Sounds pretty good doesn’t it. Australia is going to lead the way towards the saving of our planet. Then I remember that this is the guy who wouldn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol (Australia and the USA the only major western nations not to do so). The same guy who thought global warming was a scam, and the same guy who is looking to get re-elected very soon. Did he really see the truth, or is this just greenwashing?
As I don’t live in Australia, I can only offer my best guess. I figure he is taking a page for the George W Bush handbook here. Pretend you love the earth, find an issue that seems green (biofuels from corn lets say, or hydrogen) but that by supporting will actually benefit some large corporation (the mega-farms and the oil/gas/coal companies) and then hype the shit out of it. To be fair from the video is sounds as if he is going to do more than Bush has done to date. But again I don’t know the intricate ins and outs of Australian politics so here are what some news sources are saying.
Worst polluters ‘off the hook’ under Howard
The new plan does not put a price on carbon or set an emissions reduction target, and the report on which it is based also includes measures to soften the impact on big emitters.
The report of the Government’s Task Group on Emissions Trading recommended that free annual permits be issued to compensate companies for losses in the value of their assets under the emissions restrictions.
“Other permits would be provided to trade-exposed, emissions-intensive firms to ameliorate the bulk of the competitiveness impact of the emissions cap,” the report said.
Dr Pearse says this kind of compensation for the worst polluting industries is the exact opposite of the kind of incentives an emissions trading scheme should provide.
“If you look closely at the implications of effectively carving out those worst-polluting industries from the emissions trading scheme, the impact is to double the carbon price that the rest of the economy bears,” he said.
“So you and I end up paying more for our electricity, in order that our worst-polluting industries get off virtually scot-free.”
Australia’s Emissions Trading Scheme Sets No Cap, No Date
Critics immediately jumped all over the government’s plan, saying it does not go nearly far enough to deal with the global warming crisis.
The next general election for the Parliament of Australia must take place by January 19, 2008, and critics said the government’s emissions trading scheme is merely electioneering.
The opposition Labor Party released a national television ad today with the message “John Howard’s asleep on climate change.”
Labor calls for cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent on 2000 levels by 2050, setting up a national emissions trading scheme, and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, which the Howard Government opposes.
“If this is Prime Minister John Howard’s big picture response to climate change it is a complete failure,” said Australian Greens climate change spokesperson Senator Christine Milne. “This is an election driven response, not a climate driven response.”
“There are no science-driven targets, no role for Kyoto and no incentives for renewable energy. After a decade of inaction and active frustration of global efforts, Mr. Howard is delusional about Australia’s global role in forging a new treaty to tackle climate change.”
Environmental News Service
Howard’s green vouchers dismissed as greenwash
Prime Minister John Howard today announced a $627 million package of measures to tackle global warming, including $336 million for “green vouchers” for schools.
Labor’s environment and climate change spokesman Peter Garrett said the package was a sign Mr Howard was scrambling to appear relevant on the issue.
“There’s no doubt that Mr Howard is feeling the political heat,” he told ABC Radio.
“He and his Government recognise that they are exposed on climate change because they have not taken it seriously.
“Now we’re witnessing a desperate re-scrambling by the Prime Minister as he attempts to put himself back into the frame of climate change issues.”
Environmentalists dismissed the package as a political stunt.
“The PM’s climate change fund appears to be more election-time greenwash,” said Greenpeace energy campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick.
If these guys were really serious about adressing global warming they would push higher fuel efficiency standards, wind/solar/geothermal power subsidies, taxes on carbon, and a cap and trade system for co2.
Here is what one Youtuber felt about the video,
I wonder how much of this changeover was motivated by the crushing drought in Australia. I suppose that if your country is experiencing the worse drought in a 1000 years and everyone is whispering (or yelling) that global warming is a contributing factor, you’d have to be a nutter of a leader not to start talking about it as well.
Cat: I would hope that his change of heart is for real and that he wants to make real and lasting positive changes to Australia, but like Bush it just seems so unlikely given his past actions. And according to many news sources he is just giving out money to some big companies while not really doing anything to help his country with the problems of global warming. I think that with the unpopularity of the Iraq war, and his nations views that he is not doing enough to solve the problems of climate change that he most likely will not be the leader of Australia much longer. We can hope for the best.
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