this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

South Africa dodged a similar problem, our last president sold our 90 day reserve to his Dubai buddies below market rate. Fortunately our new multiparty government has competent people in place that fixed that before this crisis. Thus our fuel price is "only" going up by 15%, rather than tracking the oil price. It will go up more eventually, but some buffer is being provided for to soften the blow.

I am very surprised that australia and new Zeeland did not have bigger reserves, given they are on the end of a long supply chain and conflict in indonesia and china can cut off supply for a long time, not the mention a middle east crisis.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 7 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

I am very surprised that Australia and New Zealand did not wean themselves off fossil fuels decades ago, given they are developed countries with wealth and skills and democracy.

[–] SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Some of the downstream processing infrastructure is already there, we just needed one more push. Hopefully this is it.

Time to stop exporting the raw goods (coal, steel, gas, hydrogen, lithium etc) offshore and then buying it back. Time to actually process it here and use it.

I'd like to think Trump is actually doing the world a favour by showing us what a fair weather friend America really is. His doctrine of America first may force the rest of the world to stop depending on America entirely.

[–] TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip 9 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Like most countries the conservative parties fight tooth and nail to stop any sort of renewable power or electrification and Australia had its own glut of Red hat morons over the last 16 or so years.

[–] SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Yes. And despite that, one in three Australian homes now has rooftop solar.

Renewables supplied over half the national grid in Q4 2025, with roughly 7 GW of new capacity added that year alone. Nearly 200,000 home batteries were installed in the second half of 2025.

One in three new vehicles sold now has some form of electrification, with hybrids leading the shift and petrol sales dropping 10% last year.

Even heavy industry is moving. Australia already operates the world's largest fully driverless freight rail network - Rio Tinto's AutoHaul runs 1,700km of heavy-haul trains across the Pilbara, controlled remotely from Perth, straight from the mine to the deep-water port at Cape Lambert.

Battery-electric locomotives are now in trial on those same lines. Electrification is happening at every scale here - rooftop, road, and rail - often despite the politics, not because of it.