Energy markets might be new ally in climate crisis

In the aftermath of Paris climate talks, analysts lined up to point out why the celebrated agreement was simply not good enough.

Certainly, the scale of the climate crisis requires urgent emissions reductions, which Paris did not secure at anything like the necessary scale. Questions also remain over the agreement’s legal status, how future commitments will be made, and what enforcement mechanisms (if any) will be in place.

In Australia, fears that the post-Paris situation would simply return to business as usual seemed borne out by a RepuTex analysis that predicted climate crisis would rise for the next decade and a half. The Turnbull government has announced no new policy to deepen or even meet its emissions targets, while the national science agency CSIRO is making severe cuts to its climate science workforce.

Read the piece by the Associate Professor of International Relations at The University of Queensland, Matt McDonald, on The Conversation  - “Energy markets: the planet’s unlikely new ally in the emissions effort.”