Antinuclear

Well, that is probably exactly what he will do. Negotiators and observers hear in Lima are scratching their heads as to what role Robb could possibly play in the climate talks – he has no counterparts to talk to because no other country thinks of sending their trade minister. Most of them send their environment or climate change ministers.

Will Robb involve himself in the detail of climate finance, loss and damage, or ratification of the second period of the Kyoto Protocol? Likely not. And why is Australia suddenly sending an “economics” minister to a “climate” event, when it has refused to talk about climate at “economics” events such as the G20 and the FTA with China, arguing – to the astonishment of most – that the two don’t intersect.

Perhaps, then, Robb has been sent to convey a simple message – namely that Australia does not understand what all the fuss is about, that addressing climate change is not that urgent, that we need more research before we start deploying new technologies such as solar, and anyway, it’s a bigger priority to sell coal to poor countries to alleviate “energy poverty.”

To do that, all the government has to do is to channel the thoughts of their favourite thinker, Bjorn Lomborg, who as others have pointed out has made quite a nice career casting doubt on the seriousness of climate change, arguing the problem is overstated, and concluding that on a cost-benefit analysis there is no need to do anything. That pretty much sums up current Coalition government policy.

Robb has certainly been brushing up on his research. Last week he tweeted this picture after a briefing with Lomborg . “Had a good chat about the power of trade in eliminating poverty,” Robb tweeted.  Presumably Robb meets many people in his role, but this is the only one he bothered tweeting in the last few weeks.

Given Lomborg’s past form, that idea of eliminating energy poverty would almost certainly be about trade in coal, the commodity that he says is the only way to lift 1.3 billion people out of poverty. This is a favourite line from Big Coal PR. Lomborg and Tony Abbott have swallowed the Kool-Aid, but most others say it is nonsense.

Lomborg, who was brought in to speak at G20 event sponsored by Peabody Coal, the world’s biggest coal miner, has been a favourite consultant for the Coalition government because he says what they want to hear. i.e. There is no urgency to act, it’s fine to burn fossil fuels, and there is no point deploying renewable energy. Sounds a lot like government policy and rhetoric.

Last December, for instance, Lomborg suggested that the world should stop installing solar, and add not a single panel. ……….

As David Holmes reported in The Conversation, Hunt credited some of Lomborg’s work – a discredited analysis of the cheapest abatement technologies – as being a blue-print for the Emissions Reduction Fund.

Now, it seems, Lomborg, the climate confusionist, is back on two of his favourite hobby horses – that renewable energy causes energy poverty, and more coal fired generation can solve it.

This too, accords with government policy, and Robb’s view of the world. But if Robb is taking that message to Lima, then he will be laughed out of the tent city that forms the venue for the talks. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/is-bjorn-lomborg-writing-australias-climate-and-energy-policies-98239