Antinuclear

Climate Policy: Rudd’s and Abbott’s not all that different

….It’s time that Australian politicians realised that the clean-energy revolution is the equivalent to a modern-day space race. The winners get to take all. The losers get to clean the dishes and sweep the floor. Or drive a ploughless tractor.

Carbon copy Giles Parkinson  Business Spectator 3 Feb 2010 The climate change policies of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition have more in common than you might think.For a start, both studiously ignore the need for the Australian economy to make any sort of transition, despite the clear global trend.

If you are in any doubt about that, check out the Obama budget, overnight. Rudd’s policy achieved this omission through a staggering amount of compensation to industry and because his policy was all about creating division in the Coalition. It wasn’t until Turnbull had been condemned to execution that it suddenly dawned on the government that it had skewered an ally. Or maybe it wasn’t in search of one.
one.

Abbott’s policy avoids transformation by ignoring the subject altogether – plant more trees, bury a bit of charcoal, take care on how you cut the grass and keep the plough in the shed…..

The Abbott plan may well gain traction in radio talkbacks and certain blogs, where simple rhetoric scores most points. That might make it smart politics, but it won’t disguise the fact that it is dumb policy.

And this is not what business is looking for. This is not going to prepare Australia for the inevitable transition to a low-carbon global economy.

What it does do is please China. It is a great irony that the conservative politicians in the US, Australia and Canada have turned out to be the greatest allies for accelerating China’s ability to dominate the economy of the 21st century, simply by their point blank refusal to entertain anything that might resemble a new tax or an admission that the left, least of all the greens, could be right about anything.

………..It’s time that Australian politicians realised that the clean-energy revolution is the equivalent to a modern-day space race. The winners get to take all. The losers get to clean the dishes and sweep the floor. Or drive a ploughless tractor.

February 3, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy, politics, solar | Australia, climate change, climate change - global warming, energy, renewable, solar