The Greening of Gavin

Australian ETS Shelved

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Well, I am not surprised that this scheme has been shelved.  It was effectively a licence for big polluters to keep increasing emissions without any financial penalty.

You can see the full story at ABC Online titled “Labor puts ETS on the backburner“..

I can see that Climate Change will continue to be an election issue in the up coming Australian federal election, and that this about face by Labor could quite definately do them damage.  All talk, no action, and absolutely no legislation. 

I am disappointed to say the least, but even more determined to seek a positive outcome for life on Earth.

A Simple Message

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My Dad told me when I was a very young lad, not to talk about Politics, Religion or Football at a in social conversation unless you want trouble at that event. Well, Dad, sorry mate, but I feel I have to break one of the golden rules. 

Our two party political system works okay up to a point, however they are usually able to be influenced by corporations who only have short term profits at the front of their minds and never the interest of the common good.  I know, because I work for one (corporation that is), and corporate responsibility is only a new buzz word in the ivory towers of industry. 

That is where I believe our political system breaks down.  Which ever industry who can lobby the longest and hardest can usually twist the proverbial arm of which ever party is in power to their advantage.  This is exactly what is going on with the climate change issue that affects us all.  Big polluting companies may have well have written and tabled the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme because the only people that benefit are them and their shareholders. 

So to explain it all in laymans terms, here is a well written piece I borrowed from the Switch off Hazelwood blog.  Sure it is only one point of view, but it is the one that I subscribe to, and a great campaign.

“The revised CPRS is leisurely in its timing, delaying implementation for a year and setting a nominal first-year carbon price of $10 a tonne with unlimited number of permits, meaning no effective action for another three years. It has increased permits to the biggest polluters from 90 per cent to now start at 95 per cent, and preserves the outsourcing of Australia’s national responsibilities by allowing the unlimited purchase of permits from overseas, so that the scheme has no mechanism for ensuring that Australia’s emissions (as opposed to domestic permits) will drop by even one tonne by 2050. The Treasury modelling assumes no decrease in Australian emissions for another 25 years!! Nor will the CPRS produce an avalanche of “green jobs” because it is not designed to close down the brown economy or build a clean, renewable-energy sector.”

So thats is why I like having a party like the Australian Greens in the Senate who have the balance of power when the other two parties cannot agree on a piece of legislation, which just happens to be most of the time.  They get to make the hard decisions as to which pieces of legislation pass through the Senate and which ones don’t.  Of course they have to also negotiate with that unusual senator Steve Fielding and the Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, but most of the time they do the right thing.

So I have a simple message from the leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown.  Please take the time to watch it, it is only short.  I believe that they will keep them honest again when the CPRS legislation goes back to the Senate for a second time.  Who knows, we may even get a double disalution, and disolve the govenment and force an early election.  I know who I will vote for, and it won’t be the clowns who are in power now, nor the other clowns in the opposition party!

Open to comments, for or against.

Gav

The CPRS Is Dead

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smokestackLong live the CPRS. What a farce! The proposed ETS has been delayed 12 months and will be amended with a 25% target. See what Crikey has to say about it. Rudd surrenders to big polluters.

I reckon that this so-called Emissions Trading Scheme was dead months ago and would never have passed through the Senate.

It was so appallingly designed, so much so that it would have done absolutely nothing to actually reduce national emissions. We would have had a cap, that is all. Having it may have been worse than doing nothing.

It locked in millions of free permits for big polluters; it would have locked in emissions targets of 5-15% of 2000 levels by 2020, meaning that emission savings by households and small business would be 100% pointless, as any savings would be added to the quota for big polluters. It would lock in 5-year (or longer) targets and prices, meaning that future governments would be unable to react to changes in the scientific picture which is changing on a daily basis.

It was written by lobbyists for big polluters and destined for the rubbish bin. Even Professor Ross Garneau didn’t recognise it after the government and interested parties were finished with it.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let’s hope we get a real ETS next time – or better still, a simpler and more effective mechanism such as a carbon tax. Anything has got to be better than the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme but at least his heart was in the right place when he started. I think the PM just forgot that those pesky big polluters have lots and lots of money to counteract anything he tries to come up with. Only the will of the people will keep him true to his word. I can feel election time in the air!