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  • Howard ‘foolish indeed’ – Greens

    In a speech stunningly devoid of any description of the impact of climate change on Australia’s environment, cities, agriculture or economic wellbeing, Prime Minister Howard today put off real action for at least another five years.
     
    “John Howard simply doesn’t understand climate change,” Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
     
    “His comment that it would be ‘foolish indeed’ to ignore the evidence on climate change condemns his own foolishness for the past 11 years in failing to tackle climate change.”
     
    “Far from leaving our children ‘debt-free’, Howard is racking up a debt of more bushfires, more intense droughts, a bleached Great Barrier Reef and no ski-fields for Australia’s children – as if these are no-cost factors.”
     
    “Not once in his entire speech did the Prime Minister talk about what the science demands in response to climate change. He ignored the environment and spoke only of what the coal, aluminium and aviation sectors are prepared to accept,” Greens Climate Change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne said.
     
    “Climate change is not going to wait for the Liberal party. Keeping global temperature rises to 2C or less requires rigorous action now and it is Prime Minister Howard who has been ‘missing in action’ and who is ‘steeped in recklessness and symbolism’."
     
    “Australia can trust the Greens to face the reality of climate change and to make decisions that will truly give our children hope,” Senator Milne said.

  • Climate report avoids targets and timelines

    “Last year the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change showed deep cuts in emissions are feasible and affordable and delaying action is more expensive.

    “We welcome the task group’s recommendation that an emissions trading scheme should cover a range of sectors, not just electricity generation, and that certificates should be auctioned, not given away to polluters.

    “It is now time for Government and Opposition to commit to developing an emissions trading scheme that has as its primary objective putting Australia on track to avoiding dangerous climate change.”

    A two-page briefer assessing the emissions trading proposal from the Australian state governments and the PM’s task group recommendations is attached.


  • Howard fudges Climate Change report

    Prime Minister John Howard says his carbon emissions report will silence critics who claim the Government has not acted on climate change.

    The report, by the Commonwealth’s carbon emissions task group, says a trading scheme could be up and running by 2012.

    But it does not set a price on carbon or name a specific target for greenhouse gas reductions.

    Mr Howard is yet to formally release the report and this morning he would not say whether he would commit to its recommendations.

    "This is a hugely burdensome and responsible decision," he said.

    "If we get this wrong, if we embrace a target, we’ll do crippling damage to our economy.

    "If we embrace a target that will increase electricity prices more than they should go up, then we’ll do enormous damage to Australian households and the broad economy."

  • Ford and Edison

    In 1931, Thomas Edison met with Henry Ford, and told him: "I’d put my money on solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

  • NSW Govt reserving water for power

    ABC Online

    The New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma, has quarantined 40 gigalitres of water to protect the state’s power generation.

     

    Mr Iemma says long term projections show that supply for generating power capacity is fine till 2008, but could be under pressure by 2009.

    He says he has decided to quarantine 40-billion-litres of water in a strategic reserve in case the worst happens.

    Mr Iemma says the National Energy Ministers Meeting in Melbourne will be briefed on the plan today.

    "There’s no immediate threat to power supplies – but we do need to take necessary steps to protect our future supplies," he said.

    The water is being held in the Glenbawn dam in the Upper Hunter, and will be diverted to power stations if the drought continues.

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  • Super funds call for carbon tax

    The rest of the panel included ABN AMRO’s director financial markets Craig McBurnie, IAG’s sustainability research manager Elayne Grace, AMP Capital senior analyst Ian Woods and Origin Energy communications and government relations manager Tony Wood.

    Along with Mr Hughes they discussed the "opportunities side" of climate change.

    Origin Energy’s Mr Wood said emissions trading produced a least-cost pathway for business to reduce their greenhouse output.

    Mr Wood presented a package of proposed action that included a long-term emissions target in line with global action, market-based carbon pricing scheme introduced from 2010, funding for research and development of low and zero-emission technologies and more focused support for renewable energy projects.

    AMP’s Dr Woods said there was already a significant market for carbon trading, with 374 million tonnes of Co2 traded in 2005 under the Kyoto Protocol, which was about two-thirds of Australia’s annual greenhouse emissions.

    "Institutional investors have a unique view on climate change as we are exposed to all aspects of climate change," he said.

    Dr Woods said polices would be put in place that would help determine the price of carbon.

    He said that when that happens, the price would be determined very quickly, leaving businesses behind that had not prepared themselves for a carbon-constrained economy.

    In Europe this week, a research note by investment bank UBS said forward hedging of power production by utilities would push the price of carbon up to 30.00 euros/tonne in 2008.

    According to website information service Point Carbon, the price of "phase two" carbon dioxide allowances in the European Union have climbed by 70 per cent since February from a low of 12 euros.

    The increases caused UBS to revise upwards its previous carbon price forecast of 20 euros to 30 euros for 2008.

    UBS said one reason for the increase was a dearth of credits from clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation (JI) projects, allowed under the Kyoto Protocol, which generate carbon credits from greenhouse gas reduction projects.

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