In figuring the cost of energy, 'Don't forget the externalities'
Hidden costs of fossil-fuel power
Marian Wilkinson
Environment Editor, Sydney Morning Herald
THE cost of Australia's cheap coal-fired electricity would more than double if the toll on human health and the volume of greenhouse gas emissions were taken into account, says a report to be launched today by the Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner.
The report, by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, says the health cost from Australia's black coal, brown coal and natural gas power was about $2.6 billion a year.
This is roughly the same as the health costs from traffic emissions in Australia's capital cities. The study found gas had by far the lowest health costs among fossil fuels.
The Hidden Costs Of Electricity examines these external costs of Australia's power by adding a world carbon price for greenhouse gas emissions and a health cost for emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which can increase respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease.
The report says the combined cost of greenhouse gas emissions and damage to people's health would add -- on average and per megawatt hour -- about $52 to the cost of brown coal power, $42 to the cost of black coal power and $19 to the cost of natural gas. The report says these are "very significant" costs, given the average wholesale price of electricity is about $40 per megawatt hour.
(More here.)
Marian Wilkinson
Environment Editor, Sydney Morning Herald
THE cost of Australia's cheap coal-fired electricity would more than double if the toll on human health and the volume of greenhouse gas emissions were taken into account, says a report to be launched today by the Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner.
The report, by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, says the health cost from Australia's black coal, brown coal and natural gas power was about $2.6 billion a year.
This is roughly the same as the health costs from traffic emissions in Australia's capital cities. The study found gas had by far the lowest health costs among fossil fuels.
The Hidden Costs Of Electricity examines these external costs of Australia's power by adding a world carbon price for greenhouse gas emissions and a health cost for emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which can increase respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease.
The report says the combined cost of greenhouse gas emissions and damage to people's health would add -- on average and per megawatt hour -- about $52 to the cost of brown coal power, $42 to the cost of black coal power and $19 to the cost of natural gas. The report says these are "very significant" costs, given the average wholesale price of electricity is about $40 per megawatt hour.
(More here.)
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