Professor Warwick McKibbin is an economist and Board Member of the Reserve Bank of Australia and I agree with him completely so I am posting his quote from AUSSMC about todays ‘climate consensus’ announcement. Have a read, particularly the bit about failing on the Hawke/Keating reformist legacy.
“The Labor party’s climate approach is extremely disappointing. The science and expert input has made a strong case for action for more than a decade. A majority of Australians already want to take action on climate change. What would be required to come out of a Citizens Assembly to convince the government to take action? An absolute majority - a majority in key electorates? This appears to be another 2020 summit style delay to make it appear that action is being taken when the purpose is purely delay for political advantage. Australian’s deserves better than this. If the Hawke and Keating governments had taken the approach of a Citizens Assembly to consider the major economic reforms of the 1980’s, Australia would have be a third world economy floundering in the wake of the global financial crisis. The floating of the dollar, tariff reductions and labour market reform would not have been understood nor supported by a Citizens Assembly. What is proposed is not leadership - it is abdicating responsible action…
It is hard to decide which of the Coalition or Labor policies on climate change are worse. It is appalling to see the politics of asylum seekers, applied to climate change policy.”
Despite the increasing apparent denial over climate change, the latest data from NOAA (National Climate Data from the US) is that we are currently in the hottest year ever to-date. Here is the press release. By the way, the solar cycle is at its lowest point for a number years (see the Copenhagen Diagnosis for that analysis) so we should be experiencing some of the COLDEST temperatures on record. Thats the power of our greenhouse gases we’ve already accumulated in the atmosphere.
No wonder the east coast of the US and Eastern Europe are sweltering through a heatwave. Check-out the temperature change for June 2010 showing 4-5degrees above average conditions across most of the land in the Northern Hemisphere.
It makes me wonder how much evidence is enough to warrant meaningful action??
Really nice new climate / clean-tech /green new site from business spectator to keep us informed 24/7 in this space called ClimateSpectator. Giles Parkinson is the editor who I think is Australia’s most informed journalist in this space. Check it out - it’s now my homepage.
I’ve been in an exodus over the last few months trying to work and help care for 3 kids under 2! It is chaotic, but hopefully can get some time to update the blog weekly again. Yesterday’s installment of PM Gillard can hopefully bring a new perspective to climate change and a clean technology vision for Australia.
With the Rudd government apparently taking strategic advice from the ALP right-wing hacks to shelve the CPRS, the argument was put forward that the world circumstances had changed to justify it. Isn’t that true - given the enormous increase in global investment in clean technology during 2009 (32% increase), with China pursing becoming a low-carbon hub. Here is a lovely little snapshot (see below) for the right-wing hacks (inside and outside the ALP) who continue to promote typrewriter’s (coal,oil) as the world is moving to Ipads (clean-tech). Sticking with a pollution economy makes no economic sense and this Mongolian nomad makes that pretty clear. Lets hope PM Gillard doesn’t listen to right-wing hacks like PM Rudd did. (PS My view is that whatever your feelings for Rudd, a political execution like this of a 1st term PM is disgusting)
Although I’m still on paternity leave and still wading through no sleep and nappies, I wanted to share with you a little buoyant info from the land of the long white cloud. Phillip Mills, prominent NZ businessman who wrote a NZ Herald piece talking alot about my book earlier in the year has sent a copy of the book to every NZ parliamentarian. He has written his vision for NZ in a new opinion piece here, called Imagining 2020: Green opportunities outweigh costs. Thanks to Phillip, the clean, prosperous message is at least making big inroads across the Tasman. Is Australia going to lose out to NZ in capturing the immense opportunities in this new economy??
