Australia And Canada Form Climate Realist Alliance
Mark Kennedy
The political leaders of Canada and Australia declared on Monday they won’t take any action to battle climate change that harms their national economies and threatens jobs.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, made the statements following a meeting on Parliament Hill.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper both say there is no need for carbon pricing to combat climate change. Photo: Andrew Meares
Abbott, whose Liberal party came to power last fall on a conservative platform, publicly praised Harper for being an “exemplar” of “centre-right leadership” in the world.
Abbott’s government has come under criticism for its plan to cancel Australia’s carbon tax, while Harper has been criticized for failing to introduce regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s oil and gas sector.
Later this week, Abbott meets with U.S. President Barack Obama, who has vowed to make global warming a political priority and whose administration is proposing a 30-per-cent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 2030.
At a Monday news conference, Harper and Abbott both said they welcomed Obama’s plan. Abbott said he plans to take similar action, and Harper boasted that Canada is already ahead of the U.S. in imposing controls on the “electricity sector.”
But both leaders stressed that they won’t be pushed into taking steps on climate change they deem unwise.
“It’s not that we don’t seek to deal with climate change,” said Harper. “But we seek to deal with it in a way that will protect and enhance our ability to create jobs and growth. Not destroy jobs and growth in our countries.”
Harper said that no country is going to undertake actions on climate change — “no matter what they say” — that will “deliberately destroy jobs and growth in their country.
“We are just a little more frank about that.”
Abbott said climate change is a “significant problem” but he said it is not the “most important problem the world faces.
“We should do what we reasonably can to limit emissions and avoid climate change, man-made climate change,” said Abbott.
“But we shouldn’t clobber the economy. That’s why I’ve always been against a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme — because it harms our economy without necessarily helping the environment.”
Abbott’s two-day trip to Ottawa was his first since becoming prime minister and it quickly became evident he is on the same political page as Harper. They are both conservative politicians who espouse the need to balance the budget, cut taxes, and focus on international trade.
Just as Harper once turned to former Australian prime John Howard for political guidance, Abbott is now turning to his Canadian counterpart as a model.
Australia, Canada To ‘Forge Alliance’ To Counter Obama’s Green Agenda
International Business Times, 10 June 2014
Reissa Su
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is seeking an alliance among “like-minded” nations to thwart efforts to introduce carbon pricing and American President Barack Obama’s move to push climate change through global forums like G20.
Abbott, who is visiting Canada for talks with the country’s prime minister and his close friend Stephen Harper, said efforts are underway to form a new “center-right” alliance under the leadership of Canada, UK, Australia, India and New Zealand.
According to reports, the five Commonwealth nations have “center-right” leaning governments but the closeness between Harper and Abbott is being regarded as the most significant alliance. The combination will attempt to move the pace of climate change action via policies like emissions trading or carbon tax.
Reports said the alliance is a “calculated attempt” to push back on what both Mr Abbott and Mr Harper sees as a “left-liberal agenda” to raise taxes and “unwise” plans to address the issue of global warming.
But Abbott said in a media conference that he thought climate change is a significant problem. But it’s not the “only problem” the world faces. He said the problem remains significant and countries should act based on what they think is best to reduce carbon emissions.
The prime minister said he was “encouraged” that Obama is looking at what he regards as a direct action measure to curb emissions and found it similar to what he proposes in Australia.
He said policies to address climate change should not hurt the economy. Harper agreed with the statement and said they want to deal with climate change “in a way that enhances our ability to create jobs and growth.”
Both leaders may not yield to pressure from the U.S. should Mr Obama revive the issue of climate change ahead of the annual climate summit.
In the previous week, Obama had flagged regulatory changes to influence U.S. states to address global warming by adopting “aggressive market interventions.” as decided to take climate change off G20 agenda. In December, Australia became the chair of G20, which is a group composed of 20 countries having the biggest economies in the world.
Britain Should Join Commonwealth Alliance Against ‘Unhealthy’ Climate Policy, Says Australian PM
The Daily Telegraph, 10 June 2014
Jonathan Pearlman
Tony Abbott pushes for “conservative alliance” between Britain, Australia, Canada and India to limit “unwise” climate change action and resist carbon pricing
Mr Abbott called for limited action on climate change that would not ‘clobber the economy’
“Like-minded” countries such as Britain, Canada and India should form a conservative alliance with Australia to limit action on climate change and to prevent the introduction of carbon pricing, the country’s prime minister Tony Abbott has said.
Seeking to counter Barack Obama’s efforts for international action to reduce carbon emissions, Mr Abbott has reportedly sought to create a “combined front” with fellow Commonwealth nations that have conservative governments.
During a visit to Canada, Mr Abbott called for limited action on climate change that would not “clobber the economy”.
Like Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper, who withdrew his nation from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Mr Abbott has dismantled his predecessor’s policies and moved to repeal Australia’s carbon tax. He is regarded as a climate change sceptic and once referred to global warming science as “absolute crap”, a comment which he later retracted.
Full story
h/t to Dr. Benny Peiser at The GWPF
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Well it’s taken a long time for realism to set in but it’s started.
Unfortunately, Abbott still has to wait for changes in the Senate in July, and that’s not looking too good at this time. We will have…errrmmmm…”newbies” in the Senate and some do not understand the term “balance of power”. We also have Clive Palmer who is a…very rich person…who has no concept of the day to day reality of the 99% of ordinary Australians.
The law of unintended consequences – all those “American illegal aliens” will be looking for jobs in those 2 countries shortly. 😉
Why can’t we in the US get sane leadership like our Canadian and Australian cousins have? I know we have to work against steep headwinds with an indoctrinated population but we really need something to wake people in the US up. I never thought when watching the movie “Idiocracy” that I was watching a documentary of the future, and that the future was so disturbingly close.
I changed channel when both started bleating on about “man made climate change” and “emissions”. Maybe they are paying “lip service” to the up and coming meeting with Obama?
I keep hoping that a politician who matters is going to WANT to believe that CAGW is a hoax.
“Owen in GA says:
June 10, 2014 at 6:26 am
Why can’t we in the US get sane leadership like our Canadian and Australian cousins have?”
Not so fast! Abbott is “sucking up” to the alarmist view, especially in the build up to his meeting with Obama. Here in Aus we still need to wait on the outcome of the Senate elections, with Clive Palmer likely to hold the balance of power.
Patrick, you write “Unfortunately, Abbott still has to wait for changes in the Senate in July, and that’s not looking too good at this time.”
I am Canadian, and don’t pretend to understand Australian politics. But I thought that Abbott’s trump card was the threat of “double dissolution”.
I hope this sets the pace for other countries to follow, the madness of trying to control weather thru taxes is insanity.
Not sure how to reconcile the “saviors of sanity” tone of the article with the following quote:
“At a Monday news conference, Harper and Abbott both said they welcomed Obama’s plan. Abbott said he plans to take similar action, and Harper boasted that Canada is already ahead of the U.S. in imposing controls on the ‘electricity sector’.”
“Jim Cripwell says:
June 10, 2014 at 6:32 am
I am Canadian, and don’t pretend to understand Australian politics. But I thought that Abbott’s trump card was the threat of “double dissolution”.”
Abbott and the LNP would lose in a massive landslide towards the Greens and ALP (Labor) and any other party that is not in support of the LNP, if a “double dissolution” (DD) election was held before the next federal election. This is my opinion. Abbott and the LNP know this and are “tip toeing” around “sensitive issues” at this time. I don’t see the LNP “winning” another federal term IMO. Aussies are too much “in love” with welfare and it will, one day IMO, go the way of Spain, Italy and Greece. China will not always buy dirt from Aus, they are already exploring, and extracting, in Africa where the locals don’t matter (To them)!
Double speak ?Both sides of their mouths ?
We will be watching .
I expect Obama to be really ticked off about this and start drawing red lines against Canada and Australia. We know how threatening those can be.
The Canadian greenies will protest and act all indignant, and the public broadcaster (CBC) will have a left-leaning heyday with this news. And like clockwork they’ll trot out that old Canadian embarrassment David Suzuki, he’ll spend hours condemning both national leaders.
This should be good for a laugh.
When I read that no nation would take steps to destroy their own industry and reduce jobs, I knew that they hadn’t met Obama yet….
So proud of Canada. Might even bring a few tears to my eyes.
Harper is currently loathed by the hard leftists. Because they truly can’t wrap their heads around the fact that through his guidance Canada has weathered the financial devastation relatively unscathed. Any person who actually looks at the data and examines the plans of 0bama and others would immediately realize that they want to virtually destroy our civilization for absolutely nothing (except the ones who actually believe that we can run our world on wind and solar… those ones are pretty much lost causes).
There WILL come a time when they look back on this with the same amazement as they look back on the disco era, shaking their heads and saying “what were we thinking?” … but that time is still a long way in the future. For now the best we can hope for is this sort of climate realism.
Sweet Old Bob says:
June 10, 2014 at 6:48 am
Double speak ?Both sides of their mouths ?
We will be watching .
===========================
second that .
It is good to see the cilmate obsession that has gripped too much of the world and cost so much money and time get some formal resistance. I wonder if Mr. Obama can even comprehend what the Canadians and Austrlians are saying?
In light of what Dr. Mann has recently declared about skeptics, I look forward to seeing the response of him and his pals.
The CBC does have an article on Tony Abbott and Stephan Harpers stance. The comments are horrifying, “Our children can think about these criminals in the future as they are forced to strap on oxygen tanks to go outside. Why people feel so powerless to rid themselves of these creeps is beyond me.” Canadians are screaming “tax me more, make my energy more expensive” forgetting that without heat they will die. Makes me wonder about the education system here.
It seems the politician’s spoken answers are blowing in the wind. There are those who bend to the wind of their party and there are those who bend to the wind of polls. The rare leader is the one who stands like an oak tree letting the wind pass him/her by. There is no science in left or right. There is however science. Somewhere in all this wind. Say…Roy…wanna run for Pres? I saw an oak tree being interviewed by Stossel. And you be it. By the way who was that scurrying rat anyway? He snuck in while you had stepped away from the mike, said a few unintelligible words, then vamoosed when you walked back in! Spencer, the rat trapper. Love it.
At a Monday news conference, Harper and Abbott both said they welcomed Obama’s plan.
Well this shows neither are going to be good for their country if they welcome Obama’s plan. Why welcome something that is destructive?
Jim Cripwell says:
June 10, 2014 at 6:29 am
I keep hoping that a politician who matters is going to WANT to believe that CAGW is a hoax.
//////////////////
I think that the Czech Prime Minister (or former prime minister) is the most sceptic of the world leaders. Of course, he heads only a small country.
The UK has a crabon tax. It is far higher than the European equivalent, and it is set to escalate rapidly in the coming years therebu forcing up energy prices and rendering UK industry uncompetitive, and of course forcing more and more consumers into fuel poverty..
The UK’s energy minister was interviewed on the TV today, about the forthcoming blackouts (caused by decommissioning coal plants and gas plants being mothballed because they do not get paid when the windblows and if they can sell energy for only about 75% of the time, they are not that profitable – the profits are made in the last quarter).
Fortunately, the government has a plan. This is that industry will be asked not to use energy between 4 and 8pm. If they do not use energy during that period of the day, they will get paid compensation. The consumer in their energy bills will subsidise that compensation. Of course, in addition there will be a resultant drop in GDP (upon which the minister did not comment) since industry will not be a 24/7 activity but will be only a 20/7 activity and will therefore produce less goods for export etc. In fact it may be even worse than that since many industries may not work after 10 pm and if they are being asked to down tools between 4 and 8pm, to save energy so that it is available for the domestic consumer, the end of the working day may become 4pm. Are the employees going to hang around for 4 hours waiting for when their employer can turn on the lights again? I suspect not. I am sure that the law of unintended consequences will raise its stubborn head (there will be a lot more travel and congestion and hence pollution caused by people leaving work at 4 pm, and retruning back at say 7:30pm)..
It is good to know that we in the UK have such a competent government who are fully on top of matters. In fact the minister was telling us how cost effective this new initiative is. Apparently we should welcome it since although it will add to our bills, it is far cheaper than building more power stations, so there you have it. Good to know. The UK will be closed for business between 4 and 8 pm. Perhaps it is time to go back to the old tradition of afternnon tea. How very civilized.
Let’s see more of that “Yankee go home and mind your own business and stop telling
us what to do, especially since you’re a certified moron” kind of thing.
Let’s see Obama defend his claims in open debate. Considering his past results, I don’t really think he would accept such a challenge.
Now if they can only get China, India and Britain and Russia into their compact, it
would be the ball game. All those countries would join them, I believe.