Business council faces negative ad blitz over criticism of 45% emissions target

The Business Council of Australia will find itself the target of a negative advertising campaign for declaring that an emissions reduction target of 45% would wreck the Australian economy.

The Australia Institute will run an ad campaign debunking a
Business Council of Australia claim that a 45% emissions
reduction target is ‘economy-wrecking’. 

With Labor planning to go to the federal election with an emissions reduction target of 45%, and the Coalition spoiling for a partisan fight, the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute will invest campaign resources in debunking a claim from the BCA that the proposed target is “economy-wrecking”.

In public statements in support of the Coalition’s now dumped national energy guarantee, a policy that included an emissions reduction target of 26% by 2030, the BCA described that level of abatement as “workable” but characterised Labor’s 45% alternative as “economy wrecking”.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy- “Business council faces negative ad blitz over criticism of 45% emissions target.”

Opera House goes carbon neutral five years ahead of schedule

The Sydney Opera House was notoriously behind schedule on most things during the 14 years it took to build but on Monday it will be five years ahead of schedule when it meets its target to reduce emissions and become carbon neutral.

The Opera House goes green, Monday night at 6pm.

This move puts it up there with New York's Empire State building and Paris's Eiffel Tower as global  architectural icons which are actively working to become world symbols of energy efficiency, its Environmental Sustainability Manager Emma Bombonato said.

Read the story from The Age  by Helen Pitt - “Opera House goes carbon neutral five years ahead of schedule.”

New Zealand’s productivity commission charts course to low-emission future

New Zealand has set itself a target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

According to a recent report, New Zealand will need to increase
renewable electricity generation, plant more trees and continue
switching to electric transport more rapidly to achieve
 its zero carbon goal by 2050.

A recent report issued by the New Zealand Productivity Commission has found that this is an achievable goal, even under modest forecasts of technological progress and increases in carbon price.

New Zealand already had a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050. That target had been in place since 2002, but emissions continued to rise through the 2000s.

Read the story on The Conversation by a Professor in Applied Mathematics from Massey University, Robert McLachlan - “New Zealand’s productivity commission charts course to low-emission future.”

Pledge to ditch renewables target could cost Guy in sandbelt: poll

Matthew Guy's determination to scrap Victoria's renewable energy target will cost him votes in some of Melbourne's most marginal electorates and reduce his prospects of becoming premier, a poll has found.

The Macarthur wind farm in western Victoria. The Victorian
 government has set a target of 40 per cent renewables by 2025.

A clear majority of voters surveyed in the four swinging "sandbelt" seats of Bentleigh, Mordialloc, Carrum and Frankston in Melbourne's south-east supported moves to boost the proportion of wind and solar power generated in Victoria at the expense of coal.

A ReachTel poll of almost 3000 people in the four electorates found there is strong support for the Andrews government’s ambitious renewable energy target of 25 per cent by 2020 and 40 per cent by 2025.

Read Adam Carey’s story from The Age - “Pledge to ditch renewables target could cost Guy in sandbelt: poll.”

Tony Abbott launches warning shot on climate policy

Tony Abbott has fired a telling shot across Malcolm Turnbull's bow, warning that any energy package agreed to in cabinet must also pass a party room wary of anything approaching a clean energy target or other subsidy scheme for renewables.

Warning shot on energy: former prime minister Tony Abbott,
 pictured with then-assistant treasurer Josh Frydenberg
at Parliament House in March 2015.

It came as the Turnbull government received more bad news in the fortnightly Newspoll series, prompting Mr Abbott to declare a future return to the leadership was possible but would occur only if he was drafted by colleagues, which he described as "almost impossible to imagine”.

Signalling that Coalition MPs will be no rubber stamp on energy, the dumped former prime minister said the backbench deserved "plenty of chance to digest" the formula.

Mr Abbott's blunt message sets the stage for another showdown over a policy area that has divided moderates and conservatives within the Coalition for a decade, and become a constant cipher for simmering leadership rivalries.

Read Mark Kenny’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Tony Abbott launches warning shot on climate policy.”

Can two clean energy targets break the deadlock of energy and climate policy?

Malcolm Turnbull’s government has been wrestling with the prospect of a clean energy target ever since Chief Scientist Alan Finkel recommended it in his review of Australia’s energy system. But economist Ross Garnaut has proposed a path out of the political quagmire: two clean energy targets instead of one.

Garnaut’s proposal is essentially a flexible emissions target that can be adapted to conditions in the electricity market. If electricity prices fail to fall as expected, a more lenient emissions trajectory would likely be pursued.

This proposal is an exercise in political pragmatism. If it can reassure both those who fear that rapid decarbonisation will increase energy prices, and those who argue we must reduce emissions at all costs, it represents a substantial improvement over the current state of deadlock.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Director of Carbon and Energy Markets from Victoria University, Bruce Mountain - “Can two clean energy targets break the deadlock of energy and climate policy?”

Malcolm Turnbull says energy target legislated 'while Tony was prime minister

Malcolm Turnbull says Australia has a renewable energy target now because of decisions Tony Abbott took as prime minister, and he claims the Coalition is “united” in ensuring that Australians have affordable and reliable energy.

Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott, who told 2GB he
could not ‘and won’t’ support a clean energy target.

Turnbull’s sideswipe at Abbott followed the former prime minister declaring in an interview with his former staffer Peta Credlin, and the Sydney shock jock Alan Jones, that it would be “unconscionable ... to go further down the renewables path” by implementing a clean energy target.

Campaigning in Brisbane amid speculation the Labor government in Queensland will shortly call a state election, and facing sustained questioning about Abbott leading a backbench revolt against energy policy, Turnbull said he did not intend to run a commentary on other people’s remarks.

Read Katharine Murphy’s story on The Guardian - “Malcolm Turnbull says energy target legislated 'while Tony was prime minister.”

Donald Trump's environment boss Scott Pruitt heading to Australia.

A climate science critic and one of the most controversial figures in the Trump administration will soon tour Australia in a visit environmental activists are likely to target with protests.

Controversial US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) boss, Scott Pruit, will soon tour Australia.

Lawyer Scott Pruitt was last year handpicked by Donald Trump to head the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Critics accuse the former Oklahoma attorney-general of trying to weaken the EPA since assuming his role as administrator in February.

The ABC has confirmed the Republican politician is scheduled to fly to Australia this year, joining other Trump administration figures who have already made the journey, including Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defence James Mattis.

Federal Government backbencher and climate change sceptic Craig Kelly has welcomed Mr Pruitt's impending visit.

Read Andrew Green’s story on ABC News - “Donald Trump's environment boss Scott Pruitt heading to Australia.”

Anna and Amandine argue 2030 emissions target is achievable

A

ustralia can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to analysis by ClimateWorks.

Anna Skarbek.

Amandine Denis.

The federal government is currently considering what Australia’s post-2020 emissions target should be, and is expected to announce its decision in the coming weeks.

Many other countries have already announced their pledges, and various groups in Australia have called on the government to commit to a strong target.

Building on our Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in 2050 project, our analysis shows that we can strongly reduce emissions using existing technology and while still growing the economy.

Executive Director at ClimateWorks Australia at Monash University, Anna Skarbek, and the head of research at ClimateWorks,  Amandine Denis, have written about this in The Conversation - “New analysis: Australia can halve emissions by 2030”.

Public promises amount to naught

Public promises to reduce society’s carbon dioxide emissions are hollow and will have no useful impact at all.

Those who understand the numbers surrounding the climate change conversation know that the reduction of world-wide emissions needs to be far in excess of anything to date suggested and consequentially labelled a target.

A story in today’s Melbourne Age headed: “Big carbon cuts needed: report says”, notes that Australia needs to make cuts of nearly 30 per cent by 2020 and more than 80 per cent by 2030 to play its role in averting world-wide climate change.

The Climate Change Authority, according to the story, will release its draft recommendations this week detailing how much and how quickly Australia should be cutting its emissions.

The authority, chaired by former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser, will release the report despite a pledge from the new Coalition government to dismantle it as part of its pre-election pledge dispense with most of the Labor-period climate change policy and its appointed bodies.

The Coalition government won office with the promise to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions to just five per cent below 2000 levels.