Compare the meeting last week in Oxford of the world’s most eminent climate scientists with the divided mess of Australia’s parliament, with disagreements over the CPRS and Copenhagen.
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Crikey Says: A study in alternative realities
A new Liberal climate position: the Minchin line
Climate change is being used by the Government to wedge the Opposition mercilessly, in far more savage a fashion than John Howard ever managed to do to Labor on refugees or national security.
Turnbull’s high stakes gamble
Malcolm Turnbull’s push for colleagues to fall in to line on Emissions Trading will become an issue of his own style and leadership. It could be a circuit-breaker for the beleaguered leader. Or it could be a disaster.
If not Emissions Trading, then what?
When the Emissions Trading Scheme is eventually passed, it won’t be worth a damn thanks to all the political wrangling. So the real issue is — what’s the next step?
Liberals will pass ETS to avoid Ruddquake
The Liberal leadership will convince enough backbench MPs to approve the Coalition’s amendments to the Emissions Trading legislation in coming weeks. Because … it has to.
Coal Association scores own-goal on emissions trading
The Australian Coal Association’s campaign against the Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has been undermined from the outset by its own website.
Turnbull faces ETS battle in the benches
It’s leadership crunch time for Malcolm Turnbull, with more than two thirds of Liberal backbenchers disagreeing with his plans to negotiate on the Emissions Trading Scheme. It’s front bench vs. back bench, guns drawn.
Shanahan: Can we cope til Copenhagen?
PM Kevin Rudd wants to be a world leader on climate change, not a pleb following the global pack. Malcolm Turnbull wants the exact opposite, writes Dennis Shanahan.
Wong kicks Turnbull when he’s down
Environment minister Penny Wong’s letter to Malcolm Turnbull on the CPRS timetable is a particularly low-rent effort to further damage the Liberals.
Crikey Says: We really are the lucky country, but…
Alright, we’ll admit it. Politicians have done a fairly decent job of running the nation for the last 20 years. However, climate change failings won’t be easily forgiven.
Wong: Dear Malcolm, it’s time to stop dawdling
Environment Minister Penny Wong has written an open letter to Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull today, telling him she needs to see his amendments to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. ASAP.
Rudd fails the environment test
Former coal industry executive Ian Dunlop says the government’s CPRS is a dud: it won’t reduce emissions, it will slow innovation, and destroy investment confidence.
leaked How we discouraged Pacific Islands from tough emissions stance
The extent to which the Rudd Government prevented small island states most at risk from climate change from voicing their support for tough carbon reduction targets has been confirmed in a leaked document.
Robb’s departure leaves a gaping hole in the coalition
Parliamentary downtime means our politicians are dispersing to all four corners of the globe. But it’s Andrew Robb’s unexpected departure due to a depressive illness that is the most concerning.
Brendan Nelson’s parting shot: Don’t sign climate change deal
In his farewell speech Brendan Nelson has urged Libs not to be “intellectual lemmings” on emissions trading until other nations’ intentions are known; Malcolm Turnbull, lemming, wants to negotiate.
CPRS polluter haggling crushes our national interest
You can’t drive the economy forward while looking in the rear-view mirror, and as the low carbon competitiveness report highlights, the longer we delay “the more costly the eventual transition will be”, writes John Connor .
Beyond an emissions trading
scheme
How do we get the best version of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme up and running while Australians are still listening? That is, if we want it at all. Enviromental campaigners need to think smart, says Tim Hollo.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: CPRS and climate change, gay marriage and bug-free computer software
Crikey readers weigh in on CPRS and climate change, gay marriage and bug-free computer software…
Coalition’s a muddle, but that doesn’t make Wong right
Penny Wong’s relentless insistence that the real question is always Mr Turnbull’s leadership is doing the government no favours in its so-far successful campaign to use climate change as a political weapon.
Buildings responsible for up to 80% of emissions in our cities
Whatever the outcome of the Senate’s vote next week on the CPRS bills, the sector of the economy that is responsible for more than a third of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 80% of emissions in our cities, won’t be affected.
Turnbull’s CPRS: international permits plus a few bells and whistles
Economists all know that allowing more trade in permits globally will achieve the same emissions reduction for much less cost, says Joshua Gans, and that is the real policy here: everything else is just bells and whistles.
Why Rudd’s CPRS should be voted down
Passage of the CPRS bill will protect and entrench the very carbon pollution the scheme purports to address. The only sensible vote from any perspective is “No”, writes Bernard Keane.
Never mind the RET, let’s just thrash the opposition
The Government’s emissions trading bill isn’t the only climate change-related bill coming back next week: during the last Parliamentary session, the CPRS picked up a hitchhiker in the form of the bill to implement the Government’s Renewable Energy Target.
Gottliebsen: The coming carbon crisis
Australia’s proposed carbon trading scheme is the product of an inexperienced government and an incompetent opposition, writes Robert Gottliebsen. If it goes ahead, expect to see global energy capital disappear from our shores, with huge implications for all citizens.
Kevin 09: competent, unglamorous and focussed on outcomes
Kevin Rudd today used his opening address to the ALP National Conference to paint his Government as one firmly in the Labor tradition: all social safety nets and nation-building. By his standards it was “soaring rhetoric”.
