Tide is Turning: Australia, Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Deficit Levy.

While driving to work yesterday, consuming my fossil fuels in the increasing congestion of Melbourne's suburbs, I listened to an ABC Radio National Breakfast report on the United Nations Environment Program including warnings from IMF and World Bank against investment in Fossil Fuel Industries.

Here is the podcast.

The Age reported on 12 April 2014" leaders of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and United Nations on Friday called upon finance ministers to use fiscal policies, such as carbon taxes, to combat climate change."

Christine Lagarde's Dimbleby Lecture (02/02/2014) can be found at the IMF Website. This part of her speech is of great concern to us in Australia:

" Overcoming climate change is obviously a gigantic project with a multitude of moving parts. I would just like to mention one component of it—making sure that people pay for the damage they cause. Why is this aspect—getting the prices right—so important? Because it will help to reduce the harm today and spur investment in the low-carbon technologies of tomorrow.

Phasing out energy subsidies and getting energy prices right must also be part of the solution. Think about it: we are subsidizing the very behavior that is destroying our planet, and on an enormous scale. Both direct subsidies and the loss of tax revenue from fossil fuels ate up almost $2 trillion in 2011—this is about the same as the total GDP of countries like Italy or Russia! The worst part is that these subsidies mostly benefit the relatively affluent, not the poor. Reducing subsidies and properly taxing energy use can be a win-win prospect for people and for the planet."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenstonegirlpix/14063622923/

This comes at a time where our 'beloved leaders' in the Federal sphere are ripping up any and almost every environmental policy they can lay their hands on, including the Carbon Tax.

Australia is "open for business" to rip us off with fossil Industry subsidies that do more harm than good, and cannot be supported when you factor in environmental damage and the idea that markets are self correcting.

So why is Australia bucking the world  trend??

Why can neither the Labour Party nor the Liberals do something about professional  lobbying by those industry leaders who use the money and influence to sway our Governments to do the wrong thing by the people and the environment?

The corruption hearings in NSW are opening eyes to how politics and business can be done. This is not news in Australia and affects all the big political players and industries.

But the good news is that our World corruption ranking has dropped according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2013.

However, our environmental rankings must be plummeting. Go figure!

PS I'm happy to pay back the $900 given by Kevin Rudd & Labour - I invested this in solar power and have made a profit since then.