Climate change: Science meets politics

More extremely hot days fewer cold ones; wetter in the north and drier in the south of the country; sea levels higher around the country: this is not a forecast for Australia’s climate but a snapshot of the changes to our climate now.

The thousands of scientists working for both the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology have been studying and observing the many changes underway to our climate and, as a result, our weather for a number of years now.

Who hasn’t wondered recently what is going on with the weather?

Continue reading "Nation’s top scientists agree: the climate is changing now" »

In what was an unprecedented move, Australia’s two leading climate science agencies, the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, combined this week to release a statement of confidence in Australian climate change science. No doubt this “climate snapshot” will have the blogosphere buzzing and the skeptics up in arms but I for one am glad to see these institutions taking a stand.

Only a few days ago around 200 scientists from all over the country descended on parliament house for face-to-face meetings and forums with politicians in Canberra. Everything from new research on facial tumours in the Tasmanian Devil to concerns over biodiversity loss were brought to the attention of the folks on the hill. Not surprisingly, climate change figured prominently and especially the need for politicians and the public to focus on the evidence based science.

Interesting then, that on the very same day, the Chairman of the ABC, Maurice Newman, would publicly criticise journalists over their lack of critical coverage of climate science. On the need for critical coverage of all topics we wholeheartedly agree. The media should provide balance. But this should not be balance for balance’s sake.

Continue reading "Balance in climate coverage nothing without quality" »

It should be a great time to be a Green: a first term Labor Government governing from the centre; the defining local and international issue is an environmental one; our lives are being buffeted by one extreme weather event after another.

2010 is a crunch year for the third force in Australian politics and, for many, the great hope of progressive change, with a federal election beckoning, the dream of controlling the Senate is looming large

But something is not happening for the Greens right now: despite growing disillusionment in the Labor Government, their vote is flat-lining in major polls and it is twice as ‘soft’ as the two major parties. We asked voters how strong their voting intention was, and these were the results.

Continue reading "Greens struggling to grow in heated political climate" »

The head of the UN’s climate change panel (the IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri has released a novel that combines lessons on climate change with sexy story lines.

The protagonist in Pachauri’s book is eerily similar to Pachauri himself: an environmentalist and former engineer who inexplicably has a lot of sex with women (I can’t say whether the last part as any basis in reality). According to The Times the book: “mingles lectures on climate change with descriptions of Sanjay’s sexual encounters, including frequent references to “voluptuous breasts”.

Following last week’s visit from the Skeptic Dark Lord Mockton (who looks and sounds like an evil mastermind from a new climate themed Bond film) I can’t help but wonder if some of the increasing confusion about climate change stems from the eccentric oddballs who we’re told to believe.

Continue reading "No wonder we’re confused about climate change . . ." »

Having arranged the Newcastle leg of Lord Monckton’s Australian tour and listened to his exposition of the failings of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change [IPCC] science it astounds me that carbon dioxide is still being described as a pollutant by the increasingly shrill advocates of anthropogenic global warming [AGW].

As well as the litany of mistakes, subterfuges and potential corruption by the IPCC two new peer reviewed papers show that the carbon cycle has only negligible sensitivity to temperature change [Frank et al, 2009 Nature 463] and that the human emissions of CO2 have negligible effect on the climate as measured by the fraction of human emissions of CO2 staying in the atmosphere which has not changed since 1850 [Knorr, W; 2009 GRL 36]

Continue reading "Will carbon dioxide really destroy the world?" »

Sorry Lord Monckton. You are a fraud.

Let’s leave the argument about climate change for other people and another day.

This is all about your continued claims to be something you are not - the winner of the Nobel Prize.

Continue reading "Good Lord, Monckton is no Nobel laureate" »

Climate scepticism is all the rage these days and it’s become very fashionable to doubt the scientists and suspect global fraud.

The sceptics will denounce mainstream opinion for attempting to supposedly silence them, all the while loudly denouncing their opponents on talkback radio, the internet and mainstream press. They criticise minor errors in massive reports and loudly attack sloppy emails, but they play fast and loose with the facts themselves.

Sceptics are rarely accountable for their statements on temperature, on climate or carbon dioxide levels, preferring instead to rely on unsophisticated arguments like ‘it’s crap’.

Continue reading "Climate changes sceptics a threat to national security" »

Our American friends remember The Alamo, we see Gallipoli and North Africa among defining moments in national pride and self-sacrifice against seemingly insurmountable odds.

These initial bloody defeats led state and nations on to ultimate victory against powerful foes.

It’s drawing a long bow to compare any of those to the political battle now being fought on global warming, but one prominent climate realist has done that, and it’s sure to grab some attention.

Continue reading "It’s El Alamein revisited as climate war heats up" »

If Kevin Rudd made a New Year’s resolution he could have done worse than vow in 2010 to only say something is his number one priority if indeed he really means it.

But to do so would throw a spanner in the works of the Labor spin machine, which remains obsessed with the 24-hour news cycle and opinion polls. A quick search reveals that Mr Rudd has nominated more than half a dozen issues as his supposed number one priority over the past two years and there are probably more. This tally does not include climate change which he of course described as “the great moral challenge of our generation”.

It would seem Mr Rudd’s top priority changes according to the issue of the day that is running in the media, or the audience he is addressing. It is an extremely cynical practice and the most absurd thing is he must think nobody notices.

Continue reading "How many “number one priorities” does one PM need?" »

Google ‘Google’ and you break the Internet – or so the urban myth goes.  Google ‘emissions trading’ and ‘Liberal Party’ and you almost have the same effect. 

News articles, blogs, superseded media releases and the random night thoughts of IT addicted insomniacs await to take you on a virtual walk down memory lane – like one of those ‘best and worst of 2009’ montages we endured before New Years Eve.

But just as relying on fake emails to mount a political case has its pitfalls, Googling facts and peddling them as truth opens up more cracks in credibility than a last-day pitch at the SCG.

Continue reading "You can’t Google your way out of climate change" »

Copenhagen certainly was the right place to hold the biggest cocktail party of the 21st century - otherwise known as the Climate Summit.

After all it was the home of Hans Christian Andersen who wrote “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in 1837.  It is truly a suitable parable.

In the story we had swindlers posing as weavers and convincing the Emperor that they could “manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined ……but the clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid.”

The swindlers in the Andersen Tale demanded large sums of money in advance and asked for (and got) “the finest silk and the most precious gold cloth” and worked at empty looms until late at night.

In Copenhagen the attendees certainly got lots of money in advance and lived in great luxury.

Continue reading "The Emporer’s Copenhagen cloak: a fairy tale" »

“Doth protest too much”. The ageless quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes to mind when assessing world leaders response to the Copenhagen climate conference. 

Lashings of praise have been heaped upon the Copenhagen Accord from Obama, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Kevin Rudd and other world leaders.  It has been described as a “meaningful agreement”, “a great step forward” and “significant and positive”.

What would an agreement deserving of this kind of praise look like?  The world needs a comprehensive global response that will deliver a safe climate, that is a minimally change climatic system that can support humanity to meet our needs.

Continue reading "What went wrong, from on the ground in Copenhagen" »

The last month’s political twists and turns, culminating with the Liberal Party’s extraordinary lurch to the right and populist fear-mongering on the ETS “tax on everything”, make it look increasingly like Australia may never reach a political consensus on climate change.

Adding fuel to the fire, after much of hype and high hopes Copenhagen fizzled, failing to deliver the binding international agreement which would have delivered a resounding mandate for Kevin Rudd’s proposed course of action.

Back at home, Tony Abbott’s fiery rhetoric has been starkly reminiscent of another political turning point in 2001, which involved a hapless group of refugees in a sinking boat. Just as the 2001 Tampa election hysteria was fuelled by political opportunism and the politics of fear, so too the response to climate change appears to be heading down the same path.

Continue reading "Are older Australians more sceptical of climate change?" »

If anyone is looking forward to the Christmas break it must be Kevin Rudd. The Prime Minister who created a narrative about his administration that it’s the can-do team on climate change has had the two biggest ticket items, the ETS and Copenhagen, all but fall over in less than a month.

While neither were strictly his doing (he was in the US when Tony Abbott nabbed the Liberal leadership and killed off a deal on the ETS), the Prime Minister had placed himself at the centre of both, no doubt confident a victory on either would be a huge political win.

He calls the outcome of the closing days in Copenhagen “frustrating”. I imagine that’s just the tip of the melting iceberg for how he really feels. And now Mr Rudd needs to work out how to take an issue that until six weeks ago was a political bonus for him and stop it turning into a political nightmare. And he’d better do it quickly.

Tony Abbott wasted no time yesterday framing the debate from here on. He told Sunday Agenda: “Look, I suppose good intentions are better than nothing, but Mr Rudd has failed his own test. He said a couple of years ago that what we needed to get were real targets against real timelines.  He said, real progress means real targets against real timelines, and certainly by that standard it’s been a comprehensive failure.”

It was the words “his own test” that rammed home the point. At Copenhagen Kevin Rudd went from “friend of the chair” to the guy waiting outside the room when the three-page non-binding “meaningful” agreement was struck.

Continue reading "Nopenhagen" »

The collapse in Copenhagen shows the power of the polluters over the politicians.

The oil coal and big resource companies put off the day of action and edged the world further into super-heating.  That means worse drought, bushfires, snow- melt, tropical storm damage and accelerating sea level rises.

Penny Wong has blamed the failure to reach consensus in Copenhagen on a few “radical nations” like Venezuela and Uganda. But tiny Tuvalu has also championed real action on climate change by calling the promise of money, in return for agreement on inaction, “thirty silver coins” from the rich countries.

Continue reading "The PM needs to drop his refusal to budge on a target" »

It’s snowing here in Copenhagen, as leaders feel the heat over climate change.

In the winter gloom, the flashing lights of police motorcades snake through the city. Is it Obama, Gordon Brown, or Kevin Rudd? It’s certainly not the President of the tiny, vulnerable Maldives, the shock troops of rising sea levels.

Walkouts by developing nations, angry clashes between protesters and police, people dressed as polar bears, Greenpeace ships moored in the canal not far from The Little Mermaid statue, business leaders selling wind power, electric vehicles, even shoes with recycled rubber soles.

Continue reading "Copenhagen: let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" »

When Al Gore talked about melting ice caps overnight at least he didn’t break out yet more of those risible maps showing what’s going to happen to your neighbourhood once Greenland’s ice melts.

Those animations are like something out of a Jerry Bruckheimer film showing satellite images of icons like London’s Houses of Parliament, lower Manhattan and the Sydney Opera House disappearing slowly under water, as if we’ll all just stand around saying, “I say dear, the harbour is in the front lawn.”

What about dams, sea walls and rock revetments?

Continue reading "Bad news on sea levels. Dam" »

When it comes to the cars parked in the garages of our Federal parliamentarians, saving the planet for the kids and grandkids doesn’t get a look-in.

Our Federal MPs, apart from a few Opposition hard heads, for some time have been issuing worthy public words about the need for urgent global action to stop greenhouse catastrophe. As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said earlier this month, referring to the need for his Emissions Trading Scheme to get through parliament: “Denying climate change is bad for our kids, it is bad for our grandkids”.

But it’s clear that big, Aussie-made, carbon fuel-gulping grunt that MPs from all major parties want to drive under a taxpayer-funded perk costing about $5 million a year. They want a big donk under the bonnet.

Continue reading "Pimp my MP" »

Yes, the Australian Government might have flown a few AFL teams worth of people to Copenhagen in a big stinking jet plane for the Climate Change summit but rest assured, Penny Wong is “actively encouraging” them to catch public transport while they’re there. So you can stop the ironic groans now thanks very much.

While this gesture of carbon reduction behaviour is commendable, The Punch can’t help worrying about the “baggage officer”, who’ll be ferrying bits of luggage all over Princess Mary’s home town, presumably on the Copenhagen Metro (his/her plight was first brought to out attention by @GregAtkinson_jp on Twitter).

Hopefully Senator Wong also “actively encouraged” the delegates to pack light. You know, two pairs of undies - one on, one slung over the hotel shower rack after you’ve hand washed them in the sink.

Continue reading "I hope you packed light Copenhagen delegates" »

IF YOUR job involves one of Australia’s major export industries such as mining or manufacturing, then you probably return home to your family content in the knowledge you are being well paid for a hard day’s work.

You help build the profits that keep the shareholders happy and you are making a valuable contribution to your nation’s economy.

But what if you came home from a hot day at the coal face, the aluminium or steel smelter, to kids accusing you of killing off the planet?  That would never happen, right?

Continue reading "This is close to brainwashing kids on climate change" »

Developments in computer hacking, Australian politics, and an acrimonious meeting in Denmark have produced the unlikely result that climate change is now almost as hot a conversation topic as Tiger Woods’s sex life.

With our ready-reckoner guide to global warming barneys, you too can have a circular argument in which all facts are disputable and no insult is too cutting when climate change comes up in the pub, at a barbecue or during tea and biscuits at your next Liberal Party branch meeting.

And best of all, there are no losers because by the time the arguments are proved or disproved either way we’ll all be dead.

Continue reading "Handy guide to name-calling and abuse in climate rows" »

Just hours ago printers started running wild in Copenhagen with the leaking of tightly held negotiating text that rich countries have been writing. In summary: it’s bad news for the climate – but the good news is it’s far from locked in. There is no mention of the 25-40% reductions that scientists say are required, and nothing is legally binding.

For some time now a small group of rich nations, known as the ‘commitment circle’ have been meeting in secret to develop their version of what the Copenhagen Agreement should look like.

The text is designed to be a basis for the high level negotiations that begin next week, and is seen by developing nations as an attempt by rich nations to bully them into signing a weak deal that calls for sacrifices from the poor while locking in higher emission rights for countries that contributed most to creating the problem of climate change.

Continue reading "Leaked Copenhagen draft is bad news for the planet" »

The second day of the UN Climate Conference is wrapping up on a dynamic and explosive note.  A few hours ago the Guardian revealed a leaked the “Danish text” a secret alternative text thought to be created by the Danes, Americans and British. 

The text provoked a furious reaction from many nations due to its significant departure from the principles of the Kyoto Protocol and potential to undermine the existing UN process.  In particular, concern has centred on the omission of the principle that wealthy countries, who have benefited from emitting, must compensate poorer countries who have contributed the least to the problem but stand to be dramatically effected.

After the leak surfaced there was a spontaneous and powerful protest in the corridors of the United Nations by African youth and civil society delegates. 

Continue reading "African anger at betrayal over climate change" »

IF climate change really represents a threat to our civilisation comparable to the Nazis than it is time for us to stop backing off in half-hearted surrender and instead tell Mother Nature to shove it.

Recently in arguing against the “disaster track” of a Copenhagen UN compromise agreement on reducing emissions, NASA scientist James Hansen - in many ways the granddaddy of climate change theory - said global warming should be treated like an evil enemy.

“This is analogous to the issue of slavery faced by Abraham Lincoln or the issue of Nazism faced by Winston Churchill,” Hansen said. How did Winston Churchill and more broadly the Allied powers defeat the Nazis and their Axis partners?

Continue reading "If climate change is a battle, let’s have a war" »

Hardline conservative Christians helped orchestrate the flood of correspondence that convinced Liberal MPs to ditch support for Malcolm Turnbull and the emissions trading scheme.

One site that published repeated calls for direct lobbying of politicians was Catch the Fire Ministries, a church whose pastor earlier this year said the Black Saturday bushfires were divine vengeance for liberal abortion laws.

It has also emerged that Cory Bernardi, one of the Liberal senators who led the revolt against Turnbull, called on supporters in late November to wage an email campaign to persuade his colleagues in the Senate that the public was outraged at the ETS. His email was published and endorsed by a website popular with fringe conspiracy theorists.

Continue reading "The holy war on climate change" »

Tony Abbott has rejected the dominant ETS paradigm. He says he wants, though, to re-balance business and household behaviour and incentives to move the economy to new, cleaner, climate adjustment technologies, but not cripple employment in key industries in the process.

Here’s one suggestion – turn payroll taxes into ‘climate adjustment’ levies, at neutral total cost to business. Then expand business and household rebates on all expenditure on green technology – tax avoidance based on positive, environmental citizenship.

Instead of taxing jobs – always a stupid tax arrangement – treat carbon emissions as an externality and turn the tax into a levy, but allow people to neutralise this levy only through investment in emission reduction technology.

Continue reading "Power to the people on an ETS - without a new tax" »

I arrived in Copenhagen, usually a pretty, peaceful Danish city on Thursday.  As the Copenhagen Climate Conference has approached – starting tomorrow morning – a tension has been building in the air.  It feels like the calm before a storm, when the wind begins to whip up and you can just feel something coming in the air. Walking around the city there are accents from across the world, posters displaying climate change events, protests and technologies, and groups of people closely discussing and speculating.

Over the weekend I have been participating in the 3rd Annual Conference of Youth attended by approximately 1000 youth from over 150 countries. 

The youth movement has been growing exponentially over the last few years – in Australia the Australian Youth Climate Coalition has grown ten fold from 5000 to 50,000 in one year – and this is beginning to represented at the United Nations with a large youth presence at these negotiations. 

Continue reading "Youth delegates have no time for skepticism at Copenhagen" »

Update: The first Newspoll following Tony Abbott taking the Liberal leadership this morning shows the Opposition’s primary vote rising by 4 per cent to 38 per cent, with Tony Abbott’s preferred Prime Minister rating at 23 per cent. Kevin Rudd preferred PM support has dropped 5 points to 60 per cent with Labor still holding a 56-44 lead in the two party preferred vote.

While the weekend’s by-elections in Higgins and Bradfield were undoubtedly a good result for the Liberal Party, it’s hard to draw any other conclusion from them other than to say Liberals can still be elected in safe Liberal seats. 

It might be tempting for Liberals opposed to the ETS to argue that it puts paid to the claim the Government claims that Australians have an overwhelming desire for the introduction of the scheme, but being returned in safe seats formally occupied by the Treasurer and former opposition leader with no Labor candidate contesting isn’t exactly a litmus test on the national vibe.

Despite a swing of less than 1 per cent swing against her the new member of Higgins Kelly O’Dwyer wasn’t about to claim as much either when The Punch asked whether it was an endorsement of Tony’s Abbott’s stance.

Continue reading "What do we learn from the Liberal wins? Not much" »

Australia, congratulations. We now boast a brand new opposition leader from the far-Right, who proudly declared, say, eight or nine times in a single interview on Tuesday that he would not support climate change legislation, terming it a ‘big new tax’ on the Australian people.

So here we have the new political tactic of our Right- simple, snappy, and to the point- “that other lot want to TAX you!”

This tactic is nothing new, of course. Ben Chifley once observed that the Australian public ‘votes from the hip-pocket reflex’. The Right is simply banking that this is still the case.  Shrewd.

Continue reading "Can the West really be ‘taxed’ on climate?" »

Kevin Rudd will give Tony Abbott one last chance to vote for an emissions trading scheme or face a possible snap election in March/April.

Acting Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has announced that the Government will recommit its defeated emissions trading scheme bills on February, 2, the first sitting day of 2010.
``It will come to the Parliament in February, we will seek passage of the bill, all options are on the table as to what will happen next,’’ she said.

The bills went down yesterday after a marathon 50 hour Senate debate. Two Liberal senators crossed the floor but the eleven bills still were defeated 33 to 41.
Labor’s strategy now, while not immediately obvious, is cleverly crafted to trap the freshly minted Mr Abbott between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Continue reading "Labor’s plan to let Abbott sweat it out over summer" »

Malcolm Turnbull has left no-one in any doubt as to what he thinks about today’s defeat of the ETS with a blog entry on his website saying the Liberals have damaged the national interest - and themselves - by blocking the legislation.

It is a civil piece of writing, and in keeping with the position he doggedly stuck to this past week. But it has caught the attention of his party, which fears that Turnbull is so passionate about this issue that he could position himself as a booming voice of dissent from the backbench, keeeping the Liberals distracted and divided ahead of a poll fought over the ETS.

“Today the Senate rejected, for the second time, the Government’s emissions trading scheme legislation,” his entry began. “This is a very disappointing result, contrary to the national interest and the interest of the Liberal Party.”

Continue reading "Turnbull’s blog entry shows he won’t go quietly" »

The current debate is not about the science of climate change.

The climate has always changed, it always will. At some level man must be contributing to it.  I strongly believe that reducing pollution can only be a good thing not only for the environment, but also for the Nation’s productive capacity and our kids’ future.

However the ‘debate’ over man-made global warming has now been hijacked by those who claim that if you are arguing against the Rudd Government’s Emission Trading Scheme then somehow you are arguing against the environment.

Continue reading "The carbon tax debate Australia never had" »

“Australia generates 1.5 per cent of global greenhouse emissions and this ETS will reduce world levels by the smallest sliver, which self-evidently will have nil effect on global climate whether you believe in climate warming or not.” Barnaby Joyce – The Innate Problems With Labor’s Emissions Trading Scheme, 17/12/2008.

Using numbers to lend credibility to a flimsy argument is not a new tactic. In the case of those opposing serious action on climate change however, one statistic about Australia’s proportionate global emissions forms the central flimsy plank of their argument. The argument goes that given Australia is responsible for only 1.5% of global emissions, anything we do to reduce CO2 levels is hardly going to make a dent globally. We can’t save the Great Barrier Reef, so the rest of the world is going to have to.

It must test well in focus groups because everyone opposing action on climate change has been trotting it out ever since the debate began. And let’s be honest, as a message it is working.

Continue reading "If we can’t lead on CO2, we shouldn’t in sport or science" »

7.32pm: Tomorrow will be another huge day in Canberra, with Malcolm Turnbull clinging frantically to his position and the Government desperate to get the CPRS through the Senate before Kevin Rudd meets with US President Barack Obama early next week. We’ll be continuing our coverage of this extraordinary political story in the morning. For in-depth news coverage tonight got to The Australian.

7.30pm: Government Leader in the House Anthony Albanese says that under an agreement made with Malcolm Turnbull the CPRS will be voted on by 3.45pm tomorrow. There will not be a motion to move a guillotine of the debate tonight.

7.10pm: Malcolm Turnbull is standing firm. He has just told a press conference “this is about the future of our planet and the future of our children, and their children… this is about risk management… saying we’re not going to do anything about climate change is irresponsible.” He said the CPRS had the support of the “overwhelming majority” of the Coalition partyroom. “Most people who doubt the science also know that it makes sense to take out insurance… I believe we must maintain this course of action… I am committed to it, we must be a party committed to action on climate change.”

Continue reading "Live blog: The Malcolm Bligh Turnbull mutiny" »

Malcolm Turnbull has survived to fight another Question Time. At a Liberal Party meeting this afternoon a motion, moved by Wilson Tuckey, to spill the leadership was defeated in a secret ballot 48-35.

This result denied Kevin Andrews the chance to make his own run at the leadership. It does, however, mean that 35 MPs in the Liberal Party room expressed their wish to be given the chance to dump Mr Turnbull. The Opposition Leaders still faces the herculean task of getting some kind of cohesion in his party on the CPRS.

You can see our blow by blow coverage after the jump.

Continue reading "Question Time Live: 25/11/09" »

Last night Malcolm Turnbull announced his party’s support for the ETS bill with the resigned cheerfulness of a man who knows his days are numbered.

He looked more like a defeated leader at the end of a campaign thanking his supporters than someone who had just prevailed over the Opposition old guard.

It was a pyrrhic victory and nothing he said could disguise that fact.

Continue reading "Malcolm Turnbull: ideology’s latest victim" »

Highlights from this morning’s newspaper coverage of the Liberal leadership turmoil.

The Australian
Lead story: MALCOLM Turnbull last night threatened to quit the Liberal leadership ... Kevin Andrews, who has declared himself a leadership candidate, will today confirm his intention to stand against Mr Turnbull ... It is understood frontbencher Tony Abbott will also stand but Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey reportedly will not. Read it here.
Matthew Franklin: How Turnbull staged his own destruction
Dennis Shanahan: Leader enters the dead zone
Peter van Onselen: Turnbull now leader in name only

Continue reading "Reading roundup: Turnbull’s leadership in turmoil" »

HIS voice hoarse and breaking from arguing his case over 12 hours of solid meetings, a haggard Malcolm Turnbull declared “I’m the leader” six times last night at a defiant but probably futile press conference aimed at asserting his authority over a political party which is split almost exactly in half.

By the end of the press conference he looked like a doomed man, almost resigned to his likely demise as he faces betrayal by members of Shadow Cabinet, abandonment by the National Party, with almost half the party now canvassing a leadership spill as early as this Thursday - or protracted sniping ahead of his execution at a later date.

The press conference started in bullish fashion. Flanked by deputy leader Julie Bishop and chief climate negotiator Ian Macfarlane, Mr Turnbull declared he had won “overwhelming” party support for his deal with Kevin Rudd over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Rubbish, rebel MPs were saying to reporters via SMS and in corridor chats, explaining that 40 MPs had spoken against the package and just 33 in favour - and that Mr Turnbull had inflated the numbers by arbitrarily including Shadow Cabinet in its entirety in the yes camp, getting him the paltriest possible majority at 47 to 46.

Continue reading "Last plea of a doomed man" »

UPDATE 8.20pm: Total chaos as meeting ends, set to resume at 8am tomorrow, strong talk that he will be challenged, massive press pack outside Party Room, Turnbull apparently has 41 MPs behind his ETS Plan and 33 against, MPs saying it is not a strong enough mandate to back the ETS, Turnbull has apparently blown up inside meeting, says nothing to press on way out. More to follow.

Update 8.15pm: Sky News reports the back bench vote actually came out 41-33 against the CPRS, but Turnbull declared with the shadow ministers he could get a majority in favour. According to David Speers he made this announcement while some Senators were outside the room. To say they’re unhappy is an understatement.

Update 8pm: Apparently the No vote disputes the party room numbers on the CPRS and are going to move a leadership spill. Kevin Andrews confirms he would put his hand up if the spill gets up.

Update 7.40pm: Malcolm Turnbull says he’s won the support he needs in the Coalition party room. But they’re reconvening at 8pm and there’s rumours of a leadership spill.

Update 5.10 pm: Perhaps not surprisingly Tuckey couldn’t get enough hands up for his motion.

Update 4.50pm: Wilson Tuckey has just moved for a spill of the leadership in the party room. The motion won’t get up without a majority show of hands. But it’s sure to make Malcolm Turnbull’s day just that much worse.

Continue reading "Next two hours could seal Malcolm Turnbull’s fate" »

Sky News is reporting there’s not yet been a decision in the Coalition party room on the CPRS deal offered up by the Government, meaning the Opposition is about to cop an hour-and-a-half pasting in Question Time.

Kevin Rudd already went pretty hard on the Nats, and the Liberal climate change sceptics, in his lunch time press conference - he needs to look strong while at the same time offering the Opposition $7 billion in concessions on the scheme. This should be a corker. We’ll be here from 2pm.

Continue reading "Question Time Live: 24/11/09" »

Just when you thought climate change debate couldn’t get any more hysterical, polar bears start falling out of the sky into city streets. (Warning: this may upset you if you really love polar bears.)

In the ad by climate change campaign Plane Stupid, the message after dozens of polar bears plummet to violent deaths is: “an average European flight produces over 400kg of greenhouse gases per passenger ... that’s the weight of an adult polar bear”. So the logic seems to be: belch 400kg of gas, kill one 400kg animal. Simple.

Actually it’s nonsense of course, but this kind of non sequitur has come to typify both established orthodox sides of the climate change debate in leaked email exchanges and the climax of negotiations over critical environmental laws today in Canberra.

Continue reading "Falling polar bears: Losing the plot on climate change" »

Update 10:55am: Shadow Cabinet signed off this morning on Malcolm Turnbull’s deal with the Government over the CPRS, and it is now being debated by the Coalition Party Room.

No. But he’s the Right Faction’s stalking horse should Malcolm Turnbull falter in his handling of the CPRS - which in the eyes of the more skeptical and conservative Libs he is already doing. And if there is a blow-up in the Party Room today, Kevin Andrews is expected to run for the leadership.

In what is looming as a chaotic and unpredictable day, the Right Faction is positioning itself to inflict a potentially mortal wound on Turnbull by moving a spill in protest at his excessive concessions over the carbon pollution reduction scheme.

Kevin Andrews is not the Right’s preferred candidate - but he is the one who has volunteered to go over the top on behalf of the party’s conservatives. He told SkyNews ominously yesterday that “At the moment we have a leader but I am a loyal servant of the party and I will do any job that I am asked to do,” Mr Andrews told Sky News.

Continue reading "Is this the next Leader of the Liberal Party?" »

Today The Punch celebrates the ground-breaking policy work being undertaken by visionaries within the Coalition party room in an effort to address global warming.

With 31 per cent of the population now signing on as climate change deniers these fine Australians are leading a national movement that can make us all feel better in the face of those flighty Nobel Prize winners who insist on preaching Armageddon.

In saving the planet by denying there’s a problem, the likes of Nick Minchin, Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce are contributing to a global body of work that has cured cancer, ended domestic violence and prevented the Holocaust.

Continue reading "Elvis has left the building: a brief history of denialism" »

The Climate Justice Fast!, an international hunger strike for action on the climate crisis, is currently on day 17.

Let’s be frank. Australia’s response to climate change so far is a disgrace. It is well understood, by even Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong, that the emissions reduction targets of the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) are scientifically inadequate to effectively respond to climate change.

Even if it’s maximum reduction target of 25% by 2020 is implemented, and other nations make similar efforts, atmospheric greenhouse gasses will still overshoot a safe level, very likely pushing us past tipping points that lock into place disastrous runaway climate change.

And once we take into account our world-beating per-capita emissions, combined with our chart-topping standard of living, our nation’s token efforts on climate change become simply impossible to justify.

Continue reading "It’s our fault not enough’s being done on warming" »

Two weeks ago I argued that, as a politician, real action on reducing carbon emissions is always going to be more about what individuals do than just what Governments do.

That’s why yesterday I was excited to learn about a new initiative called one million women (www.1millionwomen.com.au). Now I doubt I would agree with the politics of all those backing this scheme, but that’s not the point.

What I agree with is their focus on keeping the politics out of this debate and focussing on the practical choices of individual Australian women.

Continue reading "One million women can’t be wrong" »

While there is a lot of heat surrounding the climate change debate, one issue that has received less public attention is the impact of global warming on our health.

Adelaide is currently experiencing a record breaking heatwave and has been on catastrophic fire danger alert, and this even is before summer has even begun. These events provide a timely reminder of the consequences of extreme weather on the health and safety of the population.

With global warming, inevitably we will suffer more heatwaves with longer and hotter summers. Australia - more than almost any other country- will be vulnerable to climate change-related illness and death.

Continue reading "The health risks from climate change are mounting" »

UNLESS Malcolm Turnbull is Harry Houdini, he is about to join the likes of John Hewson as another `almost was’ wealthy businessman who promised much but ultimately could not manage the politics.

Things could hardly have gone worse for him this week. Just when he had the Government under real pressure over its faltering management of the Oceanic Viking crisis, problems on his own side overwhelmed him. Next week looks harder again.

He must be wondering why he left a perfectly successful career in business for this. He may not be wondering for much longer.

Continue reading "Holding our breath to see if Malcolm survives" »

Momentum is a fundamental concept in both physics and politics.

It’s a concept climate change skeptics like Barnaby Joyce just don’t get.

As Penny Wong and Greg Combet shepherd the sensible people in the Australian Parliament towards a bipartisan agreement on a CPRS, Barnaby is still out there howling at the moon to his diehard audience of deniers.

Continue reading "Climate challenge missed by Coalition howlers" »

The patrons leaning on the bar at bustling country pub Flannery’s and Gore were shocked when a wild-eyed man with a slide-rule in his pocket burst in the door.

The man leaps on the bar and shouts: “Everybody, this pub is about to collapse.

“I’m an engineer and I’ve just been looking at the walls outside - they’re about to give way.” In the stunned silence, some punters think they hear a faint creaking noise from the walls, but can’t be sure it’s just not the crickets.

Continue reading "A climate change parable, where you write the ending" »

Are you feeling left right out of the political debate in Australia?

As the parliament prepares to consider the Rudd Government’s ETS and the global bureaucracy invades Copenhagen, I’m getting a little tired of the forced and clichéd polarisation of the climate change and other important debates, such as border protection.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was on Friday when #KRudd tweeted the world at 6.54pm saying “Time for the “do nothing” climate change skeptics (sic) to stop playing roulette with our kids future. KRudd.” It was one tweet too many. Seriously, what a silly and juvenile thing for a PM to say.

Continue reading "Rudd tweets insults to every fair-minded Australian" »

In a choice between the life of a cute, fuzzy orang-utan and tighter food labelling regulations, who’d be surprised if the orang-utan won?

It’s what Melbourne Zoo is betting on in their campaign to have Food Standards Australia New Zealand regulate palm oil to be labelled as a separate ingredient on groceries.

Melbourne Zoo’s campaign is predicated on concerns that the developing country farmers aren’t doing enough to stop deforestation and the loss of habitat for orang-utans in their quest to keep themselves above the poverty line. And the solution is a misguided campaign to stop Aussies and Kiwis buying palm oil.

Continue reading "Poor palmed off by a load of old monkeys" »

Clean coal is in essence, an oxymoron. Much like ``friendly fire’’ or Kevin Rudd’s ``tough and hardline but humane’’ asylum seeker policy dubbed ``compassionate brutality’’ by one wag recently.

Of course, in the case of ``clean coal’‘, the term is used to suggest that it actually exists. Yet it doesn’t -  least not yet.

Doubtless, it is a fine aspiration, especially given the world’s heavy reliance on coal, and it’s central part in global warming. But an aspiration is pretty much all it is.

Continue reading "Clean coal doesn’t exist, but nuclear power does" »

Beach house barbecues are risky business. Apparently, tucking into a bit of medium-rare Angus rump while watching the tide roll away could lead to your little coastal retreat collapsing into the sea in the not-too-distant future.

After a parliamentary report issued some depressing warnings about the effects of climate change-driven sea level rises on Australian coasts, one of the world’s leading environmental economists has now declared vegetarianism the way to go to save the planet.

It’s enough to make you cry into your T-bone.

Continue reading "Run for the hills, or at least become a vegetarian" »

Editor’s note: Malcolm Turnbull has a huge fight on his hands this Sunday when the Coalition has an extraordinary party room meeting to decide whether to negotiate with the Rudd Government on the Emissions Trading Scheme. Kevin Andrews is one of many Liberals who, contrary to Mr Turnbull, think the Bill should at least be delayed until after Copenhagen.

Let me pose a simple question about the ETS. By how much will the price of a litre of milk and a loaf of bread increase once the ETS is introduced?

And let me give you the simple answer: No-one knows! But increase in price they will, because Mr Rudd’s ETS is a tax on everything.

Continue reading "You wouldn’t let Rudd up the GST, so don’t accept his ETS" »

A Nielson poll has reported that about half of Australians are open to nuclear energy being considered as part of the solution reducing carbon emissions, up from 38% in 2006.  So the question remains as to why half of the population doesn’t even want nuclear on the table as an option. 

Is the dislike or even fear of nuclear power a rational one?  The threat of nuclear war or nuclear power station accidents such as Chernobyl or Long Island (the only two accidents of any significance) should not be taken lightly; nuclear energy is awesome in the true meaning of the world. 

But does it actually deserve the bad reputation is carries? 

Continue reading "Nuclear power isn’t dangerous, just expensive" »

It was refreshing to hear something new in the public debate on climate change today. Liberal frontbencher Chris Pyne told Sky News: “If a modern political party wants to be taken seriously it cannot be a climate change sceptic party”.

Is there any issue which draws more predictable responses from people than climate change? The mere mention of it sparks a round of boring twaddle as folks argue from fixed positions over whether the latest news shows climate change is caused by people or even real - or, most hilariously, a massive conspiracy cooked up by an evil network of thousands of scientists with a twisted sense of humour.

But there’s one thing surely everyone agrees on. If sea levels rise and rain stops falling, we are all totally and utterly screwed. So we should probably deal with it.

Continue reading "People haven’t stopped caring about climate change" »

The reason the job of federal opposition leader is the toughest gig in politics, is not simply that it’s a hard thankless slog with endless headaches and slim prospects of success.

Or that outside the immediate pre-election period, you are largely irrelevant to voters. Sure, these aspects don’t make the job much fun, but at least they are relatively predictable.

No, the real reason is that to have any chance of success, you need a team focused on winning when in reality, you’re more likely to be heading up an ill-disciplined rabble.

Continue reading "The bitter irony for Turnbull’s leadership" »

Unloved? Backed up? Toey as a Roman sandal? Find yourself staring wistfully at the lady in the Brand Power commercial?

Believe it or not, it could be because of climate change. And not just because you will never pick up while driving a Prius - and even if you did, it’s the only car on the market which you can’t hear yourself having sex in.

Beyond the question of cars there’s an emerging, inconvenient truth that the subliminated angst we’re all feeling about the warming of the planet is undermining our preparedness to commit, or even engage with the opposite sex.

Continue reading "Is climate change ruining our sex lives?" »

Over the years many have proclaimed the Kyoto Protocol “dead” and once again media reports are starting to suggest the imminent demise of this international climate change treaty and a new Australian compromise.

Clearly the protocol is not yet dead as its binding pollution reduction targets for most industrialised countries remain in force until the end of 2012.  However as negotiations have intensified in the lead up to the Copenhagen climate summit in December, the treaty’s future has become increasingly uncertain.

Behind the headlines about targets, technology transfers and finance for developing countries, a profound discussion on the “legal form” of the new agreement is occurring. This dominated recent talks held in Washington D.C. attended by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.

Continue reading "The Wong plan on the right track to Copenhagen" »

The scene: White House situation room - a pre-Copenhagen briefing

The agenda: the ice caps are melting, China and India don’t seem to care, oh, and at 12.18am AEST the bells on Sydney Town Hall will ring. Things are getting serious.

You’ve got to love local councils. In the spirit of that rash of “Nuclear-free zone” signs that went up in LGAs all over Australia in the 1980’s, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore this morning said the bells above her office would be sounded as part of an effort to remind world leaders of the importance of reaching a deal on climate change at the up-coming Copenhagen summit.

Continue reading "The bell tolls for what?" »

I am fortunate to work in an industry whose whole raison d’être is saving the world.  Saving the world used to be the job of clusters of environmental NGOs. 

But, and I’m going to be frank here, apart from some spectacular tactical victories and some incredible work by groups like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, at their very heart such organisations simply can’t direct the necessary levels of finance that saving the world needs. 

Charitable organisations simply don’t have the ability to restructure the world’s economy, affect the baseline drivers of deforestation, or roll out millions of wind-farms and solar panels in the short time needed.  Saving the world has become an industry.  And some people either can’t accept that, can’t understand it, or can’t find a way to adapt to fit into this new world order.

Continue reading "Media’s carbon confusion is grist for the lumber mill" »

August 2009 was Australia’s warmest on record. Temperatures averaged over the country were 2.47C above the long-term average, nearly a degree above the previous August record set in 1998, and 25% of the country had its hottest August day on record at some stage during the month.

Some places, such as Collarenebri and Murwillumbah in NSW and Gatton in Queensland, broke their previous August records by 5C or more. Temperatures reached as high as 37.8C at Mungindi in NSW and 38.5C at Bedourie in Queensland, both of which were all-time state records for August.

Such an exceptional month leads to many people to ask: is this climate change?

Continue reading "Record heat and climate change: what’s going on?" »

It’s “proof” to climate change believers, “just weather” to sceptics – but to everyone it’s the arrival of summer. In winter.

View The Punch - August weather in a larger map

Weather records are often trivial matters, a question of a few tenths of some obscure measurement here and there. Last month’s heat highs streaked away from the norms like Usain Bolt taking on a field of suburban club runners.

Unless you work for Channel 10, weather people typically aren’t an excitable bunch. But the Bureau of Meteorology is calling the August heat “highly unusual” and “exceptional”, and this week issued a Special Climate Statement, its first since the heatwave that fried the southeast in February. The interactive map above shows some – just some – of the dozens of records around the country that were burnt.

Continue reading "Interactive map: Australia’s scorching August" »

As the climate change debate held centre stage in Parliament last week, I found myself at a nearby primary school wrestling a chicken for the cameras. With kids milling around, my task was to casually hold this hen (the kids had named “Roast”), while the photographer from the local paper took pictures.

As we struck our pose with beaming smiles, Roast pooed over my new suit confirming the old piece of advice to never work with kids or animals. But of course to take that advice in politics would deprive pollies of 90 per cent of our photo-ops.

In this case, the kids were central to the event at hand: the launching of CarbonKids at Forrest Primary School, Canberra.  In equal measure, even though they may not yet realise it, these kids are also central to the debate raging on the Hill.

Continue reading "How a chook helped teach kids about the planet" »

There’s an ad running at the moment by a green group that attempts to paint anyone who isn’t fully supportive of “urgent” attempts to fix climate change as a dinosaur.

The so-called Climate “Institute” (cue images of scientists not activists) labels any Australian not fully behind clean energy as a scaly throwback to extinction.

“It’s time for these dinosaurs to evolve and support strong action on climate change,” the ad says.

Continue reading "Job-destroying green purists are deadlier than dinosaurs" »

We are in a very interesting time in politics where malleable positions are starting to solidify.

The position on the Government’s Save The World policy, the indomitable ETS or CPRS, the Cunning Plan to make the economy RS, will in the near future no doubt deliver us another acronym so we will have a form of rolling acronyms to keep the truth at bay all the way to the second vote in November.

All the polls on the ETS prior to this period have been rather pointless because no one knew what on earth it was beyond a thought bubble that they hoped would pop and go away.

Continue reading "People won’t cop a tax on food, so won’t buy the ETS" »

Don’t worry if you don’t understand what the ETS is supposed to do or what the letters even stand for. You’re not alone.

Peter had no idea what the letters E, T and S stood for when we asked him, but did manage his own summary of the policy:  ‘It’s gonna cost extra. You don’t get anything for free. Soon they will be taxing the air that we breathe.” Well they kinda are actually Pete, at least what we put into it.

With all the debate about Climate Change and the focus very much on the ETS, here at The Punch we decided it would be a good idea to go out and see what people actually knew about it.

Continue reading "Punch survey: 15% of us know what the ETS is" »

In 2007, Chris Goodall contended that walking may cause more environmental harm than driving.

A noted that a 5km drive would add 1kg of carbon to atmosphere while a walk would seemingly add nothing if you just looked at its direct effects. However, Goodall contended that for many people, they would need more energy to sustain a regular 5km walk. To make up the 180 calories would likely generate 3.6kg in carbon emissions. The trade-off wasn’t even close.

What is significant is that Goodall wasn’t some member of an anti-environmental think tank but himself a strong environmentalist and the author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life.

And it was he who was suggesting, contrary to one of Al Gore’s dicta in An Inconvenient Truth, that substituting driving for physical transportation might not be environmentally-friendly at all; even if it is friendly to your physical health.

Continue reading "How and why the ETS could cost you" »

The debate over climate change is an odd one in that you have to back an argument of zealots on one side or the other to make a policy decision – middle ground is not really an option. 

You have to either accept that the there is such a thing as global warming caused by carbon emissions and is a threat to the planet and our lives or you don’t. Given that most of us don’t actually know anything about climate and weather we have to believe one or other group of people who claim they do.

The thing about the Emissions Trading Scheme as it stands is that neither side agrees that Kevin Rudd has it right, which, unlike most debates in this country, is an indicator you have it all pretty wrong.

Continue reading "The polite ETS that offends all and achieves nothing" »

The Rudd Labor Government was elected with a mandate to take action on climate change.  The Howard Government had been frozen in time while the world warmed around it for twelve long years. This was symbolic of the Howard Government’s failure to embrace a future agenda.

Our first action in Government was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and gain a seat at the international negotiating table. We followed that up with a whole-of-government response which has included investment in public transport, increased support for renewables and the home insulation initiative.

At the centre of our response is the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. This has been through an extensive process of development which has included a green paper, a white paper, an exposure draft and legislation that passed the House of Representatives months ago. This week we saw the future of the Liberal Party – and his name is Wilson Tuckey.

Continue reading "You’re in strife when Wilson Tuckey is setting the pace" »

Big retailers are scared, it was reported this morning, to say what they think about the checkout-counter effects of the Federal Government’s plan to help save the planet with its emissions trading scheme.

The supermarkets are worried they will enrage environmentally-conscious customers if they dare to so much as suggest there might be some unpleasant side-effects to the ETS.

In case you’ve missed it, The Australian reported retailers are worried the cost of groceries will go up, by about 5 per cent, under the Rudd Government’s plan.

Continue reading "Food for thought - will the ETS hit us at the checkout?" »

Cheers to The Punch for the opportunity to respond to recent contributions on nuclear power, in particular those by Clive Mathieson and David Penberthy.

Clive claims that nuclear power is “a debate Labor desperately doesn’t want us to have” and David says “our dominant politicians are determined to not even allow a debate” on the issue.

Clive and David ought to spell out exactly what they want from the government.

Continue reading "How exactly are we to introduce nuclear power?" »

Eighteen months ago, the world was in peril.

Ice shelves were melting and sea levels rising as a future threat to our cities.

Everyone from the G-8, Al Gore, Stern and Garnaut were warning us.

Continue reading "At least the states aren’t copping out on climate" »

Australians are inspired by the great mirror fields of solar energy in California and Nevada.  That vision is possible in Australia.  But it is a vision now at risk.

For over a year now, the government has delayed renewable energy legislation which would establish a 20% renewable energy target by 2020.  We have an end date but not a start date.

The renewable energy target was a promise made back in 2007.  Yet, here we are in the second half of 2009 without any debate on the legislation yet. 

Continue reading "Time for bipartisanship on renewable energy" »

Lately, I’ve got to thinking about the importance Australians place in burning great things – things of immeasurable value.

Take a drive to the Hunter Valley and you’ll see the ugly side of Australia’s predilection for carbon - the precious fossil fuels we peddle round the world and the huge economic power they wield in this country.

Around the mining town of Muswellbrook is a landscape ravaged by mining; farmland gouged away for the sake of the big deposits beneath, its air thick with coal dust and the smell of decay.

Continue reading "Torching God’s country" »

We already have two classes of citizens in our country - those with shared loyalties having dual citizenships and those with only loyalty to Australia.

Only the latter can be elected to the Australian Parliament.

This shared loyalty concept raises interesting questions when someone commits a heinous crime or crimes in Australia.

Continue reading "On dual citizens, ETS hot air and the magic of the web" »

Malcolm Turnbull has survived the Coalition joint party room meeting and now faces the first Question Time in six weeks.

The Government is reportedly going to leave Utegate alone, going after the struggling Opposition Leader on climate change. Join us here live from 2pm for all the fun and games.

See our Question Time coverage after the jump.

Continue reading "Question Time live: 11/08/09" »

Politicians are severely testing the patience of Australians on climate change.

It has taken more than a decade of wrangling for politicians to finally deliver some detailed policy to the floor of Parliament. Yet, when action appears close enough to touch, there is further delay or prospects of more unconditional handouts to big polluters.

An Auspoll survey taken last week shows that only 13 per cent think Australia’s Parliament is moving too fast on addressing climate change. Around half believe progress is too slow and only a solid, sceptical core of seven per cent thinks we should do nothing at all.

Continue reading "Enough! People are sick of dithering on climate change" »

Update 1pm: Ashleigh Gillon on Sky just said the MP who got up in party room and spoke in Turnbull’s defence got a standing ovation. That should make Malcolm feel a bit better.

Malcolm Turnbull had a particularly trying 13 or so minutes on the 7.30 Report last night. If you didn’t see it you can watch it here.

It started pretty badly for the Opposition leader and it was all down hill from there.

But it was just a light pre-game sparring session compared to what he’s likely to face in the joint Liberal/National party room meeting today. You could forgive Mr Turnbull for actually looking forward to Question Time, if only because if he makes it there he’s survived the meeting this morning.

Continue reading "7.30 smackdown a warmup bout for Coalition party room" »

The most baffling aspect to the entire debate surrounding the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is how so many who agree on a problem can be so divided about the best solution.

With the exception of a few mavericks in the Nationals and the Liberals and one lone Senator from Family First, parliament accepts that the scientific debate is over.

Anthropogenic climate change presents us with the most pressing and complex policy problem humankind has faced. Ever. And personally, I can’t help wondering what planet climate change denialists are living on.

Continue reading "Rudd acting like a used car salesman over ETS" »

I’ve just spent a punishing 30 minutes reading Malcolm Turnbull’s climate change plan and I think I need a bit of a lie down. If you want a reasonably concise explanation of what it means here’s The Australian’s noble effort. The unedited and unfathomable version can be found here at the Liberals’ site.

These are the questions which struck me while reading it: Is Turnbull’s plan a sincere and reasoned attempt at compromise - and if so was Labor wrong to dismiss it out of hand?

Or is it purely an internal measure to silence his critics within the party - and if so should he butt out of the debate and let the government of the day exercise its mandate? We’ve asked some of the players to file, so there’s more to come but for now, over to you.

A plan to generate renewable energy by building wind power turbines on the top of a Hobart office block has been rejected by local planning authority the Hobart City Council.

The news has spawned a fusillade of responses, both critical and supportive, from a strange brew of sources.

As the ABC’s Tony Eastley put it in his report on AM, “Tasmania prides itself on being clean and green, but controversy is never too far away.”

Continue reading "Ill wind blowing over turbines in Tasmania" »

I recently rang my electricity company to discuss GreenPower. I knew I wanted 100% GreenPower but I didn’t want it now. I wanted it in January 2010. Right now, I want to do my bit to keep the government’s 2009 GreenPower baseline as low as possible – so my efforts towards emissions reductions really count.

‘Give me the dirtiest coal electricity you have,’ I said to the operator.

I explained that under the government’s proposed emissions trading scheme, me paying extra for GreenPower wouldn’t actually reduce Australia’s carbon emissions – beyond what would happen if I didn’t take any action at all.

Continue reading "Operator, give me the dirtiest electricity you’ve got" »

Everybody wants to save the world in some way. But more often than not the politics of salvation get in the way of achieving this.

That appears to be the curse that has befallen the Federal Government’s attempt to introduce an emissions trading scheme.

While the Government and Opposition engage in a power play over the details of an ETS and their own face-saving attempts, they have left the electorate fumbling to grasp what it will mean for the average punter.

Continue reading "Carbon confusion over political emissions" »

The year is 2025. The national growth figures have confirmed that, for the seventh consecutive quarter, South Australia is the fastest-growing state in the land, its economy fuelled by three key decisions which have transformed what was once regarded as an industrial wasteland into a beacon of opportunity.

The first decision was to end the hypocrisy and contradictions surrounding the mining of uranium – and the continuing ban on its use as a domestic energy source – and go forward with the creation of a world’s best-practice nuclear industry which involves both the processing of uranium and the storage of nuclear waste.

The arguments which were put to allow this policy shift started, first and foremost, with the need to eliminate a stupid double-standard – whereby our nation will happily dig up yellowcake at three, four, (now) five and (probably soon) six uranium mines for sale and processing overseas, while remaining hysterically opposed to its domestic use.

Continue reading "SA should stop worrying and learn to love yellowcake" »

In 21 days, the Senate will vote on the Government’s climate change legislation that will – for the first time ever – turn the corner on rising carbon pollution in Australia.

.

This means Malcolm Turnbull has 21 days to get his party into shape on climate change.

We have seen a diverse parade of positions from the Liberal Party on climate change this week, not to mention the views put forward by their coalition partners in the National Party.

Continue reading "The Coalition don’t know what they’re doing on ETS" »

The Rudd Government, recognising that their Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a lemon, has followed the same strategy as a car manufacturer and rebadged the product under the label of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). 

They have not, however, improved the product nor does their ETS comply with its new label.  The ETS remains a process whereby the Government sells or gifts the right to continue polluting the atmosphere to those industries most notorious for so doing.  Rudd further expects to gain $11bn of Tax Revenue from the process.

He sells this proposal under the delusion that there will be a market based response from those so taxed, which will cause them to reduce their emissions. 

Continue reading "Malcolm, most Libs think you’re wrong on climate" »

Welcome to Friday

It’s been another huge week at The Punch. We’ve covered death, life, job interviews, climate change, motorbikes & Masterchef (to name a few).
Is it possible to name the one issue that’s most relevant to all of us? Post your thoughts.

In his first appearance on The Punch, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd blogs on climate change. This piece also appears on his new blog at www.pm.gov.au.

I decided to kick off my blogging career with a focus on climate change. The latest scientific research on climate change confirms our worst fears.  Climate change is happening faster than we previously thought, creating a more serious threat to our economy, our environment and to future generations. 

I recently returned from a meeting of leaders of the world’s major developed and developing countries in Italy, where our discussions focused on our global efforts to tackle climate change.

This meeting - the Major Economies Forum on Climate and Energy – made some important progress. In particular, it recognised the clear message from climate science that the increase in global average temperature must not exceed 2°C.

Continue reading "Here’s why Fielding should support us on climate" »

Climate change is real. Yes that’s right, contrary to the misreporting in the media,  I do believe in climate change.

That might come as a shock to some of those on the left side of politics, but it’s the truth.

The question that concerns me, however,  is what is driving it? Is it increasing levels of human made carbon dioxide emissions, variations in solar radiation or something else?

Continue reading "The real reason I’ll fight in the Senate on climate change" »

The polls on climate change are in and Australia is speaking as one, in a consistent and unwavering voice, sending the government a clear message it ignores at its own peril. That message? “We don’t know”.

Over the past few months ‘Don’t Know’ has emerged from the pack to be the most popular answer to a series of questions around climate change posed in the weekly Essential Report. Where once we were clear on the need for decisive action to stop global warming, now we are all at (rising?) sea. And the source of our confusion can be summed up in the ugly little acronym, ETS. Here’s a snapshot from recent polls:

June 29: Should the Opposition vote in favour or against the Government’s ETS legislation? - 40 per cent Don’t Know
June 22: Is the Government’s ETS strong enough? – 47 per cent Don’t Know
June 15: Should the Greens support the ETS in the Senate? – 37 per cent Don’t Know

This collective confusion represents a victory for the climate change deniers, notably the industry groups who have created their own doomsday scenarios around job losses in carbon-reliant industries.

Continue reading "“Don’t knows” rising faster than the polar ice caps" »

A funny thing happened on the weekend: the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter - the US - took the first step towards establishing a carbon reduction scheme and almost nobody wanted to talk about it.

The Obama-endorsed scheme passed the US House of Representatives and only has to clear their Senate to become law.

In Australia, a few people welcomed the vote and applauded the move, but almost no-one dared to lift the carpet and comment on the design of the US scheme.

Continue reading "Looking to America for some sense on emissions" »

This week there is an amazing discussion going on in Tokyo between Chinese and Japanese companies, academics and Government representatives about how to cooperate in the area of new energy. It is part of the ‘PVJapan Solar Power/Photovoltaic 2009’ conference and trade show.

Both countries are realizing that the new kind of economy we need to cut greenhouse gases, is itself going to become an opportunity for jobs and development. 

Japan’s PM Mr. Taro Aso raised the stakes back on June 9 when he said that solar power and electric cars are the foundation of Japan’s future economic growth and the way out of the financial crisis. He announced that by 2020 Japan’s new low-carbon sector will be a 50 trillion yen market ($AU650 billion), employing 1.4 million people.

Continue reading "Solar power puts China and Japan on top of the world" »

The Red Cross does some of the most important work people can dedicate their lives to.

After the Black Saturday bushfires its role in collecting and distributing millions of dollars in aid was extraordinary so they’re a group more than entitled to voice an opinion about its cause.

In a statement this week the organization linked the Black Saturday fires to the now popular notion that it was all the fault of climate change.

The media release promoting the report was headlined: “Be Prepared says Red Cross as climate change boosts world disaster toll” and included the Victorian fires as part of its evidence for this.

This was accompanied the publication of the World Disasters Report and found that in 2008 and astonishing 225,842 people died in natural disasters. Cyclone Nargis in Burma and the Sichuan earthquake in China accounted for 93% of deaths worldwide killing 138,000 and 87,000 people respectively.

But by putting climate change front and centre of the Black Saturday fires Michael Raper, Red Cross director of services and international operations, runs the risk of being intellectually dishonest about the multiple causes of the fires.

Continue reading "It’s no help to link Black Saturday to climate change" »

The Australian Government likes to claim we are doing our part to avoid dangerous climate change. Australia’s current target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 to 25 per cent by 2020, compared to 2000 emissions levels, with a 60 per cent drop by 2050.

This sounds impressive enough, and there is no doubt that this will require transformative changes in energy use if it is to be achieved. Other developed countries have similar targets. President Obama’s aim for the USA, for instance, is to get back to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent lower by 2050.

So we’re doing our bit. But is this bit enough, or fair, or feasible? In short, no, no and no. Let me explain.

Continue reading "Even halving our emissions won’t be enough. Here’s why" »

Have you ever wondered why it is that nobody is going to jail for causing climate change?

You or I can fined $375 for “aggravated littering” (such as dropping a cigarette but near a petrol station), but you can get away with sea level rise, drought, bushfires and global havoc without so much as losing a demerit point on your driver’s licence.

Australians have felt this frustration, as we watched our legal system powerless to stop the expansion of Japan’s so-called “scientific” whaling programme. It is not as if there is no precedent for punishing big polluters. Early this year BP was forced to pay almost US$180 million for pollution violations at its Texas City Refinery. Exxon was forced to cough up US$1 billion over the 1989 Valdez oil spill.

Continue reading "Put coal kings in the dock for their crimes" »

I like Cate’s economic thinking here:

She ... mentioned the loss of agricultural and tourism industry jobs, adding: “We have the ability to kick start the low carbon economies of the future right when we need to, and that’s now.”

Changing the traditional drivers of economic production is something that I reckon will be fundamental to bringing about serious reductions in carbon emissions across the economy. Agriculture and heavy industry cannot continue in their current form, but making anything happen is going to take enormous will from politicians and consumers, open-mindedness from workers on new opportunities from innovation, and also support from government for workers making a transition between jobs.

On the other hand, I can’t say I agree with Cate on this:

Continue reading "Cate Blanchett is right and wrong on climate change" »

So, “clean energy” stands as one of the infrastructure centrepieces of the Federal Budget. It’s an investment intended, we’re told, to both pull the economy out of recession and get us on the pathway to a low carbon economy. A princely sum of $4.5 billion is directed to renewable energy, infrastructure for climate-observing systems, and funds for low emissions technology development.

It sure sounds impressive, but under scrutiny, it turns out to be mostly just smoke and mirrors.

Breaking down the numbers, we find that $1 billion is a rollover of existing funds, while $2.4 billion has been directed towards research, development and demonstration of low-emissions coal technology, or “carbon capture and storage” to us scientists. A little under half a billion will go towards establishing a body to support research into renewable energy.

Continue reading "Can’t see the environment measures for all the smoke" »