Donations, Money, Power, Politics and Climate Council: Australian Hot Air

With the axing of the Climate Commission by the newly incumbent Abbott Government we are seeing the re-grouping of scientists, economists and those interested in Climate Change.

Tim Flannery has today announced the opening of the new Climate Council funded by the community.
If you want their work of education and reasoned advice to continue, please donate.
Yes I have!

The Climate Commission's brief, to explain climate change to Australians, obviously didn't work very well judging by the number of climate skeptics that continually pop-up on TV and media generally. But is that their fault or that of powerful vested interests in business and the media?

Mr Abbott's government has passed the education function to the Bureau of Meterology. I wonder if they will get any funding to effectively do that? I haven't heard anything as yet. Will Climate Change information be displayed prominently on their home page? Lets wait and see.

Many years ago, in my past life, I remember signing secrecy agreements, restricting my ability to comment to the media without express permission from my management. We protested this vigorously!
As a Council Employee my Code of Conduct asks for something similar.

But as a private citizen I expect to be able to comment appropriately. And use appropriate means to convey my concerns to our elected politicians.

As Paul Barry on Media Watch pointed out headlines the the Australian Newspaper such as "We Got it Wrong on Warming, Says IPCC" showed only one thing. That the Australian can't be trusted to get it right!

A retraction from the Australian was posted later but the damage had already been done. Lying, over-exaggeration and self-interest of the powerful is common in this brave new world of media. Good to see Paul Barry and Media Watch bringing them to account.

Climate Change, Carbon Tax and the Coming Election

With the change of Labor leadership to a recycled Kevin Rudd, it will be interesting to see if "the greatest moral challenge of our time", that of effective response to climate change will feature heavily in the coming election.
Seeing Malcolm Turnbull on Q and A on Monday made me wince. I felt for his answers to various questions regarding the Coalition's "Direct Action" Policy - including the statement:

"The Liberal Party's policy is to do that with a range of measures, so-called direct action but that involves a lot of things. You know, by competitive bidding of carbon reduction mechanisms and a whole range of measures and but the big difference between our policy, apart from the fact it has a much lower cost than obviously the carbon tax at the moment, is that it is not designed to go any further than 2020....So it is not a long-term policy."
And "I have been a very strong advocate of market-based mechanisms. I have to say, however, being very honest - frank about it, that emissions trading schemes to date have worked better in theory than in practice. The over-allocation in Europe has really been something of a disaster in terms of the emissions trading scheme there."

My remembrance of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was that more permits were being requested for business by Malcolm (then Liberal Leader), an over-allocation perhaps!.

My early flowering Jonquils

So now we know the Federal Opposition's Direct Action scheme is short-term. So why do it and then have to change schemes?

So is the current scheme, the much maligned, Carbon Tax working?

Matt McDonald, in the Conversation "Why Labor should fight the 2013 election on climate change" writes:
"Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation hit a 10 year low in early 2013, driven by increases in cost for wholesale electricity and an increase in the share of electricity provided through renewable sources. Both of these dynamics are attributable to the carbon tax."
And "Most industry representatives they interviewed, all from fossil fuel intensive industries, indicated support for increased government intervention to set and maintain carbon pricing mechanisms to create business and investment stability". See the Conversation for the rest and his comments today

Other interesting media discussions on the topic include "Extreme Weather" on ABC TV Catalyst show, explaining in some detail why we have been having such cold, bright weather recently.
Jonathon Holmes, now retired from Media Watch, also reprised the topic "Hot air stoking the climate change debate" on 24 June 13.

So does Kevin have the moral fibre to make this an election issue and keep the price on carbon a market based scheme?