Kevin Rudd's flawed emissions trading scheme with its very weak 5% reduction target and ridiculous 15% upper limit is unlikely to be passed by the Senate. I disagree with Michelle Grattan's conclusion (Age 1/5) that the CPRS in its current form is better than nothing.
The CPRS, in addition to grossly inadequate targets, also gifts billions to the worst polluters. In doing so, it removes incentives for the worst polluting industries to clean up their act. It is also way behind the recommendations of scientists and the Bali convention where emission reduction ranges of 25% to 40% were flagged.
Australia would be laggard at Copenhagen with the CPRS, not a leader. Hopefully all parties in the Australian Parliament will agree on effective measures to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change that the Australian people are demanding. We need to reframe politics from being part of the problem to being part of the solution.
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Possibly the worst thing about the CPRS is that it will give the impression that something is being done. This is one of the ways governments can marginalise dissent, I think. People engage with their little ploy (5-15%? Or more? Who gets exemptions? etc). We need compuslory reductions in fossil fuel use. After years of carbon trading, British emissions are still rising. There's no indication this trading scheme will be any better, probably worse.
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