Australian climate policy paralysis

Posted on 26. Nov, 2009 by Philip Ireland in Australia

As an Australian I am not proud to write this but I thought you should know.

Politics in Australia this week have been a little CRAZY! This is because of a little thing called the CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme), the Government’s proposed ETS (emissions trading scheme).

The passage, or non-passage of this legislation will set some of the parameters within which our negotiating team at Copenhagen will operate.

Where should I start? I am sure you are all familiar with some of the charades from the past few weeks…I will do my best to summarise the situation as I see it.

From bad to worse.
The bad. I have blogged about the CPRS before. This is Australia’s proposed climate change legislation which has targets that are too low and hands out billions of dollars in compensation to polluting industries….namely Australia’s coal fired power generators, which have been identified among the most polluting in the world.

Now… to cut a long story short, over the past few weeks there has been a to and fro between the Government and the opposition around ‘amendments’ to this scheme. Finally this week, the Government announced that it would adopt most of the Opposition’s amendments.

The worse. You probably guessed it. The amendments which have now been built into the proposed legislation weaken it even further. Over the course of the proposed scheme coal power stations get an extra $4 billion, coal mines an extra $750 million and agriculture (which contributes around 15% of Australia’s emissions) is exempt. If this bill is passed I will explore the consequences of these amendments further in a future blog.

But for now, this legislation is yet to be passed because….

Scepticism comes out of the woodwork.
Believe it or not many Australian politicians do not believe human kind is causing climate change. So despite the acceptance of these appalling amendments, many people in the Coalition (and let’s not forget our quirky uncle, Steve Fielding) do not want to see any scheme that would mean Australia would reduce its emissions at all. Full stop.
At this point I would like to run through some of the senior Coalition politicians that hold this perspective… but for now I cannot, it’s just too distressing.

Did they miss the memo?
Unfortunately no.
Many of them know the arguments. They have had consultations with brilliant Australian scientists (many of whom are lead IPCC authors and have been awarded the Noble prize) and they are not convinced. And it now appears as if these people may take over the leadership of the Coalition. Reason, logic, rationalism has all but drifted out their parliamentary windows into the atmosphere, along with Australia’s ever increasing greenhouse gas pollution.

Representative democracy?
I’m confused…. I really am.
I am sure that Australia, on paper is a representative democracy. However, I am not sure who our politicians that express climate scepticism are actually representing. A recent Lowy Institute poll found that 76 percent of Australians rate climate change as one of the major issues facing Australia. In addition, the recent ‘Youth Decide’ poll of over 37,000 Australian youth found that 97.5% want Australia’s emissions targets to be higher than current proposed legislation.

Some of our politicians are going even further and forcing their agenda on the population. For example, Barnaby Joyce, the leader of the National Party (part of the Coalition) in the senate has been touring around rural Australia seeding doubt about the science of climate change and cultivating fear around the costs of action. I find the Senator’s pet project troubling in the strongest terms.

Its not all bad
Despite this relatively depressing political context, let us not be too discouraged. The CPRS is pretty bad anyway. If there is a coup d’etat in the Coalition over the next few days and the party is conquered by its sceptics who refuse to pass the ETS, all is not lost.

Perhaps at the next election (which is before the CPRS would come into effect anyway) Australians will democratically pass judgement on climate change deniers and inadequate legislation alike?
Perhaps the Government will model new scenarios and make new legislation that will include targets of 40% that could contribute to a safe future climate?
Perhaps.

As we say bon voyage to our negotiating team with high expectations, spare a thought (and perhaps shed a tear) for the political context in our increasingly sunburnt country.

Tags: A Climate For Change, Adopt a Negotiator, Australia, climate change, Copenhagen, negotiations, Sustainability, UNFCCC