Kevin Rudd signs global climate deal
In further sign of the Australian Government’s intention to make up for lost time, The Australian is reporting “Kevin Rudd signs global climate deal,” saying;
AUSTRALIA has signed off on a global deal to restrain global warming to two degrees which could mean Australia must do more to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
The leaders of 16 major economies, meeting in Italy, called for an “extraordinary global response” to the great challenge of climate change.
The leaders, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, issued a communique saying they recognised the science that global warming should not exceed two degrees.
Australian climate expert Will Steffen says limiting warming to two degrees means a global atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases of not more than 450 parts per million.
And for the world to reach that, Australia must cut emissions by 25 per cent by 2020, and by 80 per cent by 2050, he says.
Climate advisor Ross Garnaut says Australia should cut emissions by 90 per cent by 2050 to stabilise at 450 parts per million.
Australia has promised to cut emissions by 5 to 25 per cent by 2020, and by 60 per cent by 2050.
This is excellent news and bodes well for a universal response at Copenhagen in December, when the COP-15 talks will determine the fate of the world.
Responding to climate change properly means responding to waste and responding to externalities. No wonder it’s such a hard job. It’s easy for commentators to snipe from the sidelines without offering their own sensible solutions. I was at a speech the other day and a man asked me why the nation had not had the chance to debate the merits of a carbon tax. I asked him what sort of tax he meant. Was it a sales tax? A GST? Income tax perhaps? Would it apply to everything? How would it be fair, be applied?
A ‘carbon tax’ however defined, means the Government has to pick the winners, and that’s a position no Government wants to be in. — DS