The Big Teal and other books

The Big Teal | Simon Holmes à Court

Simon Holmes à Court has been criss-crossing Australia promoting his book The Big Teal which, for good reason, we label a must read.

It charts the background to the crowd-funded Climate 200 campaign that saw a bunch of smart, talented people elected community independent MPs in the May 2022 election. An outcome that “marked the great re-engagement of those ignored and patronised for too long on climate, integrity and gender equity”.

Some of our favourite extracts from The Big Teal: “It’s been very exciting to see the crossbench become an attractive pathway for successful non-politicians to serve their communities and the country… the calibre of politicians we’ve always wanted. The ineptitude, corruption, and deep unpopularity of the previous government had proven too much… we caught a wave,” Simon writes.

Heralding a new direction in federal parliament. Disruption!

Simon makes it clear in the book and during his book tours that he does not discuss policy issues with the Independents who each determine their own approach based on climate science and today’s societal needs.

Energy analyst and clean-tech investor Simon Holmes à Court is a director of the Smart Energy Council.

The Superpower Transformation: Making Australia’s Zero Carbon Future

Edited by Ross Garnaut

Renowned economist Ross Garnaut and contributions including Mike Sandiford, Frank Jotzo, and Dylan McConnell spell out how Australia can develop a zero-carbon future and meet the objectives set at the Paris and Glasgow climate conferences (as well as the growing costs of not doing so). Australia has the potential to make a cut to global emissions of 8 per cent and make Australia a richer country than it has ever imagined by tapping into renewable electricity, hydrogen, steel, exports and carbon capture. The book concludes “The new [economic] opportunities are much larger than the old.”

“Our nation’s most prophetic economist” — Ross Gittins

Windfall: Unlocking a fossil free future | Ketan Joshi

Renewable energy expert Ketan Joshi examines how wind power inspired the creation of a weird, fabricated disease, and why the speed with which emissions could have been reduced — like putting a price on carbon — was hampered by a flurry of policy disasters. He then plots a way forward to a future where communities champion equitable new clean tech projects, where Australia grows past a reliance on toxic fuels, and where the power of people is used to rattle fossil fuel advocates from their complacency.

“Brilliant! Ketan artfully contrasts the past and present of Australia’s climate challenges against our inevitably optimistic future – harnessing our boundless renewable resources to become an energy superpower.” — Mike Cannon-Brookes

“This is a book from the heart: clear, eloquent, candid and rational. It is at once an intensely personal narrative and a searing indictment of policy failure. ‘Windfall’ provides abundant reasons to be angry, but also plenty to be hopeful.” — Lesley Hughes

The Climate Book | Greta Thunberg

It seems like an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, acting at a scale and speed that the world has never seen, in the face of vast and powerful forces – not just oil tycoons and governments, but the changing climate system itself. The odds are against us, and we are running out of time. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Climate Book shows that we all have the responsibility of being alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity, and that, together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.

Look out for the chapter on carbon capture and storage authored by Ketan Joshi.

The Future of Electricity Distribution Network | Various authors from across the globe, with a foreword by Jean-Michel Glachant, Florence School of Regulation, Italy

Look out for Chapter 2 in Part One: How technological innovations are changing customers’ service needs in which Bruce Mountain, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, University of Victoria in Melbourne discusses Commercial rooftop solar in Australia: State of play, innovations and future prospects. Heads-up: Tune in for mention of award-winning South Street Energy developed by Marco Bogaers and the team at Metropolis Metering. The book is due to be published by Academic Press in early 2023.