For the past twelve months, John Connor, Climate Institute CEO and a keen amateur bodysurfer, has been riding a huge left hander that’s been breaking off Point Climate Change, selling the message of cutting greenhouse gases. But in just a few short weeks that beautiful wave has closed out and emission cuts look like being smashed on the reef of a submerged Wall Street.
As he picked the seaweed and sand out of his boardshort pockets, Connor had this to say today:
“The Prime Minister recently linked the current global financial turmoil to ‘the triumph of the short term over long term, sustainable growth’. Let’s not make that mistake again.
“We can’t go into this hoping to patch together our twentieth century economy and ignore the risks and opportunities of 21st century climate change. A strong start to the carbon pollution reduction scheme, policies to boost energy efficiency and encourage investment in renewable and other clean energy sources can and should be a central part of the economic response.
“As business leaders have highlighted today, a delayed response to climate change will heighten investment uncertainty and hamper multi-billion investments in the clean energy economy of the 21st century.
“The risks of Climate Change have been clearly identified and we know to help avoid future catastrophic impacts we need to reign in global carbon pollution to levels that avoids a 2oC increase in global temperature.
“Australia’s needs to play its part by setting targets to reduce its carbon pollution by at least 25 per cent off 1990 levels by 2020. The impacts of climate change are already being felt in parts of rural Australia where they are still in the grip of the worst drought on record. Setting strong targets to reduce carbon pollution and helping to drive a global deal to reduce emissions are actions we cannot afford not to do.
“To ‘climate proof’ the Australian economy we need to implement a strong carbon pollution reduction scheme, invest now in clean energy and energy efficiency to open new economic and job opportunities, and build a low-carbon economy.”
hamper multi-billion investments in the clean energy economy of the 21st century – we should be so lucky!
That’s as perfect an example of 20th if not 19th century thinking, that Big Capital is King. The main reason that Capital is terrified of the green world is that it is, by definition, NOT reliant on vast investment (and thus centralised control, aka hegemony).
Green jobs are small jobs, millions of them, the sort that anybody with some aptitude for tools and a bit of enthusiasm & imagination can do. Capital can disappear down the gurgler, just like other outdated concepts.
I know now is probably not the time to mention this with every retiree and impending retiree terrified about their super, but whatever happened to the concept of a “free market”.
Or that great catchphrase “economic rationalism” which never seemed to apply to environment eceonomics which had to have special rules to protect power stations, and rural economies……
Whenever the Environmental groups request market based intervention for say new cleaner greener energy supplies, or regulatory measures to promote environmental outcomes as well as economic outcomes it is anathema, but suddenly it is now OK to guarantee interbank loans, and if we follow the UK, to have the government as majority shareholders in major banks….
None of which I particularly mind, but you can’t have it both ways – either the market is free and rational (highly unlikely in my view) and therefore not able to be artifically manipulated by government, or it is not.
If it is not, sensible government intervention which promotes broader social and environmental good outcomes, as well as economic outcomes, should be welcomed, and dare I say it, demanded by taxpayers who are now propping these free market gladiators up.
I am sure that those who were quick to line up for handouts and government guarantees would be first in the queue to lobby against any such intervention – the most current of which is the carbon market, but there are plenty of other natural resource policy areas where a market based intervention should be applied.
The delicious irony of economic (ir)rationalism is that there are so many factors NOT costed. Clean air/water, waste disposal, raw material at artificially low prices, it just goes on & on.
I esp. lurve the rabid right’s favourite phrase “the invisible hand of the market” which magically makes everything alright so all may have ponie.
The wielders of thiswidely misunderstood phrase clearly haven’t read/understood Adam Smith otherwise they wouldn’t use it, mendacity notwithstanding. It appears in the chapter that discusses cartels (please excuse my paraphrase – I don’t have a copy of the tome to hand)
“men of similar trade rarely meet together, whether for business or pleasure, but that it results in a conspiracy agains the public..”. Hardly a recommendation of laissez-faire that its proponents claim – sounds more like a warning to me.