The greenhouse effect is a global phenomenon. We don’t have big screens at our borders keeping Australia’s emissions in and China or India’s emissions out. Emissions from any one country swirl around the globe. If anything is to be done about the greenhouse effect, it has to involve the major emitters. It is quite pointless for Australia to reduce its emissions unless they do too.
It is farcical that Australia is engaged in an acrimonious debate about which side of politics is doing enough to combat climate change. Australia’s commitments, no matter what anyone thinks of them, are quite pointless unless they are conditional on action by the world’s big emitters. And of course, the big emitters are barely even aware of Australia’s efforts, let alone influenced by them.
Nonetheless, the cost of implementing Australia’s commitments is far from trivial. We have world record electricity prices and a precarious supply situation as a result of policies discouraging new fossil-fuels-based generation. Thousands of jobs in energy-intensive industries are heading overseas and even more depend on whether we develop or expand coal mines.
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And despite being opposed to a carbon tax, on Monday the Coalition Government committed $2bn of taxpayer’s funds to paying emitters to emit less than some hypothetical benchmark. The money, naturally enough, will come from tax revenue.
Debating Australia’s emissions policy while ignoring what is happening in the rest of the world is nonsensical. And it is made worse by the fact that our experts in Canberra, who recommend policy to the government, are barely even aware of what else is happening in the world.
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