Antinuclear

Australia’s future prosperity depends on action on climate change

It is also important that climate change action is understood as an opportunity for structural economic reform and for building long-term economic prosperity….Early action delivers first-mover advantage and reduces the risk of economic exclusion in carbon-intensive industries when the transition to a lower carbon economy eventually takes place…..

Dear PM: risks are worth it in reform | The Australian, 18 Sept 10, David Hetherington “………..Although survival will be a preoccupation, the Gillard government cannot ignore the long-term policy challenges facing the country….…This is the real test for this government: Can it marry policy reform with political survival?…..Climate change: Human-caused climate change is real and the necessary responses are well understood: a price on carbon, a shift to renewable energy sources, and more efficiency in energy use……………
In energy, an emissions trading scheme remains the most important market design reform available; short of that, a carbon tax is a second-best option.Additionally, market design can encourage the spread of distributed power generation in government-owned facilities and other medium-sized buildings such as apartments, hospitals and universities.

This requires comprehensive feed-in tariffs and streamlined access to the grid.The natural fuel for this distributed generation is gas: it is abundant, already networked and far less carbon-intensive than our existing coal-fired electricity…..

It is also important that climate change action is understood as an opportunity for structural economic reform and for building long-term economic prosperity.

Many presume that making the transformation to a low-carbon economy will incur an unjustifiably large cost: lower economic growth, loss of employment, reduced living standards. Yet there is an advantage in acting sooner rather than later.

Early action delivers first-mover advantage and reduces the risk of economic exclusion in carbon-intensive industries when the transition to a lower carbon economy eventually takes place…..

Dear PM: risks are worth it in reform | The Australian

September 17, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change - global warming, energy, General News, solar, wind | Australia, carbon, climate change, climate change - global warming, energy, gas, reneweable energy, solar, wind