Review of The Big Switch

By Saul Griffith

Having not previously heard or read anything at all about The Big Switch I had no idea of what to expect. When I saw that the author was described as an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer, and that the topic was electricity my initial thoughts were that it was likely to be to be highly technical, full of obscure detail, and probably heavy going. I certainly did not anticipate that such a book might have some emotional impact.

What a surprise it was, as I will explain.

I have always been a great fan of the Winston Churchill quote; ‘short words are best’. As I started to read the book, I was delighted to see that Griffith had followed Churchill’s advice. The first line of the introduction said, ‘The kids have it right. It’s a climate emergency. It’s not a drill.’ Straight to the point with no mucking about as to the underlying topic of the book and nowhere did I find his message to be shrouded in obscure language or technical obscurity. The heading on page 5 is ‘Calling bullshit’. He even couches the laws of thermodynamics in everyday language.

This book is an easy read. It is also an essential read, particularly for politicians at all levels of government.

Griffith is a born and bred Australian from the Sydney suburbs who has lived and worked for many years in the United States, but is now back home. He has a background in both engineering and physics and has worked for the U.S Department of Energy. He has run his own energy businesses. He is well qualified.

Often when I read articles or book about the climate crisis, I find that I end up being thoroughly depressed and wonder what the point is of trying to do something, and I must confess that when I saw the words ‘climate emergency’ I had a bit of a feeling that I might need a few more glasses of wine than usual. But very early in the book Griffith calls for optimism in relation to the climate situation and then goes on to offer well thought out, practical and realistic solutions. He says:

‘Pessimism leading to inaction will not help, and more importantly, we have the opportunity for a far brighter future than Doomers think.’

The book is particularly directed to what Australia can do to reduce emissions. He asserts that ‘Australia has the luckiest, easiest and almost certainly most economically beneficial pathway to decarbonsise and get to net zero emissions.’

Early in the book Griffith lists the huge benefits to Australia of going hard on emission reduction. He mentions, lower energy prices, jobs, improved exports, health improvements, preservation of our beautiful places and fixing inequalities. He then lists what won’t work, mentioning such things as carbon sequestration, geoengineering, hydrogen, waste elimination and returning to the past.

The main thesis of the book is that the real solution to the world emissions problem is to electrify everything; cars, transport, agriculture, industry, houses. Everything. And of course, all the electricity for the task must be from renewables.

Chapter 4 deals with the various options for the generation of renewable energy such as solar, wind, hydro, wave and tidal, nuclear, biofuels and geothermal. He concludes, and explains why, that for Australia solar and wind will carry the biggest portion of the load. He asserts that Australia could become a renewable energy exporter.

Interestingly Griffith argues that nuclear generation is relatively safe but accepts that there is no appetite in Australia for that option.

Griffith dismisses the idea that the solution to the climate crisis can be left to industry alone. He argues that ‘Government policy is critical..’ and looks at the various levers available to government such as mandates and moratoriums, subsidies, taxes, education and building codes. He points out that governments around the world presently spend trillions of dollars propping up the fossil fuel industry. $10 billion was spent by Australian Governments in 2020-2021 subsidising fossil fuels.

Chapter 9 analyses the performances of the Federal and various state governments in dealing with emissions, noting their successes and failures. He suggests that ‘our federal government spends more money making the climate emergency worse than it does trying to fix the problem.’ He notes that the states are generally ahead of the federal government.

This book offers concrete and realistic solutions to our emissions problems and that is why it was an optimistic book. His arguments are tight and compelling. He shows how the goal of zero net emissions can be achieved. Where my optimism faded somewhat was that he doesn’t, and probably couldn’t, fully explain how our warring, short sighted and self-interested batch of politicians can be convinced to do what needs to be done.

Highly recommended.

John Watts

Retired Barrister, Gloucester resident, and author of ‘The Town That Said NO to AGL. How Gloucester Was Saved from Coal Seam Gas’. John is also the president of the Gloucester Environment Group