Abbott's Australia: country of lost opportunity

The Abbott Government must foster greater research and business opportunities and support significantly increased investment in Australia's 'renewable energy' economy. Its present policy discourages investment in renewable energy, disadvantaging local organisations actively searching for innovative outcomes for a cleaner, healthier economy.

This is in contrast to other nations, including China and the United States, where investment in renewables is accelerating. The significant risk, which is already being played out, is researchers and investors are going offshore to pursue the business opportunity of the century.

The Abbott Government must be more proactive in transitioning from a predominantly 'fossil fuel' economy to a diverse one. The employment, economic growth, and health benefits associated with encouraging and investing in renewable clean energy is enormous.

Fears that combating climate change will threaten jobs and economic growth is shortsighted and misguided. Nations presently reliant on coal, iron-ore, gas, and oil will in time transition to a low carbon economy. This include our largest trading partners, and nations, such as China with large populations and growth rates, who will increasingly focus on cleaner wind, solar and other renewables to combat ever increasing pollution resulting from increasing population.

Australian opponents to renewable energy and right wing ideologue climate change sceptics can deny all they want. Coal, iron-ore will not forever remain 'King'. The Abbott Government can continue to look after the self-interests of those in the non-renewable energy industry, but at what cost to the Australian economy and its citizens in the long run?

As a nation that is the highest emitter of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis compared to other advanced industrialised economies, Australia must be seen to take action on climate change. Based on Abbott's current track record, don't hold your breath! Only recently, Australia has refused to contribute to the global $US10 billion Green Climate Fund, established to support poorer nations impacted by climate change and reducing carbon emissions.

In time, the return of investment on cleaner renewable energy will outweigh that of dirtier and unhealthy fossil fuel energy. What will then become of Australia's non-renewable energy industry within a generation? The Australian landscape will resemble a graveyard strewn with 'body bags' of unfulfilled and unprofitable mining ventures because the world has moved on to alternative, cleaner sources of energy to fuel its economy.

Prime Minister Abbott and the Government may believe that by abolishing a price signal in the carbon tax, it is in the national interest, and which benefits Australians' hip pockets. In the short term, these benefits are illusionary. In the long term, it will be catastrophic to the Australian economy and future generation of Australians.

While more nations are placing a price on carbon, Abbott is steering Australia toward the cliff's edge. In time, Abbott's increasingly isolationist view on climate change will be shown to be on the wrong side of history.

Climate Change is the elephant in the room, which Abbott refuses to acknowledge. Abbott is cold on climate change, but the political climate is heating up internationally, and again domestically, on the key issue of the century.

While it's not the 1960's, the concern is, as Mark Twain observed, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." By rejecting the overwhelming science, and not embracing the resultant opportunities from climate change, Australia will certainly not be 'The Lucky Country', nor 'The Clever Country', but 'The Country of Lost Opportunity'.