Letters - To and fro

Phil Minns,

Corop

Different views

It is interesting how two people can watch the same event and draw completely different conclusions.

Peter Lockyer (Country News, November 23) says the COP26 summit was of “critical importance” and that Australia is “a joke”.

Well, what I saw was that the summit was a joke. The chair of the meeting was crying after they finally cobbled together some statement that nobody really believes.

If COP26 “wanted ambitious emissions targets” then two of the biggest emitters (of an invisible gas that is essential to life on this planet) basically said 'get stuffed' with targets in 2060 and 2070. Code for never!

Mr Lockyer can talk about electric vehicles until the cows come home but in a country the size of Australia they will never be practical outside of metropolitan areas.

Even worse, if there were to be millions of EVs suddenly looking to charge up from the grid, then our reliance on coal and gas would likely increase.

Can I respectfully suggest that Mr Lockyer heads to a website such as energymatters.com.au (a company that sells solar panels) and looks at the live electricity generation charts.

After just a week of observation he will notice the regular energy droughts from wind and solar. This is particularly so at night, when the sun doesn't shine and the wind often moderates, but also on cloudy days, rainy days and still sunny days!

Australia represents about 0.3 per cent of the world's population and many of those other people want to stop burning dung and wood. They want a more modern lifestyle with all the benefits that people like Mr Lockyer enjoy.

If you consider CO2 to be a problem (I don't), then nuclear power is the only answer.

Instead of subsidising toxic batteries that have a short lifespan, Australia needs to pursue the only solution that is currently viable.

Alternatively we need to build new low-emission coal-fired power stations like much of the rest of the world is doing.

Glenn Thomson,

Deniliquin