Emissions trading


The consequences of repealing a carbon price

Repealing a carbon price will come with some complications, and not just for a government.

Republican-slide stifles clean energy plan

US President Barack Obama’s plans for climate reform look dead and buried by the widespread Republican victories in the nation’s midterm elections. But at least there’s California, writes Climate Spectator’s Giles Parkinson.

No regrets on the road from 
Copenhagen

Copenhagen changes nothing for Australian policymakers — but that won’t stop politicians from using it as a political weapon.

Quiggin: The Liberals turn Chinese

The only feasible way Tony Abbott can achieve an emissions trading scheme that matches Rudd’s reduction target but doesn’t involve a tax is by embracing the Chinese model of investing in hydro, nuclear and other renewable energy, says John Quiggin. Ahh, the irony.

Flannery: Never trust a Liberal

Don’t trust a word the Liberal Party says on climate change, says Tim Flannery. It has betrayed the trust of voters too many times on the issue, and doesn’t deserve another chance.

Coalition enters a policy-free zone on carbon

The Coalition is still groping in the dark for a coherent position on the ETS. And when it finds one, it will need to go through the same trial by fire that Turnbull’s went through.

The Robb rebellion: the ground shifts under Turnbull

What had looked for Malcolm Turnbull like a tough but doable task of getting his partyroom onside for a CPRS deal has become a nightmare, with former supporter Andrew Robb declaring he’s opposed to the deal, reports Bernard Keane.

Households bail out business on dud CPRS

Australia’s biggest polluters will enjoy vast windfall gains under the compromise offered by the Government to extract support from Malcolm Turnbull for the passage of its CPRS.

Bartlett: Omissions trading

The collective short-term memory loss amongst members of the Coalition is remarkable, says Andrew Bartlett: this is the mob who, less than three years ago, were pushing entire pieces of legislation through the Senate in the space of a week.

Grattan: Libs eat each other alive

The Coalition’s climate change conflict is far more about Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership than it is about emissions trading, says Michelle Grattan.

Taylor: D-Day for Turnbull

It’s do-or-die for embattled Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull today. Can he hold his increasingly fractured party room together and deliver a deal on emissions trading? asks Lenore Taylor

Coal power lobby mines new lows in late compo scramble

Foreign multinationals ramped up their rhetoric yesterday in a desperate attempt to scam further compensation from taxpayers under the CPRS for their coal-fired power generation assets.

What I saw on my trip to Canberra: self interest and infighting

As a fresh HSC graduate from Newcastle, Georgia Lowe was invited by GetUp to give MPs from NSW some insight into youth sentiments on climate change. She came away from Canberra with more questions and few answers.

Milne: The Coalition is surrendering its one hope

If the Coalition agrees to the government’s ETS, it surrenders the one issue it can actually fight an election on, says Glenn Milne. There’s still a broad base of voters out there who don’t believe in climate change to be won over.

Hartcher: Rudd and Turnbull now on the same team

The CPRS debate has resulted in an unholy alliance between Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, says Peter Hartcher. Both are fighting for the same outcome against a common enemy: Coalition conservatives.

Libs push for secret CPRS ballot

At least 29 of the Liberal’s 57 backbenchers want to hold a secret partyroom ballot on the CPRS this week in order to resolve the party’s deep rifts over the issue once and for all.

Stott Despoja: Conscience pollution reduction scheme

Natasha Stott Despoja knows a thing or two about breaking the party line by crossing the floor in Parliament. She looks at how and why some rebel Coalition MPs might follow their hearts over their heads on the emissions trading issue.

Climate deal delayed: just whose side is Macfarlane on?

A CPRS deal between Ian Macfarlane and Penny Wong has been put off until tomorrow, and an impatient Coalition is not happy — especially when they discovered it was their own man who asked for the delay. Is Macfarlane getting too close to the Government? asks Michelle Grattan.

Turnbull’s climate crunch is coming

Malcolm Turnbull’s only real option is to reject Rudd’s CPRS and hand victory to Minchin and his colleagues.

Tanner: “Paranoid” Minchin’s conspiracy theories need to end

Senator Nick Minchin’s suggestion that climate change is all some global left-wing communist conspiracy is undermining serious negotiations between the Government and Opposition on emissions trading, writes MP Lindsay Tanner.

Minchin won’t cross the floor on emissions

Senator Nick Minchin may be the Coalition’s most outspoken critic of emissions trading emissions trading, but he will vote for it if it’s that is the party room’s decision.

Coalition at war

The Coalition has descended into new levels of chaos over emissions trading, with a pack of 17 rebels getting behind Senator Nick Minchin as he slammed the scheme in Parliament yesterday, and even Tony Abbott now reneging his support.

How will the CPRS Carnival end?

In the next week or so, the carnival of climate carpetbaggers is about to fold its tents on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. How it will all end up is still anyone’s guess, writes John Connor.

Joyce: Why I’m still voting no on the CPRS

The Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce outlines the reasons he won’t be won over on emissions trading: “the CPRS will change the air we breathe by 0.0000000978 of 1%.”

Either way, Turnbull’s on eggshells

Malcolm Turnbull is caught in a pincer movement between Liberal conservatives and Kevin Rudd — and both appear determined to destroy him.