As promised I will use this post to tell you more about the lecture that The Duke and I attended last night.  The Energy Roadshow was presented by the Australian Green Development Forum.

I had not previously been aware of this organisation although it has apparently been in existence for about 8 years.  Their vision (from the website) is, “Sustainable urban communities across Australia” and the mission statement includes, “To accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices in the Australian building and development industry.”

While it would be easy to decry any group which promotes development, the undeniable fact is that Australia is, and will continue to be, a highly-urbanised society.  This is driven in part by the fact that a large proportion of this continent is not suitable for permanent human habitation.  We also need to constrain the urban sprawl which is threatening to over-run the quality agricultural land which is necessary to feed our population.  Therefore, I would support the initiatives of the AGDF and any other group which supports sustainable development.

Professor Mario Avilo, presented an interesting overview of how Cuba overcame an unreliable power generation and distribution system and created one which makes use of much of its own resources and is as resiliant as possible to the frequent natural disasters.

I was particularly impressed with the straight-forward way that the various measures were introduced including incentives for people to buy energy efficient appliances as well as converting from kerosene to electricity for household cooking tasks.

The series of forums and film nights continue at venues from Townsville to Melbourne over the next few weeks.  If you are interested in finding out more please check out the details here.  I would highly reccommend making the effort to hear what another country has achieved in the face of an energy crisis, while our elected representatives continue to debate the details surrounding the carbon tax.