Why Bjorn Lomborg must be silenced

Electricity of Tahiti (EDT) generates and distributes electricity throughout French Polynesia. EDT has found that hydro-electricity is the cheapest form of generation, ranging from $US0.28 to $0.44 / kWh. Diesel costs $US0.28 - 0.50, wind $US0.33 - 0.55, photovoltaic (PV) $US0.50 - 0.67.

Contrarians like Lomborg see better ways of spending available funds, far cheaper and of great benefit to local communities. For example:

The high costs of transporting fuel to the smaller islands, and the need for sub-optimal size of generators significantly increases the costs of electricity. Reliance on oil imports is a major drain on the economy and is a barrier to development.

Copra (dried coconut) is a major export for many South Pacific Islands. Falling prices have reduced the return on labour from the harvesting and processing of the nuts.The use of coconut oil as a fuel is well proven - it can replace diesel fuel using blends, straight coconut oil or using biodiesel. However it has proven uneconomical to transport the oil, to be economical it must be produced on site.

A typical small scale extraction mill costs about $US25,000 and requires skilled operators. Such a mill can be powered by the oil it produces.

A hand operated press is much cheaper, and produces a higher quality oil. Certainly this process is very labour intensive, but this should not be a problem in the islands, where unemployment is running above 40%.

Perhaps some of the $500 million SIDS initiative could be deployed to investigate projects that would benefit small non-interconnected communities where solar and wind power are more a liability than an asset. But that seems extremely unlikely.

The small presses for producing coconut oil are an Australian invention, but I doubt the manufacturers receive too many dollars from the government.

There are many examples of projects similar in nature, and Tony Abbott might like to see more of the research dollars go to Australian companies developing alternative technologies, in which Australia genuinely has the initiative and knowledge to lead the world.

Not, of course, in the best interests of either the Greens or the energy companies.

Twenty years ago Henry Kissinger said "We should not kid ourselves that there isn't a crisis of democracy in the West. In most Western countries, politicians are almost abjectly trying to give the public what they want, and the public has contempt for them." In Australia 67% of people said they could not rely on big companies or government. Around the world politicians were struggling to differentiate themselves from their opposition: "If we tell the electorate what needs to be done, we won't be elected."

Climate change is the ideal political issue. It is caused by people, and can be solved politically. The results won't be known in our lifetime. Short term phenomena can be interpreted to their political advantage – if things improve it's because of their policies; if things don't improve it's because their policies were not followed.