Four Corners

Monday 8 February at 8pm on ABC1

This week Four Corners returns for 2010 with “A Good Death”. Four Australians, all diagnosed with a terminal illness, allow reporter Deborah Masters to record their lives as they struggle with their diagnosis, their pain and the trauma created for those around them.

Seven out of ten Australians die what might be called an “expected death”. In many cases doctors can tell patients roughly how long they have to live. However, only a few take advantage of those warnings. Instead they prefer to believe that somehow modern medicine will save them. Now a small group of doctors and nurses are warning that our obsession with curing illness is leaving patients poorly cared for and unprepared for death.

“It’s a beautiful place to be, it’s a lovely place to work, there’s a lot of life here amongst the death. There’s a lot of life here.” – Nurse Therese Compton

In a nondescript building just a short walk from the centre of Sydney the Sacred Heart Palliative Care Centre is housed. There, a small group of health care professionals are devoting their lives to death.

The people they treat are perhaps the bravest in our community. All diagnosed with a terminal illness, they have accepted their fate but are determined to make the best of the time they have left – in effect, to die “a good death”.

Three months ago four of those people made a courageous decision. They agreed to let Four Corners spend time with them as they came to terms with their diagnosis and entered the final stages of their life. Their reasons for doing this varied but, in essence, they all hoped that by documenting their last days of life and their death they could help others deal with the experience.

“I mean we talk about the journey of life. Life being a journey. Well what about the journey of death, isn’t that a journey as well?” – Darryl Calver, patient

If you talk to any of the people at Sacred Heart they will quickly tell you that they believe too many people run away from the prospect of death, and for that they pay a terrible price.

For palliative care patient Darryl Calver the acceptance of his situation meant he could agree to a treatment that would stabilise his condition and give him time to sort out family relationships that had frayed at the edges.

“ You tend to take your family for granted a lot of times until something like this happened… my mother and I hadn’t spoken for fifteen years. Until something like this happened and now once again we’re the best of friends.”

Doctors and nurses there have an additional message: they say too many doctors are reluctant to acknowledge that they don’t have a cure. As a result, they give patients false hope or, worse, leave them in limbo. As the Director of Sacred Heart, Dr Richard Chye says:

“I think a lot of doctors find it very hard to say you are dying… it’s not easy for doctors to actually say no, I can’t give you any more treatment. I tell my patients I know I cannot cure you but I can make you feel better. I will walk with you.”

A major part of making terminally ill patients feel better is pain management. Balancing the need to control pain while allowing the patient to remain active and alert is a job that takes real expertise. Unfortunately not everyone has the training to do it.

Professor Ken Hillman, from the University of New South Wales, told Four Corners that the failure to accept the limitations of modern medicine means too many patients end up in acute care hospital wards. Those wards are not designed to provide the environment or the treatment that allows for “a good death”.

“Approximately 70% of Australians die in acute hospitals… Getting sick at home, put in an ambulance, coming into the hospital … It’s the process which has happened subtly. And its happened without any discussion with our society. It’s just what we do. And we do it for what we consider are in the best interests of patients. We want to look after them. We want to cure them. And in doing so we’ve set up a situation where it’s difficult to die peacefully.”

Sandy Riches couldn’t agree more. She has breast cancer that has spread to different parts of her body. She knows she may not have long to live but she is also relieved that by facing her own mortality and being treated at a palliative care centre she will have a place where she feels comfortable to die.

“I don’t particularly want to die at home…  don’t want John (her husband) to look across the bed and think she died there. I don’t want that for him.”

If there is one final message that comes from the terminally ill and those who care for them it is this: palliative care must be accepted as an integral part of medicine and resourced appropriately. If that is done, more people might be able to come to terms with the prospect of death and be able to make the most of the time they have left.

“A Good Death” goes to air on Monday 8th February at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on February 9th at 11.35pm. It will also be available online and on iView.

abc.net.au/4corners

ABC TV has announced that leading investigative journalist, Marian Wilkinson, is joining its Four Corners team.

Wilkinson is a multi- award winning journalist with a career that has spanned radio, television and print.  She has covered politics, national security, terrorism and refugees issues as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC for The Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne’s The Age and the ABC TV’s Four Corners program. She has also worked as Deputy Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as Executive Producer of Four Corners.  Most recently, Marian has been environment editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and covered the Copenhagen climate change conference.

“Marian is a formidable journalist with an impressive track record. She will be an important addition to the Four Corners team and I am delighted that we have her on board, once again,” said Executive Producer, Sue Spencer.

In 2008, Marian reported on the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice for a joint ABC Four Corners-The Sydney Morning Herald production which won a Walkley Award for journalism as well as the Australian Museum’s Eureka prize for environmental journalism.

Marian Wilkinson will commence work at the ABC on March 1st 2010.

ABC TV RATINGS HIT ANOTHER NEW HIGH IN 2009

In a year dominated by fierce competition between networks and the launch of four new free-to-air channels, ABC TV has increased its share of free-to-air viewers in 2009 by broadening its appeal through ABC1 and ABC2.

ABC TV recorded a prime time share of 17.1% (weeks 7– 48, free-to-air 5 city) 0.1 of a point higher than 2008, which had previously been its most successful ratings year ever.

Complementing the increase in share within the free-to-air TV market, ABC iView  has recorded a 140% increase in monthly average visits compared to 2008 and in October there was a record 1 million visits.  In addition, more than 7 million vodcasts of ABC content have been downloaded in 2009 (to end of October).

2009 is the first full year that ABC2 has been part of the ratings cycle and its people share during prime time increased to 1.2% – double that of 2008.  In week 46, ABC2 hit a new peak to reach 2.6 million viewers or 17.6% of the 5 city population.

Kim Dalton, Director of ABC TV said “The free-to-air TV landscape this year is hardly recognisable from even just 12 months ago.  I’m delighted that ABC TV has been able to grow its audience in this tough environment, and in fact, has been at the forefront of this revolution. Come December 4, even more viewers are set to come on board with the launch of the new kids’ channel, ABC3.”
 
FTA Share State by State:
Sydney: Total ABC TV Share is 18.8%. (2008 ABC1 share was 17.7%)
Melbourne: Total ABC TV Share is 15.8%. (2008 ABC1 share was 16.8%)
Brisbane: Total ABC TV Share is 16.0%. (2008 ABC1 share was 16.8%)
Adelaide: Total ABC TV Share is 16.8%. (2008 ABC1 share was 16.2%)
Perth: Total ABC TV Share is 18.3%. (2008 ABC1 share was 17.1%)
 

Top 6 Programs on ABC1
5 Cities
·         Spicks and Specks  – 27th May (1.6 million; 32.5% FTA Share)
·         The Chaser’s War on Everything  – 27th May (1.5 million; 32.1% FTA Share)
·         Midsomer Murders – 4th October (1.5 million; 31.2% FTA Share)
·         The Gruen Transfer – 20th May (1.3 million; 26.1% FTA Share)
·         New Tricks – 13th June (1.3 million; 31.2% FTA Share)
·         Australian Story – 22nd June (1.3 million; 24.7% FTA Share)
 
Top Programs on ABC1 by City
Sydney – The Chaser’s War on Everything  – 27th May (514,000; 34.9% FTA Share)
Melbourne – Spicks and Specks – 5th August (493,000; 33.3% FTA Share)
Brisbane – Spicks and Specks – 27th May (294,000; 33.0% FTA Share)
Adelaide – Midsomer Murders – 30th August (179,000; 33.5% FTA Share)
Perth – Midsomer Murders – 4th October (210,000; 35.8% FTA Share)
 
ABC2’s five city audience continues to grow.
 
ABC2’s free-to-air people share has increased during prime-time to 1.2%, double compared to last year.
 
ABC2’s 24 hour weekly reach peaked in Week 46 2009 at 2.6 million or 17.6% of the 5 city population.

ABC2’s 24 hour average weekly reach has increased in 2009 to 2.1 million or 14.5% of the metro population – an increase of 122% compared to last year (951,000).

In 2009, ABC2’s free-to-air people share has increased during daytime to 3.0%, up from 1.1% in 2008.
 
Top 6 Programs on ABC2 2009 ytd
·         Junkyard Wars  – 2nd September (165,000)
·         Scrapheap Challenge  – 29th June (155,000)
·         The Chaser’s War on Everything – 30th July (152,000)
·         Movie: Charade – 15th August (147,000)
·         Movie: The Glenn Miller Story – 19th September (140,000)
·         The Gruen Transfer – 14th May (138,000)
Program Performance (5 Cities)
 iView data is sourced from WebTrends since April. Vodcast downloads information is sourced  from WebTrends Jan-Oct 2009.
 
ABC NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS week 7-48

ABC News (weekdays) is averaging 1 million this year and recorded 74,000 views via ABC iView.

7:30 REPORT week 7-48
7.30 Report’s series average this year is 831,000. It achieved a peak episode audience of 1.2 million on 9th February. It recorded 61,000 views via ABC iView and a further 104,000 vodcast downloads (program segments).

AUSTRALIAN STORY
Australian Story’s series average this year is 981,000 (up from 891,000 last year). It achieved a peak episode audience of 1.25 million on 22nd June with In Cold Blood, the story of a son’s mission to catch his mother Doris Owen’s killer. There were 71,000 view of the program this year via ABC iView.

FOUR CORNERS
Four Corners this year is achieving a series average of 819,000 on ABC1 and was the most viewed program via ABC iView with 243,000 views since April.
A peak episode this year was The Code of Silence on 11th May 2009. On ABC1 this episode achieved a five city audience of just over 1 million. The interest in this episode continued and it recorded 135,000 views in May on ABC iView.
 
MEDIA WATCH
Media Watch achieved a series average of 736,000 this year, peaking at 936,000 on October 12. It recorded 149,000 views via ABC iView and 869,000 vodcast downloads this year.
The special, Media Watch – 20 Years: Stuff Ups, Beat Ups and Barneys, on May 7 achieved a five city average audience of 926,000 with a FTA share of 20.7%.

SPICKS AND SPECKS
This year, Spicks and Specks achieved a Total ABC series average of 1.3 million (up from 1.2 million on ABC1 in 2008)
This year it was the most viewed program on ABC TV across the five cities and No.1 in Melbourne and Brisbane.

THE CHASER’S WAR ON EVERYTHING
Series 3 achieved a Total ABC series average of 1.3 million. On ABC1 it was the No.2 most viewed program in the 5 cities and No. 1 in Sydney.
The program recorded 187,000 vodcast downloads this year. It recorded 139,000 views via ABC iView and was the most viewed program via ABC iView in July.

THE GRUEN TRANSFER
Series 2 achieved a Total ABC series average of 1.3 million across the five cities in increase on 2008 (1.25 million on ABC1). On ABC1 it appeared among the top five programs this year across the five cities.
The program recorded 258,000 vodcast downloads this year. It recorded 70,000 views via ABC iView and in April it was the most viewed program on iView.  

KIDS
Among children aged 0-12 years, average weekly reach across ABC1 and ABC2 children’s timeslots is 1.3 million (54% of the 5 city population aged 0-12).
ABC1 (Mon-Fri 6am-10am & 3pm-6pm) Among preschoolers aged 0-4 and children aged 5-12, ABC1 retained the highest audience across all FTA networks and STV channels in its Monday to Friday children’s TV slots.
 
ABC2 KIDS – ABC2 achieved the highest audience among preschoolers across all FTA networks and dedicated STV children’s channels in its Mon-Fri 10am-4.30pm Kids slot, 30.4% share up from 13.5% in 2008.

ABC iView
·         Since April 2009, there have been 6.2 million views of programs via ABC iView.
·         In 2009ytd, ABC iView has recorded a monthly average of 610,000 visits – up by 140% compared to the 2008 monthly average of 255,000.
·         This year, ABC iView has recorded a monthly average of 206,000 visitors – up by 60% compared to last year (August to December 2008 monthly average was 129,000).
·         In October 2009, ABC iView recorded its highest ever number of visitors and visits. 286,000 visitors and 1.054 million visits to ABC iView.
·         Visits have grown at even a faster rate than visitors meaning users are visiting ABC iView more often.
·         The most viewed programs included a range of genres, local and overseas content, and programs broadcast on ABC1 and ABC2:
o   Four Corners
o   United States of Tara
o   Good Game
o   Doctor Who
o   The Chaser’s War on Everything
o   Media Watch

Vodcasts
There have been 7 million downloads of ABC Vodcasts this year.
Most downloaded ABC TV programs include:

Good Game (902,000 downloads)
Media Watch (869,000)
triple jtv  (825,000)
The Cook and the Chef (341,000)
Gardening Australia (335,000)

TV Data – OzTam
On-line date – WebTrends

Monday 2 November at 8.30pm on ABC1

This week on Four Corners, “FACING DENNIS FERGUSON” – what does the community do with convicted child sex offenders when they’ve done their time?

Reporter Liz Jackson speaks to convicted paedophile Dennis Ferguson. The program looks at Ferguson’s life and his crimes and asks if he is sorry for what he’s done and how he believes he should be treated.

The program talks to politicians, doctors and activists about the Ferguson case and the broader issues it raises. Is it possible for someone who has committed a crime against children to be re-integrated into society and, if so, how do we go about doing that? 

“FACING DENNIS FERGUSON”, goes to air on Monday 2nd November at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 3rd November at 11.35pm.

abc.net.au/4corners

Monday 26 October at 8.30pm on ABC1

Elijah Holcombe was a young man diagnosed with episodes of paranoia. He was especially fearful of the police. He had been treated at a hospital in the central west of New South Wales. When he took off in the family car. his parents notified the local police to warn them he was ill and scared of police. The next day Elijah Holcombe was shot dead by a police officer. According to people on the scene, he had been chased by a plain clothes officer and during the chase had picked up a bread-knife. Moments later he was shot and fatally wounded by the policeman.

“He was treated like a criminal and he was ill and he went for help and this is how he was treated. He was shot in the street.” – Tracey Holcombe, Elijah’s mother

Police in New South Wales aren’t the only ones coming under intense scrutiny. In Victoria ,49 people have been shot dead by police in the past two decades. This figure is higher than any other state.

In December last year, 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy turned up at his home, his hands bloodied and his shirt torn. Despite protests from his mother he fled from the house. His mother rang the police to warn them her son was deeply upset and asked them to look out for him and bring him home.

At 9.00pm he was sighted at a local shopping centre in Northcote, a suburb of Melbourne. At 9.35pm, four police arrived and found him holding two knives. He was chased. Five minutes later he was dead, shot five times.

Immediately after the shooting Victorian Police said the officers had no choice. Others, including Tyler’s mother, disagree:

“They (the police) need to take responsibility for their actions. They made a choice.”

Michael Strong, Director of the Office of Police Integrity in Victoria, has an even more alarming assessment. When asked if police have the necessary training and the skills to de-escalate potentially violent situations involving the mentally ill, he said:

“Not to a sufficient degree at the present time. There’s no doubt about that.”

In response to these incidents there are now renewed calls for police to introduce more tasers or stun guns to help them defuse these kinds of situations. But will this solve the problem?

Reporter Quentin McDermott investigated the death of Townsville man, Tony Galeano. Like others in the Four Corner’s story, Tony experienced a mental crisis. During the crisis he began smashing up a friend’s home. Police were called and tasered him. He died at the scene, but only after suffering terrible pain, according to a person on the scene.

“The only things we heard really was screaming you know ahhh. He was in pain… You wouldn’t do that to a dog.”

A recent study by Amnesty International shows that more than 330 people in the United States have died since 2001 after being struck by police tasers. In more than 40 cases, coroners listed the taser as the cause or contributory factor. As one expert put it, the debate about tasars is off the mark:

”My problem is that right now the the argument seems to be framed entirely on the issue of equipment, rather than on the more important issue of training. We’ve seen globally that police can still be very effective … without such an array of weapons.”

Clearly, police need training to help them defuse acute situations with the mentally ill. If this doesn’t happen, experience shows the death toll will continue to rise.

‘LETHAL FORCE’ goes to air on Monday 26th October at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on Tuesday 27th October at 11.35pm.

abc.net.au/4corners

Monday 19 October 2009 At 9pm on ABC1

After the horror of 9/11, the US administration and its allies made it clear they wanted to destroy Al Qaeda and drive the Taliban from Afghanistan. To do that they knew they must win the hearts and minds of the local population. It’s now estimated that up to US$18 billion dollars in aid money has been promised to Afghanistan in an attempt to re-build the country’s shattered infra-structure.

The idea was to create new schools and to rebuild the old ones. New hospitals were promised, there would be roads built and the opium trade would be wiped out.

But what has been delivered and where has the money gone?

Eight years after the fall of Kabul, reporter Paul Moreira went in search of the promised schools. Despite repeated requests to authorities, he had trouble finding a new school that had been completed. Still on the trail of the aid dollar he found a hospital that was supposed to be refurbished. Instead it was literally falling apart. The aid money intended to pay for the hospital’s renovations had been wasted and the work was shoddy.

In other parts of the capital Afghans go hungry, their children sit in open air classrooms while Moreira finds evidence that aid dollars are being spent on banquets feeding an array of businessmen and government officials.

However, there is one construction sector that is in full swing: that of luxury villas. In one district of Kabul, poor residents are being evicted from their homes. The buildings are then destroyed and the land sold cheaply so that massive villas and homes can be built for the wealthy. Why are these people being sold the land so cheaply? Where is the money coming from that is used to build their palaces? The answers will shock you.

As NATO and its allies struggle to keep the Taliban at bay, the corruption and mismanagement of the reconstruction program is forcing many Afghans to think again about who is their real enemy. Is it the Taliban or is it the Karzai government and its supporters?

The level of corruption, the total absence of any sense of public service, is the major argument used by the Taliban in their propaganda. This first-hand account of life in Afghanistan today explains why the insurgents are making so much headway – not just in taking back territory but in winning the hearts and minds of the people.

“AFGHANISTAN: ON THE DOLLAR TRAIL”, a Premieres Lignes Production, goes to air on Monday 19 October at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on Tuesday 20 October at 11.35pm.

abc.net.au/4corners

The NSW government is on track for electoral oblivion. Four Corners talks to politicians, top bureaucrats and NSW voters to ask why NSW is OFF THE RAILS – coming up on Monday 5th October at 8.30 pm on ABC 1. It is repeated on 6th October at 11.35 pm.

In modern politics the New South Wales government has won a dubious distinction. It is now considered by many voters to be a political joke. Last year the new state Premier, Nathan Rees, announced the government would build an inner city metro. Standing before the media to make what should have been a significant announcement he found himself humiliated. The Premier had come to the media conference without knowing how much the project would cost.

In some states this might have been a fatal political error. Not in NSW. Voters in the state no longer believe the government when it announces major transport projects and the reason is very simple. In the past decade they have been promised two major new rail extensions, a brand new metro going to the city’s north, a ferry service that runs on time and much more besides. Virtually none of this has eventuated.

When the metro costing was finally released it raised some eyebrows. A six kilometre stretch of underground rail would set taxpayers back billions. This stretch of rail would service only the inner west of the city – an area already served by buses, light rail and ferries.

This week on Four Corners, reporter Wendy Carlisle, asks how, with the rest of the city mired in gridlock and lacking public transport and rail services, an inner city area currently held by the Labor Party could be so favoured?

What she finds will shock you. First it’s now clear there are no absolutely reliable figures to show that an inner city metro would be fully utilised. The second issue is cost. Already estimates of the project’s cost have blown out from $4 billion to $5.3 billion.

But costings and passenger figures are only part of the story.

When talking with Labor insiders, Wendy discovers that this latest project is simply the end game in a bitter battle waged over the past ten years between Labors MPs and the union dominated party machine.

In that decade two Premiers who wanted to sell public assets to provide decent public transport have been sacrificed so that union leaders could protect their members’ jobs and their own political power. Meanwhile, major tracts of Sydney’s west go without adequate public transport.

Monday 28 Sept at 8.30pm on ABC1

It was a plan audacious in its scale but frighteningly simple in its execution. In 2006, seven young men, all of them Muslim, all of them born in England, planned to board jet airliners bound for cities across the United States. In their hand-luggage they would carry what looked like bottles of soft-drink. Inside the bottles they would have concentrated hydrogen peroxide. Alongside those they would carry small cameras with batteries. The batteries were not all they appeared to be: they were actually detonators set to be activated by compact cameras that contained a power source.

According to British authorities the plan would involve the men going to the toilets of their respective planes, piecing the bomb components together and then triggering them to explode. Some planes would blow up over the ocean. Others would be brought down over American cities. Whatever happened, thousands of people would die.

The men planning the attack had every reason to believe they were making their preparations without anyone else knowing. They were wrong. British authorities first became aware of a possible plot when they began surveillance of a Muslim man they believed had extremist tendencies. What they uncovered astounded them.

On Four Corners this week Panorama’s Peter Taylor reveals the cat and mouse game played by intelligence agents as they tracked the plotters over a period of several months. He shows how the agents broke into premises rented by the men and how they used surveillance cameras and microphones to track their every move. Those cameras provided live footage of the terror suspects making the preparations to create bombs. Ultimately this surveillance was used to convict some of the men for their plan to blow up the planes. On the face of it this was a major victory for the British security services – but was it?

Now Panorama reveals evidence that American authorities, with possible authorisation from then President George W. Bush, may have become edgy and pushed the British agencies to arrest the men earlier than intended. The result? British police  failed to get the evidence they needed to convict all the men on charges of conspiracy to murder by blowing up the planes.

If true it raises significant questions about the nature of the relationship between the British and American intelligence services.

The program also exposes the problem western countries now face when apparently law abiding citizens are radicalised to commit jihad. As a former director of the C.I.A. says:

“Every single piece of intelligence I have seen in the past seven years… tells me one thing, and that is this adversary is committed. They’re smart, they are ideologically driven. They have one mission in life. They will never return to own a tea-shop and they’ll never return to their families. They will go until we get them.”

TERROR IN THE SKIES goes to air on the 28th September at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on the 29th September at 11.35pm.

abc.net.au/4corners

Monday 21 September at 8.30pm on ABC1

“I’ve always had this picture in my head of a homeless person… they’ve got torn dirty clothes, they’re not shaven, they’re sort of sitting out on the corner looking for a handout… I’m not in that category but I don’t have a home for my family and it’s really embarrassing.” – David

When Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister he said housing the homeless was one of his major objectives. In most peoples’ minds the homeless he referred to were single people, some mentally disturbed, some drug affected, many sleeping rough. But that is only one section of the homeless in Australia today. Across the nation’s major cities there is now a large number of families with limited resources that simply can’t find a home they can afford to rent.

As a result they are under stress and are vulnerable.

Reporter Sarah Ferguson follows David and Toni Sabjan, living in one room of a motel. They lost the home they rented when it was sold from under them.

Expecting that they’d be able to rent another house they were shocked to find there were few houses available and many, many families looking for accommodation. At the same time, after years of neglect public housing is also in short supply.

“I was shocked, shell-shocked. Twenty people applying for one house that I would not normally apply for.” – Toni Sabjan

The government has ear-marked billions of dollars for public housing and there are 20,000 dwellings planned. But for many homeless families those new houses can’t come soon enough.

Four Corners found one couple, Bernice and Ashley, in a terrible situation. They had been living in crisis accommodation for four months. They had three children, had moved five times in 17 weeks with the taxpayer shelling out $15,000 for “crisis accommodation”, and still had little chance of a long term solution.

This is hard for the adults but even tougher on their son Michael who has a learning difficulty. He needs routine and teachers he knows – impossible, when he is constantly on the move.

West of Sydney, the tourist town of Katoomba has become a set down point for many homeless families. Families stuck in this type of situation often make decisions that they later regret. Adrian and Carlene moved to Katoomba and then found a house to rent. It seemed like a good option but turned out to be a disaster.

It was run down but by sharing with another family they were able to afford the $500 a week rental. Then the other family moved out and relatives of the landlord moved in. They brought with them sheep, chooks, dogs and a cat. Trouble began. All this culminated in a dramatic scene with police, welfare officials being called to assist while the family and the landlord traded insults and threats. Watching this footage it’s clear just how desperate the lack of housing is making many families and it’s also clear not everyone has sympathy for them. As one Katoomba resident told Four Corners:

“On the news last night we sat there and watched homeless people, they make more money than any person in the world.”

This is a situation that no family wants to endure but in Australia it is becoming common place as the lack of accommodation puts many families at breaking point.

The Last Chance Motel goes to air at 8.30pm on 21st September on ABC1. It is repeated at 11.35pm on 22nd September.

abc.net.au/4corners

Monday 7 September at 8.30pm on ABC1

Two months ago in Italy the leaders of the world’s eight leading industrial nations agreed on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over the next 40 years. It’s a noble objective but for many it is nothing but a pipe dream and the reason is simple.

Each of those leaders knows that a large proportion of those gases come from burning coal. They also know that coal production and its use is projected to rise by at least 40 percent by 2030.

“There’s going to be an increase in energy demand of 40 percent by 2030. China alone is building the equivalent of Australia’s coal fired power system three times over.” Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson

It’s a simple fact that if the world is to have any chance of meeting its greenhouse gas reduction targets and continue to burn coal it must find a technology to trap and store carbon dioxide and other noxious gases – technology known as carbon capture and storage(CCS).

As Four Corners shows, governments and scientists have known this for much of the past decade. In the United States a major project to create clean coal is called FutureGen. In China it’s GreenGen. Australia also has equivalent programs. The question is, what progress have they made?

Travelling to China and the United States reporter Liz Jackson finds that after a decade of talking there is no large-scale project in existence.

In the United States she uncovers documents that show while the government has given strong public support to clean coal, in private it has been a different story. Four Corners has documents that claim the time lost through the government’s failure to properly back FutureGen could mean “clean coal” will not become a reality before 2040. Which is bad news for CO2 reduction.

Beyond the corridors of power there is also a growing community backlash to the idea that carbon dioxide should be pumped below ground creating the possibility of earth movements or serious carbon leakage.

In China, now the world’s biggest polluter, the attempts to create clean coal technology are only just getting under way. China believes it will have a fully operating “clean coal” fired power plant in place by the middle of the next decade, but it just doesn’t know quite where or how it will store the captured carbon dioxide.

There’s another problem too. To make an impact on the current rate of atmospheric pollution, old power stations will have to be retro-fitted with the new technologies. For China and the United States that would mean a massive investment and a dramatic rise in the price of electricity.

As one advisor to the Chinese government told Four Corners, carbon capture and storage is not commercially viable and probably won’t be for 20 years.

For a coal exporting country like Australia, this is grim news. For that reason the Labor government has given $2.4 billion dollars for research into clean coal. The fact remains there is still no project that is shovel ready.

As it stands, many scientists believe there is a real chance of perfecting clean coal technology. They are less enthusiastic about it being ready in time to stop significant further global warming. What they do say is a priority for governments is to put a price on carbon, and this means putting in place emissions trading schemes as soon as possible. If that doesn’t happen there are many who believe the world has a problem. As the Federal Minister for Resources, Martin Ferguson sees it:

“We don’t have energy security unless we make the breakthroughs on CCS or solar thermal or geothermal or whatever. We have to solve this problem or we don’t have energy security and the lights go out”.

“The Coal Nightmare” goes to air on the 7th September at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on the 8th September at 11.35pm.

abc.net.au/4corners