household
  average of around 14 kWh/day
• Perth plant of 50G litres per year (water cost
  1.20/kl)

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Technology - water

• Australia 2020 Summit
• invest in innovative technology desalination,
  stormwater harvesting, recycling
• water should be recycled many times, with no
  single use by 2020
• Dilemma Tillegra Dam (450 G litres)
• loss of agricultural land, changes in river
  ecology, offset by major increase in water
  security
• but many in community unconvinced that
  efficiency, storm water harvesting, and reuse
  options have been explored sufficiently
• desalination reasonable cost option, but has
  higher operating costs
• climate modelling suggests that rainfall in our
  catchment will not decrease significantly (could
  increase)
• lead time for a dam is many years, and a dam is
  only effective once it fills therefore must act
  earlier, rather than wait for drought

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Technology materials use (steel)

• The hierarchy is reduce, reuse and recycle.
• maximum benefit from extending the life of steel
  products, and using less steel for a given
  service
• Direct reuse of structural steel saves
• 1.45 t of iron ore, 1.0 t of coal, 2.4 t of
  water, and 2.7 t of GGEs
• Recycling leads to a 50 reduction in energy and
  GGEs
• many products are now being designed to allow
  separation of materials
• Sydney steel frame building
• 8 levels added to existing 15 level building
  while still functioning with 1,000 people.

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Technology - summary

• Developments in technology underpin our current
  lifestyle
• Technological innovation provides options for
  reducing environmental impacts
• allows reductions in energy and greenhouse gas
  emission intensity, as well as water and
  materials intensity, for services and products
• improvements are constantly being made, with
  learning rates determined by international uptake
• But technological development will not alone be
  sufficient
• Behavioural change is required

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Changing Behaviour

• Church has an important role
• members with strong moral and ethical basis for
  actions to support environmental improvement
• cross section of socioeconomic and ethnic groups
  in the community
• respected politically
• good communication system
• international community including developed and
  developing nations
• Lambeth Conference, 5th Mark of Mission
• Safeguarding Creation

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Changing Behaviour

• Education/awareness raising is a crucial
  component
• needed to drive community awareness
• individuals need to understand the impacts of
  purchasing and lifestyle choice decisions
• avoid purchasing products which are not
  sustainable, eg tropical rainforest timbers
  without certification
• information is available but difficult to access
  and analyse for many for example
• trade offs in house insulation (ceiling, walls,
  windows) before installing air conditioning
• whether to install a solar hot water heater or PV
  panels on the roof
• technical units and terms can be confusing

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Changing Behaviour

• Education would assist in dealing with
  misconceptions
• ban harvesting of all native forests, cf thinning
  of degraded regrowth forests to restore timber
  potential and improve biodiversity
• classification of steel by recycled content, as a
  way to promote more use of recycled steel
• select building materials on embodied energy,
  rather than considering energy use over the life
  cycle of the building
• Personal energy and water consumption, and GGE,
  could be reduced by gt20 without significant
  change in lifestyle
• car pooling, public transport, more fuel
  efficient car
• solar/gas water heater
• water efficient garden, washing machine, domestic
  rain water tanks
• What stops us doing the obvious?

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Changing Behaviour

• Business and industry are important contributors
  to the solution, and are changing behaviour
• many manufacturers are redesigning products to
  use less energy, eliminate hazardous materials,
  and to increase ease of recycling/reuse (Extended
  Producer Responsibility)
• note current problem with e-waste
• current energy security/GGE issue can be seen as
  a problem or as a very large opportunity
• Advantage of adopting a more community/ecosystem
  oriented lifestyle, with less materials use
• required for an equitable distribution of the
  earths resources
• increasingly difficult, with growth in
  urbanisation, and a focus on material standard of
  living

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Way Ahead

• Newcastle Diocese is well positioned to take a
  lead in the Anglican response to Safeguarding
  Creation
• range of ecosystems, some of which are under
  threat
• diverse urban and rural parishes
• a major river valley, with competition for water
  (agriculture, mines, towns, industry, tourism)
• Support is available from a number of existing
  activities
• NCC (Peter Dormand) energy/GGE, and water
  program
• CSIRO Energy Centre (energy technologies)
• University of Newcastle
• Prof Steffan Lehmann UNESCO Chair in
  Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and
  Pacific
• Australias first zero carbon emission urban area
  (Taree)
• TOCAL, TAFE, Hunter Wetlands Centre

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Way Ahead

• Walk the talk lead by example
• eg audit for Bishopscourt and diocesan facilities
• Set targets
• short term must be realistic and achievable
• aspirational (not too prescriptive)
• do a little, learn a little approach
• Church leaders for the church community
• communicate progress against targets
• exchange best practices with other dioceses and
  churches
• celebrate achievements

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Way Ahead

• Initiatives within parishes
• guest speakers
• audits of churches, halls and rectories,
• specific projects (eg solar lighting, bird
  attractive gardens)
• Individual actions by parishioners
• improve home energy and water consumption, and
  GGE
• choose products which are more environmentally
  friendly in manufacture, as well as in use
• reduce packaging and increase recycling
• back to the future
• participate in community environmental
  initiatives

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Way Ahead

• Church as an example to the general community
• start by addressing energy/GGE, and water use in
  church buildings and operations
• measure and then implement most cost effective
  actions
• many members available with required skills
• financial savings , coupled with environmental
  improvements
• Improve the ecosystem performance on church
  property, and foster improvements in nearby
  bushland areas (St Albans Church, Charlestown, is
  a good example)
• collaborate with other groups in the region to
  facilitate new version of Pathways to
  Sustainability conferences (say, from 2010)
• demonstrate lifestyle quality with lower
  materials consumption
• Consistent communication required

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Way Ahead

• From an established sound environmental base
  within the diocese, move to collective action on
  broader issues, eg biodiversity
• contribute to community debate on habitat
  protection (bushland, wetlands, etc) in the
  region
• participate in the debate on contentious issues,
  particularly those that have moral aspects for
  example
• Coal mining benefits and impacts in Hunter Valley
  communities and ecosystems (Regional)
• Nuclear energy to reduce GGEs (National)
• Assist technology transfer to developing
  countries
• eg biogas generators in Africa
• perhaps the diocese could adopt a diocese in a
  developing country and provide ongoing support

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The effort of religious groups, based on moral
conviction, rather than immediate self interest,
is likely to have a disproportionate effect in
the political arena on behalf of the
environment.
Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Baird Professor of Science,
Harvard UniversityThe father of biodiversity