Monday 29 June 2015

Businesses spit the dummy at political climate paralysis - Australia

We've had science trying to get through to the Abbott gov without success. Religion has also emphatically tried to tell the Abbott gov that the science is real without success. Now it's the turn of Australian business to try and get through to the Abbott gov. Will they have any better luck? My guess is no, although I do hope I'm wrong. 

These aren't just a few small fly by night organisations either. They represent pretty much the entire current business world in Australia.
Groups included in the “climate roundtable”, which has been meeting secretly for more than a year, are the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Aluminium Council, the Climate Institute, the Australian Council on Social Service, the Investor Group on Climate Change, the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF, the Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA) and the ACTU. more
The problem is of course that "Direct Action" doesn't work and is incredibly expensive. A token gesture at climate change designed to make it look like Abbott's actually doing something about something he thinks is "crap". A slush fund for polluters even is how many view Direct Action. They threw out the perfectly good emissions trading scheme which was working marvelously in the scare campaign to win gov ("axe the tax").

This group of businesses aren't just asking for some stable policy whatever that is either. They want something that actually works to make real and deep cuts to emissions, not just window dressing that treats us all like idiots. 
The “principles” agreed to by the groups include that climate policy should: 
  • drive domestic abatement wherever it is efficient and internationally recognised across all sectors of the Australian economy 
  •  make use of internationally recognised abatement from overseas to ease the transition towards net zero emissions 
  • recognise the strategic importance of reducing emissions from the energy sector in achieving the overall goal 
  • use any revenue resulting from climate policy to address legitimate needs directly related to climate policy, and otherwise be returned to businesses and individuals more
Will Abbott listen to business? Probably not. Not unless it's politically expedient for him. Politics is the only world Abbott lives in.

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