Energy remains front and centre of political debate, a divisive issue among those who want to see a swifter transition away from fossil fuels and end the use of coal-fired power and those who don’t believe such a transition is necessary, or viable, due to potential economic impacts. 
Renewables have long been touted as the solution to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, and in Australia renewable energy is growing at a per-capita rate 10 times faster than the world average - nearly three times faster than the next fastest country, Germany. So why haven’t renewables taken over yet? Our experts explain that the reason isn’t technical or economic, and the pure lack of political will to change could lead to unmitigated disaster.
Paul Raschky is an economist specialising in insurance. The industry is already planning for situations in which parts of the world might become unlivable due to global temperature rises increasing natural disasters and catastrophic weather events. Liam Smith is a behaviour change expert who fears we’ve missed the window for the move to renewables scientists say is needed to limit global temperature rises at 2 degrees.

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