Renewable Energy in China and The US-Australian Alliance

Tanya Plibersek, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs is the first to mention renewable energy at the "Australia US Alliance Conference in Canberra Australia-US: The Alliance in an Emerging Asia" conference in Canberra today  (streamed live online). She pointed out that China has made renewable energy a priority. This made an interesting contrast to previous speakers at the conference who emphasised the effect of coal seam gas on energy exports from Australia and the USA. These speakers appeared to assume that China and other countries would be markets for Australian and US gas exports. However, it may be that Coal (particularly when used more efficiently with technology from CSIRO) will be sufficient while renewable energy production is expanded, supplemented by indigenous gas production.