MCJ Posted on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 13:34 The 2011 report on the state of greenhouse gas markets by the International Emissions Trading Association begins with a chapter on Australia, of which I am the lead author.
MCJ Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 22:47 The Clean Energy Future legislation is lengthy and boring, but it’s important: these 18 bills (and a few more to come in the first half of next year) lay the framework for what will be the primary driver of Australia’s attempt to mitigate dangerous anthropogenic climate change – assuming they pass, of course. This post is a summary of some of the CEF’s nitty-gritty details.
MCJ Posted on Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 22:56 When the Government released its climate change package on July 10, it was under the moniker of a “Clean Energy Future”. This is, ostensibly, a fairly clear vision for where Labor sees Australia in 2050 and beyond. However, the package is a mish-mash of measures that don’t deliver clear policy signals to achieve this clean energy future. While this is partially a result of the multi-party committee that spawned the package, the rhetoric the Government employs is ambiguous as to precisely what sort of society they see Australia moving toward.
So where are we really going with all this? If the world follows the suggestions of science and reduces CO2-e emissions to constrain dangerous climate change, what place is this future do our parties foresee?
MCJ Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 18:00 A journalist whose views I usually respect today derided calls for an increase in the minimum price of alcohol as coming from the “killjoy” crowd, who “do not even attempt to … estimate the value of the pleasure given by alcohol to the vast majority of Australians who do not abuse it.”
This is balderdash. As with gambling, the problem is not with what the vast majority of Australians do, but with the problematic excesses of a few. In the case of alcohol, it is the problem of those who purchase litres of cask wine at 30c per standard drink and proceed to destroy their health and lives. Prevalently, these are people of lower socio-economic status, especially Aborigines. Coles, Woolworth, and IGA have already almost quadrupled this minimum price in Alice Springs by selling alcohol at no less than $1.14 per standard drink, without affecting the prices of beer, spirits, better wines, etc – the stuff the vast majority of Australians actually drink.
The Henry Review suggested that the final rate of volumetric tax should “be intended solely to optimise price signals facing consumers. It should be set without regard to the government’s fiscal position, and irrespective of any specific spending commitments related to alcohol abuse” (Australia’s Future Tax System, Chapter E5-3, 2010).
Floor pricing for alcohol is a sensible health proposal that deserves support, not to be dismissed out of hand as coming from the “killjoy” crowd.
MCJ Posted on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 18:18
Updated on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 18:58 by
MCJ
Updated on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 10:25 by
MCJ
To stabilise the concentration of CO2-e in the atmosphere at levels that would limit the chance of 2°C warming to 75% or less, the world must emit less than 3 tCO2-e per person per year; less than 2 tCO2-e to stop concentrations rising altogether. No-one is pretending that a domestic carbon price of $20-$30 per tonne will reduce Australian emissions from 25 tCO2-e pa to anywhere near two or three tonnes per year.
A balance must be struck between the need to decarbonise the Australian economy and the transitional difficulties that this will bring. Government policy, with the MPCCC’s scheme as its centrepiece, will – and should – be scrutinised on how disruptive the transition will be. But this disruption must be assessed in the long-term context of decreasing our CO2-e production, or else it’s merely politics, not policy.
MCJ Posted on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 0:30 In which I create a placard for a rally, appear on Andrew Bolt’s blog, am denigrated by the right, congratulated by the left, and try and explain microeconomics to a lot of people.
MCJ Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 23:38 The suggestion by sceptics that we should not act on climate change because the science is uncertain is at odds with sensible management of risk and uncertainty.
MCJ Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 23:02
Updated on Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 21:17 by
MCJ
As everyone does at some point, I have some chemical waste of which to dispose (batteries and fluoro lightbulbs). Being a good little greenie, I asked the New South Wales Environment Department what the recommended procedure is:
MCJ Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 18:45 For reasons of which I’m not entirely sure, I came up with this little verse yesterday:
Resource rent taxes, emissions reduction;
Sovereign wealth funds, NBN construction;
Henry’s review, letting refugees in;
These are few of my favourite things.
More public transport and Oz: The Republic;
Welfare for jobless not middle-class yuppies;
Euthanasia and plain cigs packaging;
These are few of my favourite things.
MCJ Posted on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 13:00 Follow me, gentle reader, through some introductory environmental economics as I explain how carbon taxes and ETSs work — and how they differ.
