Howard government told without a carbon price, emissions would rise.

The Howard government was urged more than 20 years ago to consider an emissions trading scheme, while its signature plans to deal with Australia's greenhouse gas emissions were considered by its own departments to be merely aimed at deflecting global criticism.

The Howard government was told that without a carbon
price of some sort Australia would struggle to reduce
 its emissions.CREDIT:

As the Morrison government continues to fight a debilitating internal battle over how to deal with climate change, previously secret papers from the 1990s reveal a suite of major government departments said the most effective and efficient way to deal with greenhouse gases was to impose a carbon price.

Cabinet papers from 1996 and 1997 released on Tuesday by the National Archives reveal the beginnings of the Howard government's drawn-out response to the threat posed by rising greenhouse gas emissions and the way some of those issues are still playing out in the Morrison government.

Read the story from The Age by Shane Wright - “Howard government told without a carbon price, emissions would rise.”

Low emissions target: On carbon schemes, no one says the same thing for long

If you don't know the difference between a carbon tax and an emissions trading scheme, or a low emissions target and an emissions intensity scheme, it's time to wise up.

On Friday Malcolm Turnbull gets the report of the Finkel review of the electricity market and later this year the report of the official review of his government's climate change policies.

Read the comment in today’s Melbourne Age by Peter Martin - “Low emissions target: On carbon schemes, no one says the same thing for long.”

“Climate concern” - Shepparton News letter

A letter from four women lamenting the Australian Government’s failure to respond positively to climate change appeared in today’s Shepparton News.

The letter, headed “Climate concern” said:

We, the undersigned, write to express our grave concerns that an Emissions Trading Scheme recommended by the chief scientist will not be considered by the prime minister and cabinet.

Global warming is the single most urgent problem facing our planet. However, the worst effects can be ameliorated if we act now. Failure to do so will leave our generation rightly condemned by our children and grandchildren as they struggle in an unlovely world faced with a lack of water, lack of food and intense and frequent “weather events”.

More wars will break out to gain/retain possession of what little fertile land remains available.

Opposition to acting on climate change is often as being uneconomic. Yet the recommendations that will not be considered by the government suggest that implementing them will keep electricity charges in check.

Therefore, it is irresponsible, not to consider them.

We call upon our local member Damian Drum to convey our request to the prime minister and cabinet to agree to consider an Emissions Trading Scheme.

Charlotte Brewer, Barbara Brown, Helen West, Sally Wright.

Malcolm Turnbull scrambles to back away from any prospect of a carbon tax - or ETS – under Coalition

It seems federal parliament's backbenches
are now calling the shots in Canberra.

Any prospect of an emissions trading scheme or carbon tax under the Coalition has been killed, buried and cremated - again.

Under the threat of revolt on his backbench, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday spelt out repeatedly that his government would not put a price on carbon in any form before the next election.

Two days after Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg put consideration of an emissions intensity scheme on the table, Mr Turnbull said such a scheme had never been part of the Coalition review of its climate policies.

"The position is very clear, it is absolutely clear, this review is business as usual ... The one thing I want to be very clear about, we are not going to take any steps that will increase the already too high cost of energy for Australian families and businesses," Mr Turnbull said.

Read the latest from the Melbourne Age - story “Malcolm Turnbull scrambles to back away from any prospect of a carbon tax - or ETS – under Coalition.”

(Mr Turnbull, it seems is oblivious that we now live in a world that demands we consume less and so use significantly reduced amounts of energy – this is a different world than that imagined by the PM and his Coalition cohort. Rather than pursuing, almost religiously, a national agenda of jobs and growth – both equate with the voracious consumption of energy, Australia’s leaders should be working together to create a country that will function well provide broad contentment in what will most certainly by a low-energy future – Robert McLean)

China has a plan to control emissions, Australia has Direct Action

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reg Hunt has insisted the Coalition’s Direct Action plan is the “best and most efficient” climate policy in the world, as China, the world’s biggest carbon polluter, confirms it will begin a national emissions trading scheme in 2017.

Prof Frank Jotzo says the world will
ultimately emulate what China does.

Business groups and leading analysts say Direct Action cannot meet Australia’s new promise to reduce emissions by between 26% and 28% of 2005 levels by 2030 without significant changes, but Hunt insisted it would easily do so and reduce electricity prices at the same time.

“We have arguably the best and most efficient scheme in the world, there are different forms of market mechanisms but arguably the most pure form is an action, which is what we have,” Hunt said.

But Prof Frank Jotzo from the Australian National University’s Crawford School said confirmation of China’s national emissions trading scheme was “a great boost for emission trading schemes around the world because many countries are looking to China and will ultimately emulate what China does”.

Read the Guardian story - “Coalition’s climate policy 'best and most efficient' in the world, says Greg Hunt”.

Combet called back to shape emissions trading scheme

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Greg Combet - penning
emissions trading scheme.

abor has enlisted the former climate change minister Greg Combet to help develop policies for the next election – including a new climate change stance – as the party debates how to make good its promise to reintroduce an emissions trading scheme.

Combet has been employed part time by Labor’s national secretariat to help the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, as the party debates policy ahead of its July national conference and the next election, due in 2016.

Labor has yet to make basic decisions about how to implement Shorten’s pledge that it will continue to advocate an emissions trading scheme.

Most are envisaging a new cap-and-trade scheme broadly similar to the one introduced during the last parliament, and repealed by the Abbott government.

Read the Guardian story - “Labor calls Greg Combet back to help develop emissions trading scheme”.