Our new Prime Minister Julia Gillard seems to have a great sense of urgency when it comes to defusing the electoral hazards she perceives in Labor’s recent policies on the mining tax, the boats, and (shortly) climate change. Even though the Reserve Bank’s Warrick McKibbin is pointing out that industry wants a carbon price, she has rejected [...]
In 2007 Kevin Rudd and Labor made climate change legislation the centre-piece of their campaign. They introduced a profoundly inadequate bill, acted as if nobody else had anything to say on the matter, went off in a huff when they couldn’t pass it, and then refused an overture by the Greens for an interim carbon [...]
Tags:abandons·ALP·Environment·ETS·Kevin Rudd·Labor
Below is the Jiangsu Meilan Chemical Company, Taozhou City, China. The refrigerant HFC-22 produced here has a by-product, HFC-23, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases known (11,700 times greater warming effect than carbon dioxide). Under the Kyoto Protocol, the company receives credits for the destruction of this gas, which has been occurring for three [...]
Anyone who puts up their hand for election has a duty to state how they would vote on crucial legislation, and why. So in this final week of the ETS debate I’ll make my position absolutely clear, starting with its basis: 1. The only uncertainty about climate change is its exact extent and timing. Few [...]
Tags:ALP·climate change·CPRS·emissions trading scheme·Environment·ETS·Greens·Labor·Larissa Waters·Liberal·LNP·Nick Xenophon·Ron Boswell·Senate
The report that a senior environmental economist has been prevented by his employer – the CSIRO – from publishing in a peer-reviewed journal an article apparently critical of emissions trading compared to more direct policy options is highly revealing. It tells us that freedom of expression, even by experts, even on a topical matter of [...]
Tags:academic freedom·climate change policy·CSIRO·Environment·ETS·Labor·Spash
The Senate has given us a reprieve from the Government’s highly deficient Emissions Trading Scheme, but the warmed-over version being floated by the Liberals is no better…. and gives even more away to the worst polluters. The major parties have failed us badly in this crucial policy area. The Labor Party fixed early on a [...]
Tags:coal-fired power plant·Environment·ETS·TEQs·Tradeable Energy Quotas