Page 6 - Climate Control News August 2021

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Make sense of 2021 census
ABOVE: HVACR employs more people than the fossil fuel industry.
LEFT: AIRAH CEO, Tony Gleeson, wants to wave one flag.
THE HVACR INDUSTRY NEEDS TO MAKE A STATEMENT ON 10 AUGUST WHEN PROVIDING DETAILS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CENSUS.
Gleeson said the HVACR industry has found an- swers to some of the world’s greatest engineering chal- lenges, but struggles to overcome a lack of recognition.
“It is strange that a sector worth $38 billion, that uses more than 24 per cent of Australia’s electricity and that accounts for 11.5 per cent of our carbon di- oxide emissions is basically unknown to most Aus- tralians,” he said.
“The Cold Hard Facts series of reports produced for the federal government also indicates that the HVACR industry employs almost 300,000 people.
“This is more than double the number of those employed by Australia’s fossil fuel indus- try – regularly held up as a vital source of jobs in this country – according to data from the ABS.”
Unfortunately, there are no ABS statistics for HVACR because it doesn’t have its own industri- al classification.
THE CENSUS PROVIDES a detailed picture of the nation and is undertaken by the Austral- ian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) every five years.
The Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) has called on the entire industry to highlight HVACR in this year’s census.
In the field that records industry of employ- ment, AIRAH is asking all of those working in the sector to classify themselves as HVACR.
AIRAH CEO, Tony Gleeson, said the HVACR
workforce is diverse and includes engineers, managers, salespeople, and more.
“That’s one of the reasons we have tradition- ally been split across other job categories. But if we can wave one flag, we will have a better chance of being seen,” he said.
“This year, we are saying that recognition re- ally does start at home. When you fill in the ‘in- dustry’ section of your census on 10 August, write that you work in HVACR to help us get the standing we deserve.”
Emissions on upward trajectory
MORE GREENHOUSE GASES were pro- duced in 2018 than any previous year, despite more than 20 countries reducing their carbon emissions since 2000, according to research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
And while the COVID-19 pandemic may have brought about a temporary reprieve in carbon emission, experts have forecast a return to the previous upward trajectory of greenhouse gas production after observing economic growth moving back to previous levels.
Professor Tommy Wiedmann from UNSW’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering was part of a team of 29 researchers from six continents that examined the latest, globally available emissions data for the decade leading up to 2018.
He said the group looked at emissions in 10 regions of the world as well as comparing which sectors in each were responsible for the
largest emissions – and which showed the larg- est growth.
“The main thing we found is that almost eve- rywhere we looked, and in almost every sector, greenhouse gas emissions just kept on rising, right up to the beginning of COVID-19, when we had the highest greenhouse gas emissions we've ever had,” Wiedmann said.
LEFT: The study found coal power generation has increased in Asia.
Wiedmann said he knew that emissions were still growing, but he was surprised that moves towards renewable energy have not made larg- er dents in the emissions.
The study divided sectors into the five major groups of energy, industry, buildings, transport, and land use.
They calculated the extent to which each factor had an impact for each sector and world region.
Lead author of the study, researcher Dr. Wil- liam Lamb from Berlin’s Mercator Research In- stitute on Global Commons and Climate Change, said global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 11 per cent from 2010 to 2018.
Lamb said climate-damaging coal power generation increased in Asia while emissions in the transport and building sectors rose in al- most all regions of the world.
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