KEY POINTS:
When it comes to the urgent issue of dealing with climate change, technology is both villain and potential white knight. If the villainous technologies are those that are pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere, the heroic ones are carbon-neutral.
We need more of the latter, says Gareth Renowden, author of a new book, Hot Topic, that outlines the implications for New Zealand of the recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Technology that takes the country towards carbon-neutrality won't undo the damage already done - "I think we are already in for a pretty rough ride" - but it's our best hope for stopping things getting worse, Renowden says.
"There is a lot of technology out there that is directly applicable to the problem. I tend towards the geeky Wired magazine approach to this and get quite excited about the technology that could be deployed to become part of the solution."
Electric cars, for example, show potential. He points to Californian company Tesla Motors, whose Lotus-designed electric sports car will be on sale soon.
"For about US$100,000 [$145,000] you get a car that will do nought to 100km/h in about five seconds, with 400km range, and it charges up overnight or while you're at the office."
A British company has developed a car about twice the price of the Tesla but with a more advanced battery. "The battery it uses can be fully recharged in about 10 minutes. If that technology is real and can be deployed and is affordable it means electric cars stop being geeky or out on the extreme and become practical."
If he were driving from his home in North Canterbury to Wanaka, for example, it would be "no big deal" to stop in Geraldine and charge the car's battery while having a cup of coffee.
Of course, the cars have little point if they're charged with electricity generated by burning coal. Meridian Energy said last week it would conduct an electric car trial with power from renewable sources.
"The difficulty with all of these things - it's like solar cells - the technology exists, but until you can get it out into the marketplace at a price that everyone is willing to pay, there is a hurdle to leap."
Germany and Japan have cottoned on to this by subsidising installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems that turn sunlight into electricity. Because the system makers are guaranteed business, manufacturing is stepped up, making the technology cheaper, Renowden says.
Another important government policy lever is to insist that the environmental cost of carbon be factored into energy production calculations. "Once you start to put the price of carbon into the market, coal power becomes less cheap, and things like solar and wind and tidal power become more attractive," Renowden says.
Some of the technology answers he favours are decidedly low-tech. For example, with water heating representing as much as 40 per cent of the electricity households consume, widespread use of solar water heating could significantly cut the country's power bill. And small windmills on houses could form part of a distributed electricity generation system.
"When the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing you draw energy from the grid."
Renowden doesn't advocate riding roughshod over environmental concerns in the hurry to come up with alternative energy answers. But, clearly, different people have different sensitivities. While he doesn't mind the sight of windmills on the horizon, he acknowledges that not everyone feels the same way, as demonstrated by objections - All Black Anton Oliver being a notable dissenter - to Meridian Energy's proposed Project Hayes wind farm in Otago.
"The idea that there are iconic landscapes that you wouldn't want to fiddle about with ... a lot of that will come down to local communities." At the same time, he thinks it might be necessary to develop an "enhanced idea" of the national interest that takes account of wider environmental concerns in advancing some projects.
New Zealand, however, as the producer of about 0.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases (and half of that coming from burping livestock), isn't going to have much impact on overall CO2 emissions. For us, Renowden says, the urgency comes from needing to show our trading partners that we're doing our bit so they don't stop buying our products.
"The important thing about getting an answer to global warming is getting everybody to do something about it. You can't just expect the government to flick a switch and fix everything.
"We are going to have to take more responsibility ourselves for the things that we do, the technologies we use, and how we use them."
* Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland-based technology journalist.
