The new Australian PM changed his policy rather than the climate when it was revealed to him that supporting a 25% cut on 1990 carbon emission levels by 2020 would lead to large rises in electricity prices.
He is yet another of these politicians who thinks it is warm and friendly to say he wants to do something to curb carbon, but who finds the policies needed are too unpopular. Just like Labour here, they talk the talk but do not walk the walk.
The answer is to encoruage and incentivise people to be burn less energy, not pillory them with taxes and regulations. The public does not believe climate change theory sufficiently to welcome large increases in energy prices through higher taxes, or taxes on particular lifestyles that they have adopted.
December 7, 2007
Absolutely – we need a proper market based, cap-and-auction carbon trading scheme. It must apply to everything – heating and air travel, and other climate taxes (petrol duty) should at the same time be removed.
Otherwise we won't efficiently make the carbon reductions that we need to make to save our economy, and our businesses.
I recommend the CBI's climate change report which came out a couple of weeks ago, if you haven't seen it already.