Rudd commits to weak target
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has committed Australia to a weak 5% decrease below 2000 carbon emission levels by 2020. He has left the door open for a less weak 15% decrease should other countries sign up to a stronger international agreement.
Garnaut recommended a 25% decrease and it’s clear that Rudd would much rather listen to the cha-ching of the cash registers as we continue to feed on our junk food diet of coal-fired electricity. Where’s the beef? Rudd says he’s still committed to 60% by 2050 but I have no idea how he thinks he’s going to get there if we’re only cutting ourselves back to 5% of 2000 levels by 2020.
We need to get to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 if we’re going to have any hope of stopping runaway climate change. The Australian government have just made it abundantly clear that they will take no leadership role in moving the world beyond carbon fuel dependence. It looks like they don’t even believe it’s a serious problem.
For all Rudd’s talk of it being time to move forward during the election campaign, it’s becoming clearer and clearer every day that he’s only interested in symbolic gestures, not the actual measures that are meant to go along with it. He may end up being a one term wonder after all if he continues this weak action on the big issues. Signing Kyoto without committing to decent targets; the Apology without rolling back the intervention; empty gestures with nothing to back them up.
This is a dark day in the history of Australia’s battle against runaway climate change. Rudd has just consigned us to the list of people who thought it was all too hard and threw their hands up.
Whilst I disagree with your remarks on the intervention, I can’t argue with the rest. Kevin Rudd hasn’t gone far enough with the emissions targets and I’m starting to wonder if we have any hope left.
I do think there needs to be a fine balance between reducing targets and the resulting economic damage. More money into renewable energy technologies and businesses would be a good start. New training courses for those entering the workforce in these new industries.
By becoming a world leader in the technology of climate change abatement, Australia has a chance of coming out on top. Seems Kevin Rudd is more interested in keeping the peace within his own party.
As Garnaut said, a time of economic trouble is the best time for restructuring. This is the time to use massive public investment in renewable energy (rather than sending the money to clean coal) to drive an amount of economic recovery and to put us in a good position when other countries come out of recession and want more renewable energy.
When the economy slows down, people tend to spend less so they can continue to afford food. I would hope that this current economic downturn reduces our coal fired electricity consumption. I can imagine that with a recession and the already high fuel prices, people will be less willing to drive. Perhaps a major investment in public transport should be forthcoming. Rudd committed billions to road projects in Queensland (including NorthernLink) and that money could’ve gone into new rail projects instead. We should be bringing forward the construction of new commuter rail lines in SEQ rather than the construction of road tunnels.