ALP climate change policy failure

Professor Garnaut has expressed the view that a 2050 target for reduction of C02-e emissions should be set at 90 per cent below 2000 levels if Australia is to avert the worst effects of climate change, including an increase of 5C in atmospheric temperatures in the latter part of the 21st century.

Population policy

During the 2007 election campaign, Rudd promised a comprehensive population policy would be developed and implemented. In government no such policy was articulated or supported by a well thought out model addressing social, economic and environmental considerations. By the end of 2009 immigration had reached annualised levels exceeding 350,000.

In the absence of such a sustainable population policy, government proceeded to develop, present and seek Parliament’s approval of its CPRS. The CPRS failed to recognise that coping with a rapidly growing population inescapably led to a significant increase in CO2-e emissions, lower standards of living and the need for capital expenditure on infrastructure such as roads, public transport and utilities.

On the one hand the CPRS proposed a reduction a 5 per cent reduction of CO2-e emissions by 2020 and on the other, government indulged in rapid, unsustainable population growth promising a far greater increase in emissions.

Fossil fuel targets

The primary source of CO2-e emissions are coal, oil and gas, yet government has set no targets, either annual or decadal, for reducing their use in Australia. Instead it not only proposes to continue subsidies for their production and use but the CPRS provides for those subsidies to be increased in the form of free emissions permits being given to users.

There is no evidence that government has planned for or even contemplated a reduction in the use of fossil fuels. On the contrary, its multi-billion investment in the development of clean coal and sequestration (CCS) technology suggests a costly, though ultimately futile, attempt to prolong the use of coal.

Again there is a direct conflict between what is ostensible the primary CPRS purpose, reducing CO2-e emissions, and the actions of government in assisting to prolong use of their major source.

Primary industries

Land use contributes 14 per cent of total emissions but is excluded from the CPRS, even though many of those engaged in it are willing to participate in reducing emissions.

The CPRS could have offered incentives to farmers willing to plant trees, use biochar, plant with minimum tilling and other activities aimed at reducing CO2-e emissions. Government made no such offers until the last week of the 2010 election campaign.

Emission permits

The CPRS embodied provision for the worst polluters, electricity generators and other coal and oil users, to be provided with free permits to pollute. These are in effect a subsidy for polluters that distort the market, particularly for those supplying energy from renewable sources. It makes use of fossil fuels cheaper and use of renewables relatively more expensive, less competitive and unattractive to investors.

Government asserts that free permits are necessary to limit energy price increases so avoiding energy users moving to other countries offering cheaper energy - so called carbon leakage. No evidence has been provided that such leakage would occur.

Sweden and France no longer use fossil fuels to generate electricity yet the economies of both countries are growing. Since 2006 the Queensland government has increased the cost of electricity by over 40 per cent. This has had little effect on the use of electricity, particularly its profligate use by the public sector and its businesses. The Queensland economy continues to grow.