by Kym Luttermoser
15. February 2011
Australia, along with many other countries, is trying to enact a climate policy that decouples economic growth from pollution. In a country where eighty percent of the electricity is generated by coal-fired power stations, this is a tough task.
The Australian government is trying to pass a climate policy that would put a price on carbon. Giving carbon a monetary value presents an incentive to conserve; the end result should be lower greenhouse gas emissions. The government has failed to pass the climate policy three times in past years. It will vote on the issue for a fourth time in 2011.
Opposition to the climate policy is largely fueled by political and business organizations’ fear of higher power and fuel bills. Demand for the export of Australian coal and gas is also likely to increase in coming years. According to the Climate Department, “fugitive emissions from coal mines and oil and gas projects, as well as direct fuel combustion emissions from LNG projects, account for almost half of the growth in Australia’s total emissions from 2010 to 2020.”
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said, “Our economy as it grows is still very closely linked and drives growth in pollution. The successful economies of the future are going to decouple their pollution growth from their economic growth, and that’s the challenge we’ve got.”
Recent natural disasters in Australia – extreme heat waves and fires blasted the country in 2009 and 2010, followed by flooding in January of 2011 and category 5 cyclone Yasi in February – have left behind a $10 billion disaster bill and lost revenue from export commodities. After all of that, it seems that maybe now people are ready to start acting.
When do you think the general population will be willing to accept that economic growth cannot continue at the expense of the environment? Do you think it’s an all or nothing venture or is there a middle ground? If so, what is it?
