Antinuclear

Bernie Fraser calls for political consensus on the inevitable costs of global warming

Climate change chairman attacks policy ‘flip-flopping’ and lack of consensus,  Katharine Murphy deputy political editor theguardian.com, Wednesday 30 October 2013 Bernie Fraser criticises Abbott’s ‘extreme’ position and says policy reversals create uncertainty for investors Climate Change Authority chairman and former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser has criticised the lack of political consensus over climate change, arguing that rolling contention and policy “flip-flopping” is impeding Australia’s ability to deal with the inevitable costs and consequences of global warming.

Fraser told a briefing of reporters on Wednesday there was no current political consensus in Australia that the science of climate change was real, and he said policy reversals would only create uncertainty for private investors, who must do most of the “heavy lifting” in terms of investing in clean technology.

The Climate Change Authority on Wednesday concluded that Australia’s current 5% emissions reduction target was not credible, and proposed two potential alternatives: 15% or 25%. Fraser said the conclusions were not “doomsday scenarios”, they were an effort to point out that with such a slow start, Australia would not contribute a fair share to the global effort to reduce carbon pollution.

He also argued that the Abbott government’s current policy, to rely on domestic emissions reduction alone and not to purchase international carbon credits where that alternative was economically efficient, represented an “extreme” position.

Fraser said he did not intend his remarks to be provocative. He said the Climate Change Authority had no agenda beyond fulfilling its duty statement in “an objective and independent way”, and he said he anticipated a deal of community discussion about the findings and recommendations published on Wednesday.

“We are trying to provide independent advice in an objective way on what we think are important issues for the government and the community to be aware of,” he said…… http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/30/climate-change-chairman-attacks-flip-flopping

October 31, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming