The heroes and villains in the Great Climate Debate

The Federal Government currently has a number of policies aimed at securing investment in low emissions technology on the table, such as the $500 million Low Emissions Technology Development Fund, the CRCs and CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship, but they merely represent a starting point.

Significant greenhouse gas emission reductions will not take place unless Australia makes long term strategic commitment to market incentives aimed at leveraging R&D that will make the difference. This requires an overarching vision and must be co-ordinated at the national level. Policies aimed at long-term technology development may lack the simplistic appeal of hastily implemented carbon taxes, however at present they are the only real means of achieving long-term abatement.

This is not to say that policy measures that incorporate a carbon price signal will never be appropriate. However they can only be effective where they are implemented as part of an holistic solution, where the primary goal is stimulating investment by business in low emissions technology through positive incentives. Carbon price signals can then fulfill a secondary goal of sending the message to business that taking the opportunity to invest in low emissions technologies will positively affect their bottom line in the future. They can also encourage low emissions technology uptake where it is commercial.

Ultimately, carbon price signals are only justifiable if they form part of an overarching national vision for a technology based way forward. The current States’ Based Emissions Trading proposal fails this test, constituting an imperative to reduce emissions without any reference to current policies at both state and federal level aimed at stimulating low emissions technology R&D. The result may well be alienation of business and a loss of opportunity to discover ways to work co-operatively.

The same can be said of the Kyoto Protocol. A high watermark in diplomacy, and held up by Gore as a shining example, this measure will deliver no more than one per cent of global abatement worldwide. It is ironic that many of the Kyoto signatories are likely to fall short of their targets, but have still not revived their energy R&D spending to the peak levels in the 1970s following the OPEC oil crisis.

Global leaders need to display a willingness to constantly visit and revisit the key scientific and technological issues if we are to meet this global challenge. Currently the political will to action appears to be overriding the political will to learn.