With actuaries warning that some properties could become uninsurable in future, land values in some areas would likely plummet.
“The possibility of legal liability heightens risks for companies that aren’t responding”
While the financial sector is now seriously factoring the practical impact of climate change into their plans, many within it fear government is not.
Business takes lead on climate disasters, In the wake of cyclone Debbie, the insurance and banking industries are pushing for better mitigation measures, while the federal government lags behind. By Karen Middleton, Saturday Paper 8 Apr 17, “……..The Cannons and their neighbours join the residents of Murwillumbah, Lismore and other affected areas of NSW and Queensland in surveying the damage from cyclone Debbie, and the storms and flash flooding of its aftermath, and asking what can be done to help communities protect themselves in future.
The same questions are being asked in the boardrooms of corporate Australia – especially but not only in the finance sector – with an increasing emphasis on planning for and guarding against such events, rather than just cleaning up afterwards.
…….The Insurance Council of Australia wants the federal government to focus on mitigation as a priority in the upcoming federal budget.
“Cyclone Debbie and the floods that followed it should be a starting point for state and federal governments to address mitigation,” council spokesman Campbell Fuller said.
In the insurance and superannuation industries, work is being done on the likely longer-term impact of climate change on the frequency and ferocity of these major disasters and how they and other investors – and ultimately governments – should respond.
The big banks have also begun studying the implications of climate change on their risk exposure through mortgages reaching back 30 years. Continue reading →
April 8, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Off The Record: Orchestra now in baton race to replace young gun, The Advertiser April 1, 2017 “…….Hitting voters with ion fist OUR atomic adventure might be dead and buried, but a series of targeted nuclear strikes are about to be launched by the Liberals.
Having last November torpedoed Premier Jay Weatherill’s half-hearted push for an international nuclear waste dump, the Libs will now attack him for secret plans to put the dump in various sites across the state, Off the Record has learned.
A localised digital and leaflet campaign will accuse Mr Weatherill and his high-level waste dump of risking the destruction of agricultural industry and the environment through toxic nuclear leaks.
The advertising blitz will expand closer to next March’s election.
Regional areas likely to host a dump will be the focus, along with women worried about their children’s futures and those once known as “doctors’ wives” – affluent inner-city Liberal types concerned about the environment and social issues.
Of course, as no site was earmarked by the nuclear royal commission in its final report last May, the Liberals have fertile ground to declare any community could be at risk from the nuclear ogre…… http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/off-the-record-orchestra-now-in-baton-race-to-replace-young-gun/news-story/22c63df9efeb84f31fe3adf21ca65aa9
April 7, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
NUCLEAR ROYAL COMMISSION 2016, politics, South Australia, wastes |
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Turnbull warns party faithful against drift to the right, Adam Carey, Eryk Bagshaw, The Age, 2 Apr 17,
Malcolm Turnbull has stared down the right-wing of his own party which has hamstrung his leadership and asserted that the Liberals should be the party of the “sensible centre”…….
April 3, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, Victoria |
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Coalition’s proposed native title changes a breach of deal struck between major parties, Labor claims, ABC News, 2 Apr 17 By political reporter Dan Conifer Federal Labor has accused the Coalition of bungling native title changes and breaching a deal struck between the major parties.
The Coalition moved to amend the Native Title Act in February soon after a court scuttled a multi-million-dollar deal between the West Australian Government and traditional owners.
The Federal Court rejected the Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) between the parties because it was not signed by all native title claimants.
Until February’s court decision, ILUAs could be made without the support of all native title applicants.
The court ruling overturned years of established law, throwing doubt over current and future agreements nationwide.
“It is once again clear that these new amendments have not been subjected to any form of consultation with legal experts, Indigenous Australians or industry.
“The repeated breaches of faith by your Attorney-General in this matter, and the clear unwillingness of your Government to properly consult on the significant issues at hand, have meant that Labor remains concerned about some aspects of the bill.”
The correspondence was also signed by shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus and shadow assistant minister for Indigenous affairs Pat Dodson.
The letter said Labor wanted the Senate committee’s recommendations enacted “as quickly as possible” and offered to work with the Coalition over coming weeks……..
The amendments have not been debated in the Senate.
Parliament next sits in May. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-02/native-title-proposal-by-coalition-breaches-deal-labor-says/8407964
The Coalition and Labor agreed on the need to amend the legislation to reverse the effect of the recent court decision, allowing at least 126 ILUAs already proposed or registered to continue with as few as one claimant.
But the Opposition claims Attorney-General George Brandis has proposed changes that go beyond what the major parties agreed during a Senate committee process.
Shorten ‘uncomfortable’ with Government handling of issue In a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten accused the Government of “repeated breaches of faith”.
“These amendments failed to deliver on the prior agreement and were again defective in a number of respects,” the letter said.
April 3, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics |
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Labor to drop renewable energy target in favour of emissions scheme
RET will come to a natural end as emissions intensity scheme can reach goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030, says Andrew Leigh , Guardian, Paul Karp, 2 Apr 17, Labor will abandon the renewable energy target after 2020 because an emissions intensity scheme will be sufficient to reach the goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030, Andrew Leigh has said.
On Sky News on Sunday the shadow assistant treasurer firmed the opposition’s plan to reach the 50% goal without a hard target in comments that appeared to rule out extending the existing renewable energy target (RET).
“We’ve committed to getting 50% renewables but the mechanism that we’ve used in the past has been a renewable energy target. That comes to an end and we believe an [emissions intensity scheme] EIS can take us to the point of having 50% renewables … without the RET,” Leigh said.
Asked to confirm that meant Labor would not support the RET when it expired in 2020, Leigh responded: “We believe that the emissions intensity scheme does that job … without a RET.”……..
Pressure has been mounting on the Finkel review to recommend a market mechanism. A string of peak bodies have already called for market mechanisms, including the National Farmers’ Federation, the Investor Group on Climate Change and the Business Council of Australia, which explicitly called for an EIS.
Leigh noted that an EIS was supported by experts across the field, including the Business Council of Australia and many energy regulators. He noted renewables account for the majority of new investment in electricity generation in the last decade.
“One of the government’s favourite backers, Bjørn Lomborg, not somebody Labor would usually support, says that every $1 invested in renewables gives you a pay back of $11.”
Leigh said that Nick Xenophon, who abandoned his demand for an EIS in return for support for company tax cuts in favour of a payment to pensioners and a number of energy measures, had been “sold a pup”.
The measures include fast-tracking a solar-thermal plant in South Australia already promised, a study of a gas pipeline connecting the state with the Northern Territory, and a new national energy policy………https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/02/labor-to-drop-renewable-energy-target-in-favour-of-eis
April 3, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy, politics |
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Australia had a great electricity policy – let’s get it back, REneweconomy, By David Leitch on 31 March 2017 When the ALP lost government in 2013 Australia had a secure, but rising, cost of electricity. Network prices had risen substantially, causing bill shock mainly because the AEMC and COAG had failed to rein in the Australian Competition Tribunal; and because networks were – and are – entitled to earn a perpetual rate of return on sunk costs, even when those costs have been fully recovered and notwithstanding that capacity utilisation has fallen.
The carbon tax was adding around $30/MWh to electricity prices, but the increase in network costs and the community emphasis on energy efficiency driving lower consumption were the key factors. The wires and poles cost tripled between 2008 and 2013.
However, over the next five years it’s the generation cost that drives prices up from $274/MWh (before retail discounts) to maybe $324/MWh (and the federal government loses, say, $10 billion of tax revenue in the process).
More importantly Australia had a suite of policies that:
- Encouraged energy efficiency. Every large corporate had to explicitly report on its energy efficiency plans.
- A carbon tax. Although this was meant to transition to floating carbon price it was actually far more effective as a tax. The advantages were.
- It raised final prices encouraging efficiency.
- Simple to administer
- At $30/t raising more than A$10 bn a year. By contrast fuel excise which most people don’t really think about raises about $12 bn a year. For an average house in Australia that carbon tax added $180 per year to their costs. By contrast the fuel excise at $0.38 litre and assuming a motorist uses 9 litres/100 Km, and drives 15,000 km a year costs say $600 a person. In two car households the cost could easily be over $1000 a year. This to your author’s mind shows the difference between perception and reality.
- The known price enabled both generators and consumers to plan around the fixed cost. Space does not permit in this article but providing confidence around the cost of capital is the main way Govts can contribute to keeping electricity prices low.
- Most importantly it penalized high carbon emission raising the variable cost of brown to or above that of black coal and making gas cheaper, at the time, than coal
But what if the carbon tax forced old generation to close but no new generation was built? Wouldn’t that be a problem for energy security? So that’s where…
- Renewable energy incentives come in. That was done by the LRET. In addition, state governments decided to offer high feed-in tariffs for rooftop PV. This lead to a glut of RECs and so the LRET scheme was split in two, small and large. The surplus of large certificates has only recently been worked off. We’ve criticised the LRET policy several times as being a high cost and unreliable way to get new renewables into the system but it did at least a provide a carrot. Reverse auctions can do the same job in a cheaper and more targeted fashion.
The net impact of these policies was to raise final electricity prices to households by 10 per cent and to business by about 15 per cent. By and large the Australian system was regarded as one of the best in the world. Fig 1 shows that the explicit cost of the LRET and SREC scheme is small, even at today’s inflated REC prices.
The coalition eliminated the old policies, but didn’t replace them with anything newEnergy efficiency was completely de-emphasised……….
Announcements as a substitute for policy
To this day there is no federal policy other than what’s left of the RET. Zero, zip, nada. There is no policy because the federal government is opposed to the policies being adopted all over the world, which a majority of Australians want and which the electricity industry wants.
This is leading to a breakdown of the cooperative federalism of the past decade and is another impediment to reform of the management of NEM. In fact, there is no management, just a committee (COAG energy committee) and government organisations with no KPIs (the AEMC for instance). There are announcements “Snowy 2”; and now, an after-the-horse-has-bolted ACCC review of retail prices…….
Some might see this as a hopeless situation, but because of Australia’s fantastic wind and PV resource, and because the cost of wind and PV has fallen, its actually a great opportunity to build a 21st century grid that will be the envy of the world.
Wind in the USA produces electricity at US $42/MWh = A$63/MWh unsubsidised (the consumer pays $20/MWh and the tax credit is worth about $22/MWh). Capacity factors in the USA are getting up to 45-50 per cent – by comparison, a typical combined cycle gas plant is at 50-60 per cent. Australia’s newest wind farm is at 43 per cent in its first three months.
Australia’s 5GW of distributed solar and the low energy density of networks (electricity consumed per Km of wires) makes this a fantastic country to build a decentralised grid using solar PV and household storage. But again, where is the federal government vision? Where is the policy? Where is the modelling? The lack of initiative and policy cannot be excused on any level, 3 year election cycle or no. Australians have a right to, and do expect more.
Despite our advantages we are well behind what the rest of the world is up to………
In the USA a very recent survey of 600 utility companies confirmed they they plan to continue their decade old shift to wind, and PV and distributed energy despite the election of Donald Trump. And why wouldn’t they? Its good economics and sound policy with a decade of experience behind it.
April 1, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, politics |
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ACF Australian Conservation Foundation: Palaszczuk to put Adani before Queensland
with secret water licence deal http://www.4-traders.com/news/ACF-Australian-Conservation-Foundation-Palaszczuk-to-put-Adani-before-Queensland-with-secret-water–24137075/ 31 March 2017:
“The Courier-Mail has reported today that the Palaszczuk government is set to grant a water licence for Adani to suck millions of litres of groundwater for its mega-polluting Carmichael Coal Mine in secret.
“‘The Queensland Government have created one rule for Adani and a different set of rules for everyone else when it comes to managing groundwater.’ said ACF Healthy Ecosystems Campaigner Basha Stasak.
“‘This is a secret decision to prop up a mine that will help destroy the Reef and the 70,000 Queensland jobs that rely on it. A secret decision to prop up a mine that no one else will fund because it is too risky and dangerous for the climate. … “
April 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, Queensland, secrets and lies |
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Australia will not dump Paris climate deal if Trump does: Frydenberg, AFR, by Laura Tingle,30 Mar 17 Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has rejected suggestions from some Coalition MPs that Australia will need to review its participation in the Paris agreement on climate change following Donald Trump’s new executive order on the environment
The chair of the government’s backbench committee on environment and energy, Craig Kelly, repeated on Wednesday his earlier predictions that the Paris climate deal was “cactus” if the US President followed through with his threat to withdraw from the treaty.
President Trump signed a new “energy independence” executive order on Tuesday to undo a range of regulatory measures to combat climate change by his predecessor Barack Obama, including eliminating the clean power plan, which sets limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that power plants emit.
Mr Trump said his plan would launch “a new energy revolution” that will put “miners back to work”.
While the executive order does not withdraw the US from the Paris agreement, the possibility remains open amid reports the Trump administration has yet to decide whether it intends to withdraw from the international climate change deal
Mr Kelly told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that he was aware of the new executive order, and if President Trump went the extra step and withdrew from the Paris agreement: “I think we have to review it.”……..
Asked whether a majority of his Coalition colleagues would be in favour of quitting the Paris deal in the event Mr Trump pulled out, Mr Kelly argued “it would be a close-run thing”….. http://www.afr.com/news/politics/australia-will-not-d
March 31, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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SA power: Government introduces bill giving Energy Minister power over AEMO, ABC News, 28 Mar 17 By Sara Garcia and Nick Harmsen The South Australian Government has introduced legislation to give the Energy Minister the power to direct electricity generators to turn on when required — a move it says would have prevented the September statewide blackout.
The measure has been born out of frustration that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) ordered a power cut to tens of thousands of homes in February during a heatwave, when a shortfall in supply was looming. A second unit at Pelican Point sat idle at the time, and the Government said AEMO should have directed it to switch on.
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the powers would have also prevented the statewide blackout on September 28 as he would have ramped up generation in South Australia in preparation for the catastrophic event.
“We would have constrained the interconnector in the morning as I asked AEMO and there would have been more South Australian generation on,” Mr Koutsantonis said.”[I asked and they responded] there wasn’t a credible contingency to constrain the interconnector.”
Mr Koutsantonis said the powers the Government was seeking currently exist under a state of emergency.But he said he needed the power to prevent a state of emergency in the first place.”What we’re doing is extending those powers before an emergency situation exists to make sure we can avoid it,” he said.”These powers will give me the ability to direct either AEMO or direct generators individually and direct individuals.”That power will ensure that market power is not the driving aspect of our energy security in this state.”
Premier Jay Weatherill said the current system was “broken” and put “profits before people”.”We’re taking back control and putting South Australians first,” he said.
The Government introduced the bill this morning and called on an immediate debate.The Opposition tried to block the debate, but failed.”I don’t mind that they don’t have a plan, but get out of the way and don’t stop us from implementing our plan,” Mr Weatherill said……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-28/sa-governments-power-legislation-gives-energy-minister-control/8393608
March 29, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, South Australia |
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Canavan wants $1b for Adani, limits to green tax lurks, AFR, 26 Mar 17, Resources Minister Matt Canavan says it is time for the government to consider restricting the tax-deductible status of politically active green groups………
Stop Bob Brown
The Turnbull government is still considering whether the tax-deductibility of environmental groups should be administered by the Australian Taxation Office instead of the Register of Environmental Organisations and no less than 25 per cent of green group donations should be spent on environmental remediation rather than protests, after a House of Representatives inquiry reporting last May.
The Stop Adani Alliance, a collection of 13 green groups headed by former Greens leader Bob Brown, came to Parliament House last week calling for more scrutiny of a proposed $1 billion taxpayer-funded loan to build a railway line for the Adani Carmichael coal mine in North Queensland.
Senator Canavan told The Australian Financial Review the main opposition to the Adani mine came from “fly-in, fly-out” protesters who did not live in the region……..
$1b for Adani
There is growing scrutiny of the government agency, the North Australia Infrastructure Facility, responsible for assessing the proposed $1 billion taxpayer loan to Adani and championed by Senator Canavan and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
The agency was established in mid-2016 to disburse a mammoth $5 billion in taxpayer loans but the details of the 47 proposals being considered, and five close to being finalised have been kept secret, raising questions about the agency’s transparency…….http://www.afr.com/news/politics/canavan-wants-1b-for-adani-limits-to-green-tax-lurks-20170324-gv5tlx
March 27, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Greens push for electricity crisis to be taken out of politicians’ hands, The Age Adam Morton , 25 Mar 17,
The Greens are pushing for a new public authority to take responsibility for Australia’s beleaguered electricity system out of politicians’ hands.
It follows several organisations, including energy company Origin, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and ClimateWorks, calling for an independent body, similar to the Reserve Bank, to manage what has been described as an energy crisis.
Focus on the future of the electricity system has heightened in the lead-up to the closure this week of Hazelwood, Australia’s oldest and most emissions-intensive power plant, which when fully operational had the capacity to deliver about a quarter of Victoria’s electricity.
The Greens will introduce legislation in the Senate to create what it calls Renew Australia, which it says can short-circuit a stand-off between the federal and state governments by taking responsibility for the transition to a clean electricity supply……
Energy companies, business groups, unions, charities, scientists and environmentalists have called for a bipartisan national plan, including an emissions intensity scheme, to drive a smooth change as greenhouse gas emissions are cut.
The Snowy Hydro Scheme, owned by the NSW, Victorian and federal governments, is the latest to back this sort of scheme. The federal government has rejected this sort of scheme.
Not all the above groups would endorse the Greens’ model, which requires that at least 90 per cent of energy is renewable by 2030, expands the national renewable energy target and introduces a emissions intensity standard that sets out a timetable for the closure of coal-fired power plants.
The authority would cost $500 million and would be expected to leverage $5 billion of energy construction in four years. The Greens also want to create a $250 million clean energy transition fund to help coal communities as plants close and change electricity market rules to make it encourage large-scale battery storage…….
In a submission to an energy security review by chief scientist Alan Finkel, ClimateWorks – a research body affiliated with Monash University – called for an independent statutory body to take over regulatory responsibilities from the COAG Energy Council, which is made up of federal and state energy ministers.
Origin backed the creation of a body similar to the Reserve Bank to manage the shift to lower emissions.
The ACTU called for the introduction of an Energy Transition Authority. Its responsibilities would include managing a planned closure of coal plants and an industry-wide scheme that allowed retrenched coal workers to get jobs at other power stations.
This model has been used at Hazelwood, where some workers will transfer to other Latrobe Valley generators. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-push-for-electricity-crisis-to-be-taken-out-of-politicians-hands-20170325-gv6bl7.html
March 27, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, politics |
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Libs looking to Asia to build new coal-fired power station in north, THE AUSTRALIAN, DAVID CROWE, 26 Mar 17, THE TURNBULL GOVERNMENT HAS OPENED TALKS WITH ASIAN INVESTORS TO BUILD A COAL-FIRED POWER STATION BACKED BY ITS $5 BILLION NORTHERN AUSTRALIA FUND……..
Resources Minister Matt Canavan is fast-tracking the plan amid a growing fight with Labor and the Greens over support for coal power, as cabinet ministers prepare to decide how to encourage big investors into the market.
Senator Canavan told The Australian there was a “high degree of interest” from Asia helping to develop the new power station in northern Queensland, arguing that finance from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund would be needed to give the project long-term certainty…….
As the imminent close of the ageing Hazelwood power station reignites debate about electricity shortages and price spikes, Labor climate change spokesman Mark Butler has declared there is no support from industry to build new coal-fired power stations in Australia.
The Australian Energy Council, which represents companies supplying electricity to 10 million homes, warns it has become “very difficult” to finance coal-fired power stations when investors are ramping up wind and solar projects as well as gas generators that provide baseload power with lower greenhouse gas emissions than coal.
But the government is determined to keep the coal proposal on the agenda by raising the prospect of funding from the northern Australia fund, which is also a potential source of support for the controversial coalmine planned for central Queensland by Indian company Adani.
Senator Canavan said there was “no doubt” of the rudimentary economic and commercial case for a coal-fired power station in northern Queensland but that the government’s challenge was to set the energy market rules to offer certainty…..
A Senate inquiry led by a Labor and Greens majority last year argued for an “orderly retirement” of the nation’s coal-fired power stations but the government believes there is strong support in northern Queensland for a new coal project at a time of rising electricity price
Senator Canavan is examining options for a new power station near the Adani coalmine in the Galilee Basin, in Collinsville, to add to an existing power station or in Gladstone near an existing power station and taking advantage of transmission lines that are already in place.
The Resources Minister, who is also the Minister for Northern Australia and oversees the infrastructure fund, rejected suggestions that the help for a coal-fired power station would be a “subsidy” that meddled with the market….
Mr Butler is warning against the use of taxpayer funds for the rail line to the Adani mine or a new power station, claiming the long-term future for coal is one of decline.
“This is something the coal industry needs to deal with. We’ve said as a federal Labor Party we will not support taxpayers’ money going in to support infrastructure or pay for infrastructure around this (Adani) mine,” he said last week. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/libs-looking-to-asia-to-build-new-coalfired-power-station-in-north/news-story/3eb3b84db35f98e8821c146e4091e575
March 27, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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https://www.theguardian.com/profile/bob-brown
#StopAdani ‘This is the environmental issue of our times and the Great Barrier Reef is at stake. But people standing up for what they believe in has unbeatable power’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/24/the-adani-mine-is-this-generations-franklin-river-people-power-can-stop-it 24 March 2017:
” … The Adani corporation’s dirty coalmine is an impending disaster with effects which will reach far beyond Australia.
“Everywhere I go people ask me about it. They cannot believe that, at a time when we should be drastically cutting the pollution which drives global warming, Australia’s authorities would even consider building the world’s biggest export coalmine.
“Lending Mr Adani, a billionaire, a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to carry this project into reality would be the political mistake of the decade. The Turnbull government would be literally paying Adani
to ride roughshod over Indigenous rights, to contaminate the groundwater of the Galilee Basin, to consign threatened species to the dustbin of history and to increase the already disastrous impact of coral death worldwide. … “
March 25, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Two quit Australian climate authority blaming government ‘extremists’ John Quiggin and Danny Price resign over Coalition’s ‘rightwing anti-science activists’ and climate change political point-scoring, Guardian, Helen Davidson, 23 Mar 17, Two members of the Climate Change Authority have resigned, with one accusing the government of being beholden to rightwing, anti-science “extremists” in its own party and in the media.
John Quiggin told Guardian Australia he informed the federal minister for environment and energy, Josh Frydenberg, of his resignation on Thursday. It follows the resignation of fellow climate change authority member, Danny Price, who quit on Tuesday.
“The government’s refusal to accept the advice of its own authority, despite wide support for that advice from business, environmental groups and the community as a whole, reflects the comprehensive failure of its policies on energy and the environment,” Quiggin said.
“These failures can be traced, in large measure, to the fact that the government is beholden to rightwing anti-science activists in its own ranks and in the media. Rather than resist these extremists, the Turnbull government has chosen to treat the vital issues of climate change and energy security as an opportunity for political point-scoring and culture war rhetoric.”
Quiggin said his immediate reason for resigning was the government’s failure to respond to the authority’s third report of the special review into potential climate policies, which the government had requested and which it was legally required to respond to.
“The government has already indicated that it will reject the key recommendations of the review, particularly the introduction of an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity industry.”
Quiggin said he didn’t believe there was anything to be gained “by giving objective advice based on science and economic analysis to a government dominated by elements hostile to both science and economics”…….https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/23/two-quit-australia-climate-change-authority-john-quiggin-danny-price
March 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Antinuclear 