A former head of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom has described attempts to repeal Australia’s carbon price laws as an “appalling” move that “recklessly” endangers the future.
Lord Deben, who served in UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet and is now chairman of the independent UK Committee on Climate Change, said the conservative Liberal-National government “appears to be more concerned with advancing its own short-term political interests” than dealing with global warming.
“Australia’s actions are appalling,” Lord Deben said in a statement quoted by Fairfax Media.
“While the 66 countries that account for 88 per cent of global emissions have passed laws to address global warming, Australia is repealing them.”
“Australia’s carbon price was already working.
“It was reducing emissions without any of the economic damage that people feared,” Lord Deben said.
“Australia is changing Britain’s climate as we are changing yours.
“It is not just a national matter. We are all in this together and Mr Abbott is recklessly endangering our future, as he is Australia’s.”
the Prime Minister has been campaigning to scrap policies placing a price on carbon for several years and barring a last-minute change of heart by the Palmer United Party, the government expects to have the upper house Senate votes needed to repeal the carbon price laws later this week.
It remains unclear whether an emissions trading scheme with a zero starting price, as proposed by Clive Palmer, has any chance of getting Senate backing.
“We know the carbon tax isn’t reducing emissions in a meaningful way.
“We need a policy that will allow Australia to reach our minus-five per cent emissions reduction target by 2020,” a spokesman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt told Fairfax Media.
Lord Deben, though, dismissed the five per cent target as weak.
“If China and the United States can start taking meaningful action, then surely Australia, one of the world’s largest per-capita emitters can too”, Lord Deben said.
“This is a global battle and Australia’s five per cent emissions reduction target is too low a contribution. It needs to step up and show leadership.”
“Tony Abbott has taken Australia from an international leader to an international embarrassment,” Mark Butler, Labor’s climate change spokesman told Fairfax Media.
“His approach is in opposition to the efforts of the rest of the world, including those of his conservative colleagues in the United Kingdom.”
Australian Greens Party leader Senator Christine Milne said Lord Deben was “absolutely right”, with Australia “throwing away the cheapest and most effective global warming policy we could have, with reckless disregard for Australians and people all over the world, especially those in vulnerable pacific island nations.”
“It is dangerous and it shames Australia that our Prime Minister is ruled by ideology and his mates in the polluting fossil-fuels sector making Australia a pariah on the global stage and undermining efforts for a global treaty,” Senator Milne said.
The UK has a binding target to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and wants the European Union to raises its ambitions to a 30 per cent reduction by the 2020 from the current 20 per cent goal.
“Even during these tough economic times we have increased significantly our climate change measures,” Lord Deben said.
“There is no economic reason to stop Australia doing the same.”
2 Responses
Simple,
Ban all coal mining now!!!! Totally unnecessary. Introduce a 75% energy tax as most countries do and use the money for renewables that will employ far more people than foreign owned mining companies that control our government in the form of legal corruption (political donations)
Yes the Criminal Bansker scum in the City Of London find it distressing that the Australian people actually used the democratic vote to express their wishes.