Monday, November 30, 2015 12:07:43 AM
A Carbon Tax’s Ignoble End
Why Tony Abbott Axed Australia’s Carbon Tax
Julia Baird JULY 24, 2014
SYDNEY, Australia — It will be remembered as one of the most ignoble moments in our history: On July 17, Australia became the first country to repeal a carbon tax.
The deputy leader of the Greens Party, Adam Bandt, said it was “the Australian Parliament’s asbestos moment, our tobacco moment — when we knew what we were doing was harmful, but went ahead and did it anyway.”
The tax, or carbon-pricing mechanism, had defined three elections, destabilized three prime ministers and dominated public debate in this country for eight toxic years. Finally, the leader of the center-right Liberal Party, Tony Abbott, won the last election in part by promising to “ax the tax.”
Mr. Abbott is famous for his fitness and muscular approach. As a student at Oxford, he won a “blue” at boxing for the university and was known for his all-out, flailing attacks. When the carbon-pricing scheme became law in 2011, he vowed to lead a “people’s revolt” and “fight this tax every second of every minute of every day.”
His political success was not, in fact, a result of the failure of the policy. The scheme was, in at least the most important sense, working, since emissions were declining. The initial public opposition was fading, but the Labor government that introduced the policy failed to sell it. Critics portrayed it as a burden that would hurt businesses and cost households, instead of one that would cut pollution and ensure a more secure future for our children.
It was the misleading old cliché — the economy versus the environment — but politicians staked their careers on it, and won.
In 2010, the Labor prime minister, Julia Gillard, said she would look at carbon-pricing proposals, but also promised, “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.” Then, under pressure to form a minority government, she made a deal with the Greens and agreed to legislate a carbon price: a tax by any other name.
The heat, anger and vitriol directed at her as a leader — and as Australia’s first woman to be prime minister — coalesced around the promise and the tax. It grew strangely nasty: She was branded by a right-wing shockjock as “Ju-Liar,” a moniker she struggled to shake. The political cynicism surrounding the carbon tax certainly reduced Ms. Gillard’s political capital, but it was a perceived lack of conviction in the policy itself that damaged the pricing scheme’s credibility.
Business leaders opposed what Mr. Abbott called a “useless, destructive tax,” even though just 0.02 percent of Australia’s three million businesses were affected (the top 500 polluters). But Australia is one of the world’s biggest producers of coal, and the industry is worth about $60 billion and supports an estimated 200,000 jobs.
A powerful triumvirate campaigned against the law: mining companies, the conservative coalition parties and Rupert Murdoch’s
newspapers. A study found that 82 percent of articles on the carbon tax in News Corporation’s Australian papers were negative.
Ms. Gillard now believes she made a crucial error in framing. After losing office in June 2013, she wrote: “I erred by not contesting the label ‘tax’ for the fixed price period of the emissions trading scheme I introduced. I feared the media would end up playing constant silly word games with me, trying to get me to say the word ‘tax.”’
George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed that “was a disaster.” It wasn’t just the T-word; even the term “carbon price” was a problem, too abstract and technical: “It does not evoke in the minds of the public the real human horrors and economic costs of climate disasters.”
“I made the wrong choice,” Ms. Gillard conceded, “and, politically, it hurt me terribly.” With Labor plummeting in the polls, her leadership was challenged and she lost the vote to the party’s previous leader, Kevin Rudd. (Mr. Rudd’s victory was shortlived; less than three months later, he was defeated general election by Mr. Abbott.)
Opposition to the carbon tax trailed away after Ms. Gillard’s ouster, and public concern about climate change has only grown. A recent poll found that almost two-thirds of Australians believe there should be carbon pricing for major emitters, but 42 percent agreed with the repeal of the tax (against 36 percent who did not). We did, after all, elect a government that promised to ax it. So we’re a hot mess of contradictions.
Mr. Abbott’s claim that households will be better off by 550 Australian dollars, or $520, a year following the repeal has been greeted with skepticism. Electricity prices did go up after carbon pricing came in, but this was mostly because of investment in infrastructure. Consumers are likely to see no effect now — unless they’re paying less simply by using less electricity. An Australian National University study reported that carbon emissions from the power generation sector had been cut by 1 to 2 percent as a result of the tax.
If carbon pricing was working, you might well ask why the law was repealed. The result is that Australia has no clear climate policy, though Mr. Abbott says he now believes climate change is occurring and he takes it “very seriously.”
The prime minister’s paramount concern, though, is still that taxing emissions should not “clobber the economy.” His government has proposed an alternative to the carbon tax, the Direct Action Scheme, that would provide incentives for businesses to cut emissions. But it faces fierce criticism — even from within Mr. Abbott’s own administration — because of loopholes, a lack of consequences for nonparticipants and its unfunded targets.
What’s clear is that Australia has proved again that politicians rarely choose to take the lead on tackling climate change. When the public is conflicted, our leaders too often whip up fear, and reason and evidence go out the window. The shame is that when the tax was axed, so were the facts.
Julia Baird is a journalist and a television presenter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and an author who is working on a biography of Queen Victoria.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/opinion/julia-baird-why-tony-abbott-axed-australias-carbon-tax.html
.. so to today ..
Greg Hunt’s dubious carbon claims exposed
James Fernyhough Money Editor Apr 24, 2015
Minister’s claim we will easily meet our carbon emissions target is either wild optimism or a barefaced lie.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt is accused of fast tracking the mine. Photo: AAP
http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/2015/04/24/greg-hunt-blind-optimist-outright-liar/
~~
A Simple Guide To Understanding Greg Hunt's 'Nonsense' Carbon Con
By New Matilda on April 24, 2015
https://newmatilda.com/2015/04/24/simple-guide-understanding-greg-hunts-nonsense-carbon-con/
~~
The inconvenient truth about Direct Action comes from Turnbull himself
Lenore Taylor Friday 25 September 2015 05.47 EDT
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/25/the-inconvenient-truth-about-direct-action-comes-from-turnbull-himself
~~
Australia’s climate targets still out of reach after second emissions auction
Peter Christoff
Associate Professor, School of Geography, University of Melbourne
November 12, 2015 7.58pm EST
https://theconversation.com/australias-climate-targets-still-out-of-reach-after-second-emissions-auction-50519
~~
Paris climate talks: Tim Flannery optimistic global agreement will be reached
By environment reporter Sara Phillips
Updated Wed at 9:21am
Photo: Professor Flannery said the booming renewable energy industry
is proof the world is willing and able to step up to the challenge. (AAP)
Related Story: Direct Action auction winner hits out at 'lack of real climate action'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-24/direct-action-auction-winner-hits-back-at-government/6970538
Related Story: Bega climate change experience leads to UN summit in Paris
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-17/bega-activist-to-address-un-climate-change-paris/6947248
Related Story: UK upbeat about Paris climate talks
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-18/uk-upbeat-about-paris-climate-talks/6950194
Related Story: World leaders to seek 2C degree climate deal in Paris: draft statement
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-16/world-leaders-vow-to-seek-2c-degree-climate-deal-in-paris/6945848
Map: France - http://www.google.com/maps/place/France/@46,2,5z
Australian Climate Council chief Tim Flannery says he is optimistic world leaders will reach a global agreement on climate change during talks in Paris next week.
The council will release a report today outlining the growth of renewable energy in the past six years.
Professor Flannery said the booming industry was proof the world was willing and able to step up to the challenge of addressing climate change.
"Circumstances have changed between the Copenhagen meeting in 2009 and the Paris meeting in 2015," Professor Flannery said.
"We've seen a huge increase in the deployment of renewables, and an enormous cost decrease in those renewables.
"What that story tells us is the mechanism is there to honour the pledges that are being made at Paris."
He said while the world was moving to embrace renewable energy such as solar and wind, Australia had been hampered by government policy in recent years.
"We went through five electoral cycles at the federal level, where we had clear bipartisan support for an ambitious renewable energy target ... that bipartisanship was then blown out of the water," he said.
While the Government and the Opposition reached a compromise Renewable Energy Target, Labor has said it intends to raise it if it wins government.
"I think it'd be great to see bipartisan support for a much stronger target," Professor Flannery said.
"If you look at that target versus opportunity, you'll see Australia is still missing the ball. The opportunities here are so enormous," he said, pointing to Australia's wealth of wind, sun, waves and natural geothermal heat.
Paris talks 'won't be a make or break event'
Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, was less optimistic about prospects for the international climate meeting.
"The reality is that Paris won't be a make or break event, but it could be an important demonstration of global momentum," he said.
--
Megacities swamped by sea rise
Australia's coastal capitals would slip under the waves along with megacities across
the world even if global warming can be limited to 2 degrees Celsius, scientists say.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-09/global-warming-to-impact-megacities-with-surging-sea-levels/6924328
--
"What is most important is the commitments that countries have already made, and will continue to make.
"And what is becoming abundantly clear is that the globe is heading towards a low-carbon future."
Both men agreed that the renewable energy industry had exploded globally.
"According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, more than 160 countries now have some kind of renewable energy target — four times the number there were in 2005," Mr Thornton said.
Professor Flannery pointed out that new investment in renewables had eclipsed investment in traditional energy sources and jobs in renewables had doubled in the past six years.
All of which "gives us cause for real hope that Paris will be a success," Professor Flannery said.
"Whatever promises are made to reduce emissions you need to have mechanisms in place that will do that and renewable energy has now got to a scale where very clearly it's capable of doing that," he added.
http://www.newsjs.com/url.php?p=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-25/flannery-optimistic-agreement-will-be-achieved-at-paris-talks/6970546
See also:
The Political History of Cap and Trade
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=110010207
New Study Predicts Year Your City's Climate Will Change
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92899696
Why do people question climate change?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=118809162
Why Tony Abbott Axed Australia’s Carbon Tax
Julia Baird JULY 24, 2014
SYDNEY, Australia — It will be remembered as one of the most ignoble moments in our history: On July 17, Australia became the first country to repeal a carbon tax.
The deputy leader of the Greens Party, Adam Bandt, said it was “the Australian Parliament’s asbestos moment, our tobacco moment — when we knew what we were doing was harmful, but went ahead and did it anyway.”
The tax, or carbon-pricing mechanism, had defined three elections, destabilized three prime ministers and dominated public debate in this country for eight toxic years. Finally, the leader of the center-right Liberal Party, Tony Abbott, won the last election in part by promising to “ax the tax.”
Mr. Abbott is famous for his fitness and muscular approach. As a student at Oxford, he won a “blue” at boxing for the university and was known for his all-out, flailing attacks. When the carbon-pricing scheme became law in 2011, he vowed to lead a “people’s revolt” and “fight this tax every second of every minute of every day.”
His political success was not, in fact, a result of the failure of the policy. The scheme was, in at least the most important sense, working, since emissions were declining. The initial public opposition was fading, but the Labor government that introduced the policy failed to sell it. Critics portrayed it as a burden that would hurt businesses and cost households, instead of one that would cut pollution and ensure a more secure future for our children.
It was the misleading old cliché — the economy versus the environment — but politicians staked their careers on it, and won.
In 2010, the Labor prime minister, Julia Gillard, said she would look at carbon-pricing proposals, but also promised, “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.” Then, under pressure to form a minority government, she made a deal with the Greens and agreed to legislate a carbon price: a tax by any other name.
The heat, anger and vitriol directed at her as a leader — and as Australia’s first woman to be prime minister — coalesced around the promise and the tax. It grew strangely nasty: She was branded by a right-wing shockjock as “Ju-Liar,” a moniker she struggled to shake. The political cynicism surrounding the carbon tax certainly reduced Ms. Gillard’s political capital, but it was a perceived lack of conviction in the policy itself that damaged the pricing scheme’s credibility.
Business leaders opposed what Mr. Abbott called a “useless, destructive tax,” even though just 0.02 percent of Australia’s three million businesses were affected (the top 500 polluters). But Australia is one of the world’s biggest producers of coal, and the industry is worth about $60 billion and supports an estimated 200,000 jobs.
A powerful triumvirate campaigned against the law: mining companies, the conservative coalition parties and Rupert Murdoch’s
newspapers. A study found that 82 percent of articles on the carbon tax in News Corporation’s Australian papers were negative.
Ms. Gillard now believes she made a crucial error in framing. After losing office in June 2013, she wrote: “I erred by not contesting the label ‘tax’ for the fixed price period of the emissions trading scheme I introduced. I feared the media would end up playing constant silly word games with me, trying to get me to say the word ‘tax.”’
George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed that “was a disaster.” It wasn’t just the T-word; even the term “carbon price” was a problem, too abstract and technical: “It does not evoke in the minds of the public the real human horrors and economic costs of climate disasters.”
“I made the wrong choice,” Ms. Gillard conceded, “and, politically, it hurt me terribly.” With Labor plummeting in the polls, her leadership was challenged and she lost the vote to the party’s previous leader, Kevin Rudd. (Mr. Rudd’s victory was shortlived; less than three months later, he was defeated general election by Mr. Abbott.)
Opposition to the carbon tax trailed away after Ms. Gillard’s ouster, and public concern about climate change has only grown. A recent poll found that almost two-thirds of Australians believe there should be carbon pricing for major emitters, but 42 percent agreed with the repeal of the tax (against 36 percent who did not). We did, after all, elect a government that promised to ax it. So we’re a hot mess of contradictions.
Mr. Abbott’s claim that households will be better off by 550 Australian dollars, or $520, a year following the repeal has been greeted with skepticism. Electricity prices did go up after carbon pricing came in, but this was mostly because of investment in infrastructure. Consumers are likely to see no effect now — unless they’re paying less simply by using less electricity. An Australian National University study reported that carbon emissions from the power generation sector had been cut by 1 to 2 percent as a result of the tax.
If carbon pricing was working, you might well ask why the law was repealed. The result is that Australia has no clear climate policy, though Mr. Abbott says he now believes climate change is occurring and he takes it “very seriously.”
The prime minister’s paramount concern, though, is still that taxing emissions should not “clobber the economy.” His government has proposed an alternative to the carbon tax, the Direct Action Scheme, that would provide incentives for businesses to cut emissions. But it faces fierce criticism — even from within Mr. Abbott’s own administration — because of loopholes, a lack of consequences for nonparticipants and its unfunded targets.
What’s clear is that Australia has proved again that politicians rarely choose to take the lead on tackling climate change. When the public is conflicted, our leaders too often whip up fear, and reason and evidence go out the window. The shame is that when the tax was axed, so were the facts.
Julia Baird is a journalist and a television presenter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and an author who is working on a biography of Queen Victoria.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/opinion/julia-baird-why-tony-abbott-axed-australias-carbon-tax.html
.. so to today ..
Greg Hunt’s dubious carbon claims exposed
James Fernyhough Money Editor Apr 24, 2015
Minister’s claim we will easily meet our carbon emissions target is either wild optimism or a barefaced lie.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt is accused of fast tracking the mine. Photo: AAP
http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/2015/04/24/greg-hunt-blind-optimist-outright-liar/
~~
A Simple Guide To Understanding Greg Hunt's 'Nonsense' Carbon Con
By New Matilda on April 24, 2015
https://newmatilda.com/2015/04/24/simple-guide-understanding-greg-hunts-nonsense-carbon-con/
~~
The inconvenient truth about Direct Action comes from Turnbull himself
Lenore Taylor Friday 25 September 2015 05.47 EDT
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/25/the-inconvenient-truth-about-direct-action-comes-from-turnbull-himself
~~
Australia’s climate targets still out of reach after second emissions auction
Peter Christoff
Associate Professor, School of Geography, University of Melbourne
November 12, 2015 7.58pm EST
https://theconversation.com/australias-climate-targets-still-out-of-reach-after-second-emissions-auction-50519
~~
Paris climate talks: Tim Flannery optimistic global agreement will be reached
By environment reporter Sara Phillips
Updated Wed at 9:21am
Photo: Professor Flannery said the booming renewable energy industry
is proof the world is willing and able to step up to the challenge. (AAP)
Related Story: Direct Action auction winner hits out at 'lack of real climate action'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-24/direct-action-auction-winner-hits-back-at-government/6970538
Related Story: Bega climate change experience leads to UN summit in Paris
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-17/bega-activist-to-address-un-climate-change-paris/6947248
Related Story: UK upbeat about Paris climate talks
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-18/uk-upbeat-about-paris-climate-talks/6950194
Related Story: World leaders to seek 2C degree climate deal in Paris: draft statement
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-16/world-leaders-vow-to-seek-2c-degree-climate-deal-in-paris/6945848
Map: France - http://www.google.com/maps/place/France/@46,2,5z
Australian Climate Council chief Tim Flannery says he is optimistic world leaders will reach a global agreement on climate change during talks in Paris next week.
The council will release a report today outlining the growth of renewable energy in the past six years.
Professor Flannery said the booming industry was proof the world was willing and able to step up to the challenge of addressing climate change.
"Circumstances have changed between the Copenhagen meeting in 2009 and the Paris meeting in 2015," Professor Flannery said.
"We've seen a huge increase in the deployment of renewables, and an enormous cost decrease in those renewables.
"What that story tells us is the mechanism is there to honour the pledges that are being made at Paris."
He said while the world was moving to embrace renewable energy such as solar and wind, Australia had been hampered by government policy in recent years.
"We went through five electoral cycles at the federal level, where we had clear bipartisan support for an ambitious renewable energy target ... that bipartisanship was then blown out of the water," he said.
While the Government and the Opposition reached a compromise Renewable Energy Target, Labor has said it intends to raise it if it wins government.
"I think it'd be great to see bipartisan support for a much stronger target," Professor Flannery said.
"If you look at that target versus opportunity, you'll see Australia is still missing the ball. The opportunities here are so enormous," he said, pointing to Australia's wealth of wind, sun, waves and natural geothermal heat.
Paris talks 'won't be a make or break event'
Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, was less optimistic about prospects for the international climate meeting.
"The reality is that Paris won't be a make or break event, but it could be an important demonstration of global momentum," he said.
--
Megacities swamped by sea rise
Australia's coastal capitals would slip under the waves along with megacities across
the world even if global warming can be limited to 2 degrees Celsius, scientists say.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-09/global-warming-to-impact-megacities-with-surging-sea-levels/6924328
--
"What is most important is the commitments that countries have already made, and will continue to make.
"And what is becoming abundantly clear is that the globe is heading towards a low-carbon future."
Both men agreed that the renewable energy industry had exploded globally.
"According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, more than 160 countries now have some kind of renewable energy target — four times the number there were in 2005," Mr Thornton said.
Professor Flannery pointed out that new investment in renewables had eclipsed investment in traditional energy sources and jobs in renewables had doubled in the past six years.
All of which "gives us cause for real hope that Paris will be a success," Professor Flannery said.
"Whatever promises are made to reduce emissions you need to have mechanisms in place that will do that and renewable energy has now got to a scale where very clearly it's capable of doing that," he added.
http://www.newsjs.com/url.php?p=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-25/flannery-optimistic-agreement-will-be-achieved-at-paris-talks/6970546
See also:
The Political History of Cap and Trade
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=110010207
New Study Predicts Year Your City's Climate Will Change
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92899696
Why do people question climate change?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=118809162
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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