Australia has a very clever package for climate change action
He believes Australia has come up with a “very clever” package of measures that benefits from the mistakes made in the early years of the European emissions trading scheme,… In truth there will never be a better time for the resources sector, which has many of the industries most affected.
Outsider can’t understand our climate debate, THE AUSTRALIAN, Mike Steketee , July 23, 2011 WITH the climate change debate in Australia trapped in a seemingly never-ending circle of claims and counter-claims, an outside perspective can be refreshing.
“I don’t know why people have the impression that Australia is jumping ahead of the rest of the world,” Malte Meinshausen says. With its promised 5 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 levels by 2020, he adds, Australia still will have the highest per capita emissions in the developed world.
He believes Australia has come up with a “very clever” package of measures that benefits from the mistakes made in the early years of the European emissions trading scheme,
including sharp fluctuations in carbon prices after too many permits flooded the market. He says Australia’s fixed price under a carbon tax for the first three years means the government will have a much clearer idea of emission levels in different industries before permits are auctioned. But he puzzles over the continued resistance to action in Australia.
As a German climate scientist and policy adviser, his perspective is that global warming presents enormous opportunities for innovation and that the advantage goes to countries, such as China and Germany, that are acting early and boldly. He enthuses about the possibilities for a future not just of reduced but negative greenhouse gas emissions, drawing more out of the atmosphere than we put in.
“I think it is seen in the rest of the world as ironic because Australia is known world-wide as a country which already has had a lot of struggle with climate variability and now with climate change is likely to be the developed country hit hardest.” It follows that Australia also stands to gain most in the developed world from global action.
“If with the highest per capita emissions in the developed world Australia says it cannot be bothered to do anything, what do you then tell the Indians and Chinese with multiple times lower emissions per person? That they should act first?”
His perspective is German but also global.
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