Risking a new era of pollution protectionism
by Don HenryExecutive Director
Australian Conservation Foundation
It's in Australia's national interest that the world acts early and decisively to avoid dangerous climate change. Scientists, Professor Ross Garnaut and the Federal Government agree with this. Does the white paper deliver?
The white paper's centrepiece – a target to cut emissions by just 5–15 per cent by 2020 against year 2000 levels – is far too weak to deal with the problem and will not position Australia to be a leader in this year's crucial international negotiations on climate change. If adopted globally, the Government's weak 2020 target would mean devastation for the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Alps and the Kakadu wetlands and would steer the earth towards catastrophic climate change. Australians have not given permission for our government to put up the white flag on our much loved and ecologically rich natural icons. Also of huge concern is the white paper's proposition that billions of taxpayers' dollars in the form of carbon credits will go directly to some of Australia's biggest polluters, with virtually no strings attached. This could herald a new era of pollution protectionism.
Analysis by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors for ACF found the Government's plan will see Australian taxpayers giving away $3.5 billion in 2010 and $5.3 billion by 2015 to some of the country's worst polluting companies. That means every Australian household will be paying an average of $389 a year in 2010 and $558 by 2015 to fund the activities of the corporations that are fuelling climate change. Not only will Australia's weak targets lead to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, if other countries adopt the same approach, every household is being expected to pay more than $500 a year to our biggest polluters to hasten the reef's destruction! And the white paper's weak target will damage Australia's international reputation and hold back progress towards an effective global agreement on climate change action.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's advice that developed countries, as a group, must reduce their carbon pollution by 25-40 per cent is already on the table of international negotiations. Professor Garnaut said for Australia to do its full and fair share to achieve this global goal, Australia would need to cut emissions by 25 per cent by 2020. With recent science highlighting accelerating climate change, ACF views even these targets as very conservative. A weak target to cut emissions by just 5-15 per cent by 2020 is simply not credible internationally and will make it harder, not easier, for the world to come to a strong agreement at the crucial United Nations' climate conference in Copenhagen in December this year. There are good prospects for a strong climate change agreement in Copenhagen, but Australia will have to get serious about its own emissions targets and show the leadership Australians voted for. ACF is urging all sides of politics to do more to secure a global agreement by supporting a much stronger Australian 2020 target ahead of the Copenhagen talks. Nothing less than the future of all the children of the world is at stake.
Source: Australian Options, Issue 56, Autumn 2009, p. 9.