Antinuclear

Abbott now looking sillier on climate policy

Abbott completely isolated by Palmer’s “inconvenient senate” Clive Palmer’s emissions trading announcement effectively leaves Abbott completely isolated on climate policy , The Guardian, Alex White, 25 June 14   Clive Palmer‘s shock announcement on Wednesday night next to former vice president Al Gore has been very cautiously welcomed by Australia’s environment movement.

Palmer’s announcement effectively leaves Abbott completely isolated on climate policy, both domestically, and as Al Gore’s presence demonstrates, internationally as well. It is remarkable that one of Australia’s largest coal barons has firmly declared his support for renewables, taking action on global warming, and introducing anemissions trading scheme.

Senior leaders of some of the largest environment groups told me that they welcome Palmer’s position on the renewable energy target, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Climate Change Authority, while approaching the details with caution and a large grain of salt. It was labelled as “definitely surprising”, “very smart politically”, “surprising” and “courageous”.

There are no details behind Palmer’s announcement, and it is unclear what approach he will take with his decision to support the abolition of the carbon “tax” and its replacement with an emissions trading scheme. Palmer also stated that he would not support prime minister Abbott’s “direct action” policy, criticising it as a waste of money.

Kelly O’Shanassy, the new CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, who is organising the Climate Reality project that Gore is in Australia for, said “keeping the ‘clean three’ of the RET, the CEFC, and the CCA is great news for all Australians. It’s great to see that Clive Palmer has the courage to listen to the voices of Australians when they say they support clean energy and they support cutting pollution.”

Several recent polls showed that a large majority of 72 percent of Australians support keeping or expanding the renewable energy target. Similarly, the polls show that Australians support putting a price on carbon, and just 22 percent support the discredited “direct action” policy.

The Clean Energy Council was effusive in its congratulations. Deputy Chief Executive Kane Thornton described the announcement as “a Titanic boost for the clean energy industry”. Increasing the proportion of Australia’s energy from renewable sources would mean lower costs for consumers and potentially thousands of extra jobs. Kane said in a statement, “what we need is policy stability to unlock these benefits, and the best outcome for the industry is if the policy is left alone to continue working.”

A senior environment campaigner noted to me that “we are approaching Palmer’s announcement with caution, especially on the RET. This is not the first time the Palmer United Party has made an announcement about renewables, only to see it reversed less than 24 hours later.”

What is clear is that Tony Abbott‘s offensive against renewable energy and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation are effectively dead……..

It is clear that Palmer (and Gore) has completely rewritten climate politics in Australia. Why he has done this is not clear, and there are elements of incomprehensibility in what has said.

However, as a political tactic, it could potentially be a master stroke, and consigns Abbott’s almost non-existent climate policy to the dust bin. As Greenpeace’s Pearson quipped, “tonight Al Gore has delivered Tony Abbott an inconvenient senate.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/jun/25/clive-palmer-al-gore-climate-change-renewable-energy-carbon-price

June 28, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics