Antinuclear

Tony Abbot’s ‘suicide strategy’ on coal is not winning friends for Australia

Merkel adviser lashes Abbott’s ‘suicide strategy’ on coal, SMH, October 2, 2014 – Lisa Cox National political reporter A lead adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on climate policy has attacked Australia’s complacency on global warming and described the Abbott government’s championing of the coal industry as an economic “suicide strategy”.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber said most countries had given up on Australia setting tougher targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the country was now viewed alongside Canada as not contributing its fair share to global efforts to reduce climate change.
Professor Schellnhuber, a former personal adviser to Chancellor Merkel, co-chairs the German Advisory Council on Global Change, which advises the Merkel government on environment policy – the equivalent of Australia’s Climate Change Authority.
Professor Schellnhuber was dismissive of the Abbott government’s direct action policy, which is still in limbo after the axing of the former Labor government’s carbon tax, describing it as “weak” and he criticised a “ridiculous” energy green paper published the day before the UN summit that advocated greater coal use in decades to come.

He said calling for continued coal use was not only poor climate policy, it made little sense economically when the rest of the world was turning to renewable energy.
“China will soon come up to peak coal consumption,” he said.
“Other Asian economies might peak even sooner.
“It’s almost a suicide strategy for the Australian economy.”
His comments come after countries savaged Australia’s performance at a special climate summit of world leaders in New York last week, where US President Barack Obama said combatting global warming was a joint effort by all nations and “nobody gets a pass”…….
Professor Schellnhuber said instead of backing away from policies such as Australia’s renewable energy target, the Abbott government should be exploiting Australia’s enviable position as the country with the “biggest potential” to produce renewable energy.
He said this was especially important when Australia was one of the continents most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which would hit the country in the form of unprecedented heatwaves, fires and coral bleaching.
“If Australia just sits there and says we offer our cheap coal but we have no manufacturing industry, we have slipped from renewables, these are dire prospects for the economy of your country,” he said.
“It’s bad for Australia because you might miss the innovation train.  http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/merkel-adviser-lashes-abbotts-suicide-strategy-on-coal-20141002-10ouu6.html#ixzz3F8CbEDko

October 3, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News