Garnaut’s forty year climate strategy is political and environmental folly
Australian Greens’ climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, said today Professor Ross Garnaut’s preference for long-term emission budgets rather than a mandatory 2020 emissions’ reduction target is a climate cop-out.
“A 2050 target is an excuse for further delays. Climate science demands strong action sooner rather than later. Climate change is accelerating faster than the predictions and will require major reductions in emission volumes for which a forty year budget will not provide,” Senator Milne said.
“While I can appreciate that Professor Garnaut preference to allocate a forty-year budget of emission credits makes sense to an economist, from a political and environmental point of view it is a high risk approach.
“If given too much leeway, there is a significant potential for participants in an emissions’ trading system to cut emissions too slowly, shifting a huge burden to our children and theirs.
“Big emitters may be tempted to delay action, putting too much faith in the future development of new technology that reduces the cost of emission reductions.
“What happens to the economy and to society if a large proportion of a forty-year budget allocation is spent in the early stages, requiring drastic emission cuts later?
“It is easy to envisage a scenario decades hence, in the midst of climate chaos, where enormous political pressure would be applied to amend the system - meaning those that had reduced emissions in the early years would be disadvantaged.
“While we need the market to operate effectively, and we don’t want a nanny-state approach to emissions’ trading, we have to allow for environmental and political realities, including the reality that Australia must be seen to take meaningful action now and contribute equitably to the global effort of urgent emission cuts.
“Contrast Garnaut’s strategy with that of New Zealand, where Prime Minister Helen Clark has just received a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) award for climate change leadership - because of her policies, including an emissions’ trading scheme; a goal to sharply reduce dependence on carbon fuels, together with a national energy
efficiency and conservation strategy,” Senator Milne said.
