"Cooking the books' as we cook the planet

U

nderstanding climate change can be really simple or incredible complex and so almost impenetrable.

And it is the latter upon which our climate denying Federal Government depends when it introduces policies to a largely uninformed public.

Today’s Melbourne Age says, “The Australian government is changing how it expresses climate change targets in way that could make it appear to the public as though it is cutting greenhouse gas emissions more rapidly than it is.”

The story - “What's in a target? Australia warned not to 'cook the books' on emissions cuts” – reports: “As bureaucrats in the Prime Minister's department work on a pledge Australia can take to a year-end global climate summit in Paris, it is understood they are canvassing shifting the year against which any cut is measured.”

“Australia's emissions were significantly higher in 2005 than 2000. By adopting the later year as a baseline, the government could announce a bigger target number without increasing what it is doing to reduce emissions into the atmosphere,” the Age reports.