From Reuters Point Carbon:
Australia axes ministerial role for climate change
The new Australian Cabinet will be the first in six years to not have a ministerial role for climate change issues, merging instead global warming with the wider environment portfolio.
Announcing his Cabinet on Monday, incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott appointed Greg Hunt, the Liberal-National Coalition’s spokesman on climate change issues since 2009, as the new Minister for the Environment.
“(Hunt) will have responsibility for the abolition of the carbon tax, implementation of the Coalition’s Direct Action plan, the establishment of the Green Army and the creation of a one-stop-shop for environmental approvals,” Abbott said in a statement.
Hunt, 47 and a member of parliament since 2001, has had the main responsibility of developing and promoting the Direct Action Plan, the Coalition policy to reach the national target of reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020.
Under the plan, the new government will set up a fund to buy emission cuts from those companies that pledge to achieve them at the lowest cost.
“The change signals that as expected, the Abbott government will not give climate change the same weight as the previous government,” said Frank Jotzo, deputy director of Australia National University’s Climate Change Institute.
“The environment ministry traditionally holds less sway in cabinet than many others, and the integration of the climate policy bureaucracy into the Environment department will also tend to diminish its role,” he said by email.
===============================================================
Read the full story here
In related news, I expect the laughable Tim Flannery will be out of a job, but I also expect he’ll land at some NGO like Greenpeace or WWF, since these organizations have money to burn and embrace high paid fools that have failed elsewhere.
Graham of Sydney, yes I agree, carbon farming is no substitute for animal husbandry and crops. Soil science and generally improving the soils properly including land degradation, moisture conservation and avoiding chemicals be they fertilizers (plenty of organic fertilizers and minerals that do the job better) herbicides and insecticides, that increase the soil microbiology that sustains plant or pasture growth. It is not rocket science, just education of farmers stuck in the older ways.
But farmers are not stupid, this carbon farming idea from what I have heard is a one off payment?
There was one farmer who said for $15 k a year per turbine, he would rent his land to wind farm project, but was told, forget you will be isolated by your neighbours. I planted 80 trees along my drive way once, and the next day they were all gone. I couldn’t understand why until one rural old hack pointed to the 10 cattle grazing in the paddock. Young trees were planted in a reserve and not one survived, 600 of them, because no one cared for them. And as far as carbon dioxide being soaked up from the atmosphere, it is only young trees (as in a rain forest) that use more up. Older trees store it in the ground. I think planting trees is OK, but it won’t be proven for 5 years IF the trees survive. And I don’t think farmers are going to go around each day and water the saplings.
Tim Flannery is a dope and con man. He is known at my former university. He changed his mind regarding mega fauna die out in Australia,from being similar to elephants dieing en mass in Africa. They didn’t die of thirst (although it was a drought of course) but they ate themselves into starvation afraid to move from the only water hole. Made some sense to. But 20 years later, he blamed it on the Aborigines. Altering the data and time scale. Recently this hypothesis has been proven wrong, they died out because of environmental changes, and like elephants they only bred every five years or so. They were marsupials, that hold fertilized eggs until it is suitable to bring them into their pouch. Human intervention would have made them more vulnerable if they shared the only water holes drying up, but only one skeleton was found with an spear head in it around an old water hole. So he writes to please the public and impress his sponsors. Gud riddens.
The Coalition Government also wants to dump the Climate Change Authority, which was set up in 2012 to provide independent advice to the government on the carbon price and emissions reductions targets.
Mr Hunt yesterday instructed his department to begin drafting repeal legislation to abolish the authority, in keeping with its over-riding plan to scrap the carbon pricing scheme.
In what is likely to be a harder task, the Government has also announced it is preparing legislation to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
Also set up in 2012, it has been provided with $10 billion in funding over five years to support private investment in renewable energy.
Yesterday, Treasurer Joe Hockey told his department to prepare the required legislation to axe the CEFC, and wrote to the chair requesting cooperation in suspending all further investments.
However, the Australian Conservation Foundation has released legal advice that the CEFC is “obliged to follow its legislated mandate and cannot be frustrated in that regard by attempted ministerial interference”.
It also says the board “would be obliged to ignore” any direction to cease operations.
The Greens have said they will oppose any bid to abolish the CEFC.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-19/federal-government-scraps-climate-commission/4968816
There was this vision of future of the australian carbon footprint which became reality:
http://andysrant.typepad.com/.a/6a01538f1adeb1970b01910413efdc970c-pi