http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/copenhagen/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-guilt-no-shame-in-rejecting-this-tax-australia/ Apologies in advance to those with fixed views on a carbon tax. It is time the majority of Australians had a say. Well over half of us have shifted from supporting carbon pricing leading into Copenhagen to now opposing. In early 2008, my seat of Bowman had the highest carbon trading scepticism of seats polled by the Climate Institute; at 16 per cent. It now runs at nearly 70 per cent and it helps to remember why. Let’s deal with the shame issue up front. Most Australians have little interest in national shame, be it border policies, the apology, shame about our live exports or the fact we mine and smelt. Most Aussies are tired of being told by the elite we should be ashamed of our per capita emissions. We don’t leave our vehicles on in the garage at night. Our emissions correlate perfectly with our wealth, our energy intense export profile and that with the world’s second lowest population density; we travel further. I see no shame in that penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-guilt-no-shame-in-rejecting-this-tax-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-guilt-no-shame-in-rejecting-this-tax-australia/#item6421 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-its-just-too-hard-to-understand-climate-change/ There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-its-just-too-hard-to-understand-climate-change/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-its-just-too-hard-to-understand-climate-change/#item4968 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/garrett-sings-from-wrong-song-sheet-on-copenhagen/ Whatever happened to the grand promoter of the great big ETS tax – Prime Minister Rudd?  Channel 9 said it cost $1.4 million to take 68 people to Copenhagen. What was the cost of the remainder of the 114 that actually went? Up to Copenhagen the great tax advocates were Mr Rudd and Senator Wong who have suddenly gone very quiet and given all the running to junior Minister Peter Garrett. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/garrett-sings-from-wrong-song-sheet-on-copenhagen/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/garrett-sings-from-wrong-song-sheet-on-copenhagen/#item2142 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-emporers-copenhagen-cloak-a-fairy-tale/ 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. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-emporers-copenhagen-cloak-a-fairy-tale/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-emporers-copenhagen-cloak-a-fairy-tale/#item2074 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-went-wrong-from-on-the-ground-in-copenhagen/ “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. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-went-wrong-from-on-the-ground-in-copenhagen/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-went-wrong-from-on-the-ground-in-copenhagen/#item2064 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nopenhagen-what-now-for-Kevin-Rudd/ 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. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nopenhagen-what-now-for-Kevin-Rudd/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nopenhagen-what-now-for-Kevin-Rudd/#item2050 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-pm-needs-to-drop-his-refusal-to-budge-on-a-target/ 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. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-pm-needs-to-drop-his-refusal-to-budge-on-a-target/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-pm-needs-to-drop-his-refusal-to-budge-on-a-target/#item2049 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/copenhagen-let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow/ 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. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/copenhagen-let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/copenhagen-let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow/#item2017 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-hope-you-packed-light-copenhagen-delegates/ 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. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-hope-you-packed-light-copenhagen-delegates/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-hope-you-packed-light-copenhagen-delegates/#item1975 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-kevin-rudd-delivering-real-valet-for-money/ Prime Minister Kevin Rudd does not have Parliament’s support for a climate-change deal to take to Copenhagen but he does have his valet as support. The Australian media are reporting that Australia’s contingent at the Copenhagen climate-change conference will be the nation’s biggest ever diplomatic delegation. The Prime Minister’s staff alone will total twenty-four including advisers, media staff, translators, security and most importantly the valet. Why would the Prime Minister need a valet?  Well there will be 15,000 delegates and 70 world leaders in attendance and Mr Rudd hopes to make visible impression on this world stage. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-kevin-rudd-delivering-real-valet-for-money/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-kevin-rudd-delivering-real-valet-for-money/#item1970 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 There is a great line in the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, when Robert Langdon is speaking with the Camerlengo in the Vatican regarding the existence of God. Langdon says, as an academic, he’ll never understand God, and his heart says he’s not meant to. Without wanting to be too melodramatic, this sums up my feelings towards climate change. To be frank, I’d love to believe in climate change. It’s a popular idea, and it’s one that, if you can discuss it using lots of long-winded terminology, you can often sound very intelligent.