Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Remember back when Australian voters thought they were electing a government which was committed to abolishing carbon taxes? The following are the words of Australia’s Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott vigorously opposed carbon pricing;
Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he will likely allow the purchase of international carbon credits despite backbench anger over the weekend’s Paris climate agreement.
“We have to set in place a mechanism to allow us [reach new targets], in particular to look at the question of international units and I expect we probably will take on board international units and that will give us the flexibility as we head into 2020 to re-pledge if needed,” Mr Hunt said.
The Australian Industry Group, which has been calling for Australia to allow the trade in permits, said the change was “critical”.
“Critically, the agreement affirms Australia’s right to purchase and include genuine emissions reductions in other countries towards Australia’s targets, a vital way of containing the cost of meeting our goals,” AiGroup chief executive Innes Willox said
Speculation that Australia would allow the use of international emissions reduction credits to meet local targets has been growing over the past year, and heightened when Foreign Minister Julie Bishop signed Australia up to a “Paris Ministerial Declaration on Carbon Markets” last week, which provided clearer rules around the trading of international carbon credits after 2020 when a Paris agreement would come into effect.
Read more: Australian Financial Review
So which is it Greg – were you opposed to carbon pricing, until your new boss Malcolm Turnbull told you to embrace carbon pricing? Or did your party lie to the Australian people about being opposed to carbon pricing, back when you were campaigning for our votes? Or is there an innocent explanation for this apparent backflip which I have overlooked?
Given the horrific Danish experience, in which Danes lost 2% of their GDP to carbon fraud, in my opinion, encouraging the purchase of international carbon credits is tantamount to an invitation to criminals to loot the Australian economy.
I think it time to make having cojones a good thing. This us what makes Mark Steyn a hero. He got sued so he countersued for 20+ million to ensure that M.Mann did not have an avenue to back out without incurring great expense. To back out, he would have to lose the countersuit. To have a chance to get rid of the countersuit he is now forced to surrender his data for discovery and try to win the original suit. No matter what M. Mann decides, he’s toast. I believe there is a 100% certainty that Mark is going to win over this gutless bully. He’s won before even with activist biased judges. When Mark wins this case and ruins M. Mann, professionally and financially, companies may see an alternative strategy to settlements forever. I would recommend Exxon and other deep pocket companies, get full support from their shareholders to go for it big time. Strip these destructive, spoiled middle-upperclass, pampered, ballless, unfulfilled, wastrels to their underwear. Shut down pipelines and electrical generating stations until they are begged with promises of good behavior to turn on the lights and heat.
Malcolm Turnbull originally lost his leadership of the Liberal Party to Tony Abbott just before the Copenhagen conference when he backed Kevin Rudd’s emission trading scheme (scam). Kevin Rudd lost support after he failed to call an election when Abbott opposed it. After all the hyperbole that Rudd had spewed (think Obama on rhetoric steroids) it was clear by his lack of balls to allow a vote on it that Rudd didn’t have any conviction behind his words.
I detect quite a bit of mumbling dissent going on in the world despite the euphoria coming out of the masses of the Paris Climate luv in. Notwithstanding Hollande’s emotional reaction to the terrorist massacres in the streets of Paris and his increased approval, France looks like swinging decisively to the right to either centre right Nicolas Sarkozy or even further to Marine le Pen’s National Front.
Climate change does not even feature in the top issues that Sarkozy believes worry the French and Le Pen is known to be a sceptical on global warming alarmism.
Croatia is the latest country recently swinging right following Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Argentina and Venezuela. Sure immigration, the economy and other local issues are factors but CAGW, much more favoured by the Left, has not been able to stop this world wide swing.
For whatever reason, Canada seems to be the exception. But I suspect there has been another outbreak of “Trudeaumania” in the glamour starved Canadians.
That does not mean of course that Conservative governments only represent CAGW sceptics but one has to wonder after Paris, how much will be token rather than dramatic economy risking action.
Regardless, I can never ever vote for the Liberal Party under Turnbull. To coin a phrase I did not leave the party – the party left me. Yes, this leaves me with the dilemma of who to vote for (Oh to be in the USA rooting for Senator Ted Cruz). At least in this internet world of free speech, if I can’t vote for any-one, I can still voice my opinion.
The LDP. For the Senate at least. Currently with only David Leyonhjelm in Parliament to represent them.
Work you way over here. Make your way to Maryland . They will let you vote, All you have to do is get your driver license first, they give those away like section 8 housing vouchers, and then step to a kiosk set up at the Motor Vehicle Administration to register to vote with your new license to steal. Only one problem, no matter who you pull the level for, the vote will Tally for the Democrat so you will only think you are voting for Ted Cruz.
Cap and trade CO2 is theoretically cute/practical nightmare stuff but what would you expect from people who project an experiment with a bell jar in the lab to a global climate regime. Thought bubble locally and lots of exploding heads intergalactically.
Eisenhower warned us all-
http://joannenova.com.au/2015/12/australian-academy-of-science-trains-school-children-to-be-lobbyists-and-teachers-dont-mind/
Are you kidding, In NZ the training is part of the school curriculum.
https://thedemiseofchristchurch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/exemplar-3-2008-exam.pdf
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
You all leave Mr Hunt alone now – he is a good obedient little politician and he knows what he’s doing!
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
“international carbon credits” is just a way to transfer wealth from rich nations to poor nations. Same with REDD.
The new Turnbull government has gone green, and the biggest mistake Abbott ever made was making this idiot – Greg Hunt – the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change.
This is a guy who, after they won the Federal general election, would not answer a simple question if he believed carbon dioxide was pollution. All he simply needed to say was that if it were pollution, it would have been banned from soft drinks, beer and bubbly champagne. But he didn’t.
Hunt always been a closet global warming alarmist … and now that Abbott has gone, Hunt has turned feral on environmental policy.