Antinuclear

Australian farmers lobbying Abbott government for emissions trading scheme

Climate change: farmers urge Coalition to restore emissions trading scheme, Guardian, Gabrielle Chan, 26 Mar 15 Failure to acknowledge the problem is ‘doing the industry a disservice’ and harming Australia’s international standing, says farming group  A delegation of farmers has called for the Abbott government to act on climate change by restoring an emissions trading scheme, maintaining the current renewable energy target and spending on rail infrastructure to improve inland transport and reduce carbon emissions.

The farmers have spent two days lobbying the Coalition to start implementing a suite of policies to deal with the effects of climate change, warning of dire consequences for the agriculture sector if the threat was not addressed.

They have told the government MPs, including John Cobb and the staff of the treasurer Joe Hockey, that the Direct Action policy, which provides incentives for polluters to reduce carbon emissions, will not work to ameliorate climate change, “but if the government wants to give away money, people will keep taking it”.

The delegation said the lack of climate policies was being exacerbated by the cuts to research and development funding for applied climate science and the Bureau of Meteorology.

The visit came as intense negotiations between the government and Labor continued over the RET, which currently requires the government to source 41,000 gigawatt hours of energy from renewables by 2020. The latest government offer to Labor is 32,000GWh.

It also follows a report by University of Melbourne researchers called Appetite for Change, which charted the detrimental effects of climate change on Australia’s food production.

The farmers, organised by Earth Hour Australia, said the Abbott government needed to show leadership on the issue and it could start by using the term climate change, rather than “climate variability”………http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/26/climate-change-farmers-urge-coalition-to-restore-emissions-trading-scheme

March 27, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming