Canberra Times
Thursday 12/3/2009 Page: 19
As world economies stumble down recession's rocky slopes, humanity walks the cliff edge of catastrophic climate change. Never has the need to find new approaches, new vehicles and new purpose to move in new directions been more urgent. We need a double-dividend approach whereby domestic investment in climate change action also promotes an effective global climate agreement. It's an approach that Australians, if not all their political and business leaders, understand.
Tuesday's release of "exposure draft" legislation for the carbon pollution reduction scheme reveals a Government still well short of such an approach, selling out on its own test of the national interest.
The Government's white paper last December stated that a global atmospheric greenhouse-gas level of 450 parts per million or lower was in our national interest. The Government then set carbon pollution reduction targets of 5% to 15% by 2020. But it failed to acknowledge that Treasury and the Garnaut Review had said stronger targets than this range would be needed if we were to make a fair contribution towards a global effort in achieving the desired level.
These inadequate targets and the draft emissions trading scheme now join a half-formed energy efficiency strategy, a deficient diplomatic effort and a welcome, but still flawed, renewable-energy incentives approach. All these tools and more are necessary but the job is only half done. We urgently need our political leaders to remedy weaknesses across the whole package.
Australia's pollution levels are the highest per capita in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and among the highest in the world. Globally, jobs in renewable energy have overtaken those directly employed in oil and gas. Many studies have shown tens of thousands of job opportunities are available now in making our homes and workplaces more efficient, in clean renewable energy production and in giving us modern cleaner transport and transmission infrastructure.
The Government's treatment of our biggest polluters went backwards in the white paper reflected in this exposure draft. They softened energy efficiency conditions and withdrew limits on the potential growth of already massive hand-outs of free permits. If the Coalition's approach reflects the comments of shadow spokesman Andrew Robb on Four Corners, with an even bigger increase in free permits for our biggest polluters, then it would rust on more of the polluting parts of our economy and restrict the growth of cleaner industries.
The Government, Coalition and Senate need to strengthen our national pollution reduction targets to at least 25% below 2000 levels by 2020 and redirect the assistance for big polluters to ensure investment in energy efficiency improvements and clean technology development. Fixing up the legislative and policy engines can also help drive dividends in the global negotiations in this critical year.
Australia's contributions to the global effort are measured not just in tonnes. Australia chairs the influential Umbrella Group of Nations which includes the US, Canada, Norway and New Zealand, and these and other nations watch our actions closely. Through decisive climate policy we can build trust and momentum and help construct a framework for an effective global agreement. Topping the list will be both the targets we set and our support for investments in pollution reduction and climate change adaptation in developing countries.
The target range for reducing carbon pollution not only falls short of constituting our fair share of action towards achieving greenhouse gas levels the Government says are in our national interest: it weakens the ambition of others. How can we expect members of the Umbrella Group or China and others to do more? It's time to strengthen, not weaken, our approach.
Australians back this sort of action. Recent polling showed only 35% thought we should delay action because of the state of the global economy. Only 24% of swinging voters backed delay. And 75% of voters believed tackling climate change created opportunities for new jobs and investment in clean forms of energy. Our political leaders seem yet to get the point.
By retooling, reshaping and recharging our economic and climate policies, Australia can help reach an effective global climate deal as well as boost investment in clean jobs and a clean economic recovery.
John Connor is chief executive of the independent Climate Institute Australia. climateinstitute.org.au
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