Tony Abbott’s carbon theories seen as not intelligent
”He’s now mocked John Howard’s design of an emissions trading scheme,” she said. ”Imagine Tony Abbott at an international meeting talking to Barack Obama and David Cameron – both of whom believe in action on climate change – and telling them that, ‘Look, this is just about the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one.”’…… Just one in 10 Australians supports the Coalition plan to pay companies to reduce carbon emissions, the survey of 1000 people by JWS Research found
Abbott hit by backlash, The Age, July 16, 2013 Heath Aston, Mark Kenn Tony Abbott’s insistence that Labor’s emissions trading scheme is an expensive exercise in buying and selling an ”invisible substance” has drawn derision from climate experts and industry.
As the Rudd government prepares to detail a path from the carbon tax to an ETS a year earlier than scheduled, the Opposition Leader faces claims he is treading his own path back to the ”politics of climate denial and scepticism”.
Mr Abbott’s assertion that an ETS – to be introduced on July 1, 2014, as the government will announce on Tuesday – was a ”so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one” sparked an immediate backlash, with critics pointing out that former Liberal prime minister John Howard designed a similar scheme. Professor Richard Dennis, an economist at the Australian National University, said Mr Abbott should make it clear whether he thinks radiation was harmful or not.
”The notion that something now has to be visible to be valuable or harmful is an entirely new concept in Australian politics and one that will concern and confuse many,” he said.
”If Tony Abbott is concerned about people paying for invisible things, then anyone who owns intellectual property should be very concerned, likewise people in the futures and financial derivatives market.”
Martijn Wilder, a climate change lawyer at global law firm Baker & McKenzie, said: ”You might not be able to see carbon dioxide but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t regulate it.
”An emissions trading scheme is a market for trading permits to pollute. It’s no different to trading water licences. An ETS is something that is what the Howard government proposed and what is in existence to differing degrees in Europe, China, California and Korea. [The Coalition scheme] Direct Action is a similar tool.”
Finance Minister Penny Wong said Mr Abbott’s comment built on his previously expressed view that climate change was “absolute crap”.
”He’s now mocked John Howard’s design of an emissions trading scheme,” she said. ”Imagine Tony Abbott at an international meeting talking to Barack Obama and David Cameron – both of whom believe in action on climate change – and telling them that, ‘Look, this is just about the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one.”’…… Just one in 10 Australians supports the Coalition plan to pay companies to reduce carbon emissions, the survey of 1000 people by JWS Research found. : http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-hit-by-backlash-20130715-2q0dw.html#ixzz2ZFKSNFkn
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