Greenhouse articles

The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) demonstrations across the Atlantic against climate change driven fuel taxes offer Premier Doug Ford yet another reason to congratulate himself on repealing Ontario’s carbon tax.   https://troymedia.com/environment/fords-ontario-has-nothing-to-learn-from-australia-climate-plan/

Ben Potter, who as a useful idiot, was leaked a copy of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) report by the Victorian Government, reports today that the states are likely to sign off on the NEG at their meeting tomorrow. Potter is excoriated by Terry McCrann in today’s Herald Sun for his pandering to green energy

Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s tour de force at the National Press Club on Wednesday and his opinion piece on this page yesterday show a man on top of his brief and using it to smite the ALP and the Greens as well as those on his own side promoting direct investment to counter the 

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is now on his way to the UN conference in Bonn to pay obeisance to a global warming fraternity strengthened by two new members (Nicaragua and Syria) to the loss of merely one (the USA). Renewable energy (other than Politically Incorrect hydro) is the UN’s posterchild. 

In the slow news period that is the first few days of the year, The Australian broke a story about dissension in the Coalition ranks regarding the “in principle” decision, announced by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, to allow Australian firms to acquit their carbon dioxide emission obligations by buying overseas

There is some interesting material thrown up by today’s release of the Newspoll results on climate change. One interpretation is that a majority of respondents would prefer to leave the Paris Agreement, which the Government uses as justification for green energy policies, in light of Trump having already

The government’s abandonment of the expanded renewable energy target that the Finkel report recommended represents a careful compromise. The Prime Minister remains a rusted on fan of renewable energy which he considers marks the future. Malcolm Turnbull has put himself through multitudes of hoops to

Among the egregious instances of government property theft, planning regulations contain some of the greatest calumnies. And, within planning regulations, a stand out is the conspiracy of state and federal governments of allegedly different political stripe to seize rural property values without compensation as a

AUSTRALIA’S mining skills have enabled BHP to become one of the world’s largest companies. But big firms often become overly bureaucratic and their management seeks to engage in matters well beyond the daily grind of trying to maximise the wealth of shareholders. And so it is with BHP.

Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull, unveiling the plans by Pratt for new investment in containers said, “You know everything my government does is designed to encourage Australian businesses to invest.” The absurdity of this was underlined by Anthony Pratt informing us, “Our cost of energy in America is 2½ times

Environment and Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg has assailed the Queensland government for presiding over (if not conspiring to produce) an outcome in the electricity market which has enriched the state government coffers by $1.5 billion (actually over four years). Following a reorganisation, the previous three

With the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Australia and other countries followed a course pursued since the 1990s. This involves forcing and bribing electricity consumers to substitute wind and solar power for coal. ​ Malcolm Turnbull has made abandoning coal-based energy a signature

Predictably, the Finkel report came out with a concealed attack on coal – a new tax which Finkel falsely described as “all carrot and no stick”. This is to cut in at a politically specified level of emissions with those power stations emitting more CO2 per unit of energy than this paying for credits and the subsidy going to

I will be announcing my decision on Paris Accord, Thursday at 3:00 P.M. The White House Rose Garden. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! That’s 5 am on Friday Eastern Australia time. Always a reliable advocate for economic harm, The Guardian sets out the “five worst things Trump” has done on climate change

The media battle lines are set on the Paris Climate Change Agreement with Politico hoping that Trump will continue to “study” the issue Trump himself said he’ll make the decision this week while Marc Morano says he already has already indicated Clexit to many confidants. Formal withdrawal is largely academic 

The Finkel inquiry into the energy future got off to a bad start with its preliminary report erroneously claiming all this wind and solar we are seeing is being driven by technology and consumer demand when it is clearly a function of government regulations requiring consumers to buy exotic renewable energy at

On the night Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister, Julie Bishop was quick to step in to forestall him responding to a press question about Australia’s future global warming/emissions policy. She said, as Malcolm was collecting his thoughts, the policy remains the same. Turnbull, flanked by Bishop and 

In his outstanding address launching the compendium Making Australia Right, Tony Abbott offered a fivefold agenda. Malcolm Turnbull recognised this as, in effect, throwing down a leadership challenge. The key feature, as when Turnbull first lost the Liberal Party leadership to Abbott, is energy policy. Turnbull is

The Trump victory came with his pledge to take the US out of the Paris agreement on climate change. This leaves only the EU among the major emitters of greenhouse gases (the others being China, India and Russia) still forcing its consumers and industries to accept high-cost electricity largely through imposing

Problem is, the Turnbull government hasn't noticed that president-elect Trump is about to knock the well-funded wheels off the global alarmism industry, as his cabinet picks confirm. Instead, we're told to lie back, think of Paris and make our own green rent-seekers so much richer. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop

One of the most important issues for Trump is the staffing of the EPA. Trump has said “We are going to get rid of it in almost every form. We’re going to have little tidbits left but we’re going to take a tremendous amount out.” But there are doubts about whether he will be able/willing to carry this out. Reagan also

There is no doubt that Josh Frydenberg accepted a poorly dealt hand when he took on the combined Energy and Environment portfolio following the Commonwealth election in July of this year. Starting with John Howard in 2001 successive Australian governments have bowed to the combined power of the

Having attended the December 2015 Paris Climate Change conference as one of the 0.1 per cent not sharing the fervour, I cannot suppress my schadenfreude about the Marrakech follow-up. Nor, I imagine, can another participant opposing the herd, Myron Ebell, who is now busy in Washington 

This week, two events look likely to transform Australia’s politically created, catastrophic energy policy. First there was the announced closure of Hazelwood which produces a fifth of Victoria’s electricity. Secondly we have the Trump victory which mercifully will undermine the injurious climate and energy policies

The trove of emails that Wikileaks is publishing help to explain what drives political decision taking. This is especially evident in the environmental sphere. US “charities” linked to Clinton campaign are funding lawfare and other opposition to Australian coal, oil and gas developments. International finance flows to

There are those who say if you force people to invest in horses and buggies and use these for half of their road trips we would all be better off. Not for them the superficiality that this would reduce real incomes as a result of investing in technology that is higher cost, prone to breakdown and can only operate when

Should he claim the White House on November 8, the US will reject the obligations of the Paris climate accord. Like him or not in regard to other of his stated goals and policies, a ferocious disdain for the economy-hobbling rent-seekers of Big Wind and the like is a powerful recommendation turbine fireUnlike

I have an article in the Spectator on line Garbage–in-garbage-out plus a little tampering, on the report issued today by the Climate Change Authority. The report offers some soothing bromides about the chances of Australia reducing its carbon dioxide emissions at modest cost.

There have been several hundred Australian analyses of climate change policy and its costs and benefits. Most have provided profundities and attractively presented impressive looking modelling, normally demonstrating that the medicine, though bitter at first, will make us better and possibly richer in the

The alarmist John Connor from the Climate Institute has issued a paper claiming that a 2 degree C change in global temperature would be disastrous but we could live with a 1.5 degree warming or, as he put it, “warming of 1.5°C would (still) see current extreme heat waves, droughts and mass coral bleaching

Just when it seemed that in NSW we had one Australian government that was pursuing sound if uninspiring policies, Mike Baird proves us wrong. Even without the disgraceful arrogance of the ban on a sport much loved by the lower orders, the Premier has demonstrated himself no more fit to govern than 

There was a time when leaders were elected to prevent the sovereign spending the money of the voters, but those days are long gone. Now legislatures plunder the productive to appease rent-seekers and the mendicant. Encouragingly, the portents for change are everywhere and growing rent-seekerIn

Environmental programs, especially those targeting carbon dioxide emissions, have come to dominate energy supply policies over the past 20 years. Hence, following the federal election, energy and environment policy has been merged into one ministry under Josh Frydenberg. Last year in Paris, Australia like

he debate between Mr Shorten and Mr Turnbull last night demonstrated an unsurprising level of consensus on greenhouse gas mitigation. The Prime Minister talked about the 26-28 per cent reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (based on 2005 emissions) that the government signed onto in

While claiming it is not a prelude to a carbon tax, Greg Hunt has approved the release of the Clean Energy Regulators “Safeguard mechanism”. This sets limits, initially very easy to meet, on firms’ carbon dioxide emission levels with the corset being tightened come 2020 when Australia can embark on a UK-style

Few people and no politicians would understand the costs of the political parties’ energy policies. The ALP, Greens and Liberals each have lengthy statements explaining how their approach is smarter and would cost little and be supervised by a plethora of acronymic bodies to regulate, advise and judiciously dole

All that blistering controversy about the $3 billion saved by retrospective changes to superannuation. Yet there is one item of news, issued on the same day as the budget, which demonstrates the fatuity of government and its addiction to senseless policy and wasteful spending. The Clean Energy Regulator (don’t you

Labor’s carbon emission proposals move Australian policy closer to the edge of insanity. Not content with the prosperity busting program of Mr Turnbull and his environment minister, Greg Hunt, the ALP is proposing the total wipe out of our most precious asset, low cost low sulphur coal. The Government has a

Yesterday the ALP is reported to be examining how it can shut down “ageing coal-fired stations”. This is part of the policy to reach 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and the Greens claim Shorten is seeking an escape from the Party’s previous announcements. Coalition government policy is for a Direct

The Paris COP 21 at the end of last year may have set an all-time record for conference attendance of officials, NGOs and lobbyists—40,000 plus at least 5000 from the media. Virtually every world leader made an appearance, many changing their schedules at short notice to attend the opening rather than the close.

There are surely more people than me who are skeptical of Elon Musk’s Tesla. Yes, Musk has shown himself to be a brilliant innovative entrepreneur with Pay Pal. And lightening does strike twice in the high tech field as Steve Jobs showed with his reincarnation at Apple. But in contrast to the Silicon Valley start-ups

With the announcement of the Clean Energy Innovation Fund (CEIF), Malcom Turnbull has killed several birds with a single stone. He has warmed the cockles of the hearts of the renewable rent-seekers who are such a valuable source of campaign finance conned all the ABC/Fairfax/Guardian journalists into

The Wilderness Society has placed an article in The Guardian with media climate change worry wort Lenore Taylor about the Queensland Government relaxing the clearing of land. Strictures against this were brought about by the collusion of first the Howard and later the Rudd Governments with the the

The Wilderness Society has placed an article in The Guardian with media climate change worry wort Lenore Taylor about the Queensland Government relaxing the clearing of land. Strictures against this were brought about by the collusion of first the Howard and later the Rudd Governments with the the

Motley events offer hope of a fraying of the policies stemming from climate change hysteria. While the UN is trying to organise a reaffirmation meeting in April by national leaders of the sacred emission reduction pledges they made in Paris last December, reality is moving against it. The UN climate change

Here is an object lesson of the effects of winner picking by governments. South Australia’s electricity industry is now threatening to seriously undermine the state’s economy. Back in October 2014, the electricity market manager, AEMO together with the South Australian state based transmission business, Electra

Yesterday saw the publication of one of the regular horse-chokers that emerge from the electricity regulators and government funded analysts. This one was looking at the Queensland situation, with a view to examining how the ALP can implement/diverge from the crazy policies they proposed for an election they

"If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions it wouldn’t be enough, not when more than 65% of the world’s carbon pollution comes from the developing world" John Kerry December 10 2015 An agreement on climate change action On what is theoretically the final day plus one of the Paris Climate

The obfuscations and lies spewed by political leaders is a sad epitaph of the loss of striving for better living standards. The addresses served to illustrate how detached from reality the alarmist politicians have become, bombarded as they are by the agitprop of green NGOs and the scientists they have co-opted. The

With the end of the first week of the world Climate Change summit, the torrent of papers and thousands of presentations remain overshadowed by a different form of war to that on carbon dioxide.  A small satellite conference hosted by Heartland saw a parade of actual scientists including our own Bob Carter,

On Monday, Paris will host a different agenda from that which has dominated this past fortnight.  On November 30 world leaders gather there for the United Nations annual climate change discussions.  The key issue is the link between carbon dioxide and forecast increases in global temperatures.  Addressing this

Most developed world economies — Australia included — are pledging at the Paris Conference to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by more than 26 per cent by 2030. China and India, the largest and third largest emitters, are merely saying that they will reduce their economies’

Tristan Edis had a breathless piece in the green left Climate Spectator yesterday. In it he foreshadowed plans of local government authorities, led by the City of Melbourne, buying 1200 Megawatts of installed green power capacity. It turns out that his informant was one of those over-optimistic types who are forever

The Climate Council has its uses. It drew our attention to the utter shame we, as Australians, shoulder in having high emissions of CO2 per capita.  At 24 tonnes of CO2-e we are nearly twice the OECD average. But wait! Once you examine emissions in terms of consumption levels a different picture emerges. 

Joining me at the Paris climate change gabfest will be almost every world leader and green celebrity. California alone has Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown, and eight Democratic lawmakers. And that’s before we have the batch of contemporary concerned movie stars all playing their part in urging others to live a

I am among the most faithful readers of The Guardian – its football coverage is second to none. Occasionally my eye wanders to other writings. My attention was attracted to this from Lord (raised to the Nobility following his assiduous pandering to Gordan Brown’s climate change agenda) Nicholas Stern

Tapping coal seam gas reserves has been among the most challenging political issues around the world.  Perhaps this is because the mineral extracted is new and those ranged against such activities can mobilise opposition and invent new dangers from a novel form of mining

If the world is lucky, nothing of greater substance than delegates' hotel bills will emerge from the upcoming catastropharian confab in the City of Light.

Since the Turnbull Prime Ministership, Environment Minister Greg Hunt has used somewhat tougher language in selling the government’s intent to force a reduction in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

Hardly has the ink dried on Australia’s appalling commitment to source 23 per cent of electricity from renewable sources when Bill Shorten is talking of upping it to 50 per cent. The current measure will alone own impose a cost of $2.5 billion a year

In Victoria the opposition Coalition has decided to outflank the ALP from the Green Left. Its latest missive is extending the ban on gas exploration within the state till 2020 (read “indefinitely”). It was the Victorian Coalition in Government that first banned gas exploration – not just fracking for coal seam gas,

Yesterday in the AFR, Richard Denniss of The Australia Institute applied more of the balm intended to sooth us into buying the serendipity of a costless zero carbon emitting future. According to Denniss we can reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide by simply buying EU approved permits at $13 a tonne.

So, Australia now has a position on greenhouse gas policy to take to the UN confab in Paris at the end of the year. We are to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels, a position that the PM says puts us in the middle of the road. This is not enough for the Bernie Fraser led “independent” Climate Change

The media was in a tizz today at the Wotif founder Graeme Wood’s Climate Institute’s promotion of its research into public perceptions of climate change, its friends and enemies

The debate on renewable energy has been with us for decades. Always promising to deliver competitive electricity, it has never achieved it. The issue has had its media profile lifted as a result of the government instructing its green energy bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, to stop investing in wind and

A few potholes emerged yesterday in the road to renewable energy nirvana

This morning we learned that Bill Gates, who the Guardian has been trying to recruit as its sponsor in chief for greenhouse madness, considers the existing renewable approach is a dead end but he wants to spend the money looted from taxpayers and energy users into novel forms of R&D. He has already spent

The Australian Climate Roundtable alliance is seeking to limit human induced global warming to a 2 degree increase. The alliance comprises business lobbyists, ACOSS, the ACTU, and green lobbyists, the Climate Institute, the ACF, WWF and the Investor Group on Climate Change. The objectives it claims "will

The Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood has an article in today’s AFR which argues that “Legal force (under the UN) might be the only way of moving in the right direction (to the abatement said to be necessary)”. Mr Wood, an Al Gore trained climate change warrior, is a long standing champion of the renewable

Alternate energy Reports of the death of coal are greatly exaggerated. For green power is still very costly and uncompetitive, and likely to remain so despite all the subsidies. In this newspaper last week Richard Denniss opined that there was a stampede of investment money out of coal ("Abbott blind to coal 

In an article in The Australian today the head of Origin Energy, Grant King, suggests the industry would be hard pressed to build the amount of capacity our callow political leaders have determined we should accept as part of the “compromise” deal to build 33,000 GWh by 2020. Grant King suggests that it would be

When 26 carbon-phobic ambassadors urge Australia to follow the EU's lead and adopt all manner of wealth-killing initiatives to save the planet, the diplomatic response is one of polite demurral. Out of earshot, unrestrained laughter will be the more truthful reaction

The Australian today ($) reports a deal is about to be clinched on reducing the large scale wind and solar renewable target to 33,000 GWh (forecast to be 23.5 per cent of electricity demand).  The initial target of 41,000 GWh plus the 4,000 GWh of rooftop facilities – was only a few years ago, when we were a low cost

Greg Hunt’s “stunning” success at selling around five million tonnes (actually apparently 5.8 million tonnes) a year of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of under $14 per tonne per tonne has invited much comment. The ABC’s green left commentary headed by Leigh Sales suggested that this meant we should

Ross Garnaut plays out his previous government agenda in criticising the White Paper on Energy. He says it is deficient because it has no carbon tax and fails to enhance the merits of the Renewable Energy Target. He says “do the math” and you will see that forcing the substitution of energy that is three times the

Uncertainty about whether the massive subsidies to renewable projects has led to a bonus: new projects have virtually ceased. Spruiker Giles Parkinson reported that only one large project was approved in the recent quarter and the vast bulk of the recent $200 million in financing came from the government

The RET issue is coming to a head. Bear in mind, the rationale for the scheme is a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions but it does this to a trivial extent and at a very high cost. The real rationale is now how to soak consumers for a dud product that could not survive in the absence of subsidies.

On Q and A last night, a discussion from about 7 minutes took place on coal seam gas. Coalition MP and junior minister Fiona Nash brags that NSW coalition has not approved one coal seam gas exploration permit and has bought back permits of those granted by Labor. Now only 11 per cent of NSW land can be

It seemed a good idea at the time. Renewable energy is produced by nature and is freely available, so why not make its use mandatory? What could go wrong, after all Greenpeace and our many experts tell us that in a few years’ time, if not now technology will make it cheaper than all that coal derived electricity with

Earlier this week, Andrew Leigh the junior shadow Treasurer floated the essentiality of a carbon tax (and, oblivious of the collapse of commodity prices, a mining tax). Our man in Davos, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was fast out of the blocks attacking the proposal which will surely prove more damaging

WORLD growth is resulting in a doubling of the atmospheric composition of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases”. Present concentrations are at near record lows and a doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations is harmless to health. The concerns revolve around the knock-on effect on climate. Some point

EARLIER this year, the Australian National University sought advice from a green group, the Centre for Australian Ethical Research, regarding its superannuation fund. It later pulled investments out of a gold miner, energy giant Santos and other Australian firms. This prompted considerable criticism of

According to Christopher Flavin, the President emeritus of the Worldwatch Institute, in a few years’ time wind energy will not need to be subsidised. Oh wait! He said that back in 1984. And he was not alone, Booz, Allen & Hamilton did a report in 1983 saying the same thing as did Amory Lovins and the American

Elections bring out the most risible policy proposals that can be imagined. And having The Greens brings a never ending supply of fairy dust. Yesterday Senator Milne authorised the release of a paper “A New Victorian Economy, Cleaning Up Our Energy System”. In the paper The Greens inadvertently

CHEAP energy plays a crucial role in business competitiveness. The lobby group for major firms, the Business Council of Australia (BCA), recognises this in its energy reform package launched this week. The BCA seeks to avoid duplication of regulation (and who doesn’t?) but its policy recommendations are timid.

Satellite data available from 1988 has allowed very precise measurements of global temperatures. These at first confirmed a warming trend. But the satellite recordings, greeted with such enthusiastic fanfare by the warmist fraternity, have, for the past 18 years, bitten the hand that fed them.

Senator Cory Bernardi, in the latest edition of his wonderful “weekly dose of common sense”, recalls all the political scalps that climate-change regulations have claimed, reminding us that he wrote his first piece on the subject seven years ago.  At the time he was widely vilified as a heretic. 

Regulatory change will always disadvantage some while advantaging others. But the benefits of deregulation far outpace the costs and Australia carries a weighty regulatory burden, one that has deprived us of enjoying the world's highest living standards.

Regulatory change will always disadvantage some while advantaging others. But the benefits of deregulation far outpace the costs and Australia carries a weighty regulatory burden, one that has deprived us of enjoying the world's highest living standards.

Economists estimate that if increased carbon dioxide emissions raise global temperatures by a degree or two over the next century, world income might be 1 or 2 per cent lower than it would otherwise be. In the context of overall income doubling over the same period that's tiny, especially since the costs do not

In addressing climate change spending and regulatory costs, the government has made some impressive first steps. Few of these are in the wrong direction. Labor went to last year's election with more than $5 billion a year in budget outlays for its climate change programs. This included more than $2bn a year to

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio's mentor says, "Nobody knows if the stocks will go up, down, sideways" and explains that the stockbroker's job is to "Move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket". There are similarities with the climate change game.

A new poll conducted for the Institute of Public Affairs by Galaxy Research shows an increasing number of Australians are unwilling to pay to fight global warming. The poll also shows a stable attitude towards the science of climate change.

Much has been written about the contribution that wind and solar have made to Australian energy supply, especially in the recent hot spell. About 10 per cent of electricity supply comes from renewable sources, two-thirds of this being unsubsidised hydro-electricity, w

The carbon tax was the tombstone of the ALP’s 2013 election policy platform. But it is only one of a family of measures providing nutrition for the crusade by numerous scientists, officials, university lecturers and renewable energy installers supposedly to save the world from catastrophic human induced global

The sun is setting on the carbon tax. At its current rate, $24 per tonne of CO2, the tax increases the wholesale electricity price by 55 per cent and a Treasury endorsed OECD paper estimates Australia needs a tax of $78 per tonne to meet its emission restraint goals.

As a chronicler of economic history and a policy advocate, David Stockman combines economics training with an inside operator’s knowledge gained at the highest levels of government and finance. Back in the 1980s he was plucked from relative obscurity as a junior Congressman to become President Reagan’s 

Now the hurly-burly's done and the people have resoundingly elected the Coalition in what Tony Abbott declared to be a plebiscite about the carbon tax, where to from here? As well as terminating the carbon tax, the annual costs of which rise to $13 billion by 2020, and the $2 billion a year subsidy to

As Tony Abbott made clear yesterday in a letter to the secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the top priority of an incoming Coalition government would be to repeal the carbon tax and associated measures that have dramatically increased the cost of power.

Barack Obama's long-awaited address on climate change has thrown the spotlight back on to an issue that was receding in policy priorities. The US President repeated some of the dubious factoids about the warming in recent decades and receding Arctic ice without noting countervailing points,

Julia Gillard's loss of voter confidence was massively compounded by her reneging on the pledge that "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead". Greenhouse gas policies remain the coming election's signature issues, with Tony Abbott saying repeal of the carbon tax is his first priority.

Ross Garnaut says carbon dioxide emissions are on track to meet targets set at the 2010 Cancun international climate change meeting. True or not, it is irrelevant. Unlike the 2007 Bali climate change meeting, where Kevin Rudd basked in international adulation by signing Australia up to the doomed Kyoto

The carbon tax was the tombstone of the ALP's 2013 election policy platform. But it is only one of a family of measures providing nutrition for the crusade by numerous scientists, officials, university lecturers and renewable energy installers supposedly to save the world from catastrophic human-induced global

My focus is on the economic and political implications of the measures restraining carbon dioxide emissions. First, the outcome on the climate, if any, as a result of Australia taking action alone is negligible. Not only do we account for a trivial 1.5% of global emissions,

In the week before Christmas, three events reiterated the increasing degree to which Australia's once market-driven electricity industry dances to a tune of government regulation. On December 19, the Climate Change Authority issued a final report on its review of the Renewable Energy Target.

It is more than 25 years since the possibility that carbon dioxide and other human-induced greenhouse gas emissions achieved currency as possible causes of global warming. In that period a large volume of legislation has been introduced. The latest proposals link Australia's carbon price with that of the European Union

In a humiliating backdown, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, though failing to acknowledge the damage of a carbon tax to the Australian economy, has recognised that the tax he introduced last month - at $23 a tonne of carbon dioxide - is excessive.

This week the Commonwealth Government's Climate Commission visited Melbourne. Headed by master sensationalist Tim Flannery, the commission was formed by Julia Gillard to help sell the merits of taxes and regulations to reduce carbon emissions.

On Sunday the carbon tax will be implemented. This tax is the latest and most lethal of the suite of carbon-reduction measures delivering crushing blows to businesses and households. We already have the cancer of the Commonwealth's Renewable Energy Target.

All those darkened buildings, all that hype about switching off to save the planet! How successful is the tidal wave of support demonstrating our commitment to showing an example to the world? The numbers are in.

Only a third of Australians think the world is warming and humans are to blame, according to a Galaxy poll commissioned by the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. The Galaxy poll asked 1,051 Australians on the weekend of 23-25 March 2012 .....

Energy policy in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries is spurred by concerns that gas and oil are becoming scarcer and that fossil fuel emissions must be curtailed. This view is being punctured by technology allowing massive new resources to be developed fromshale and coal seam 

‘Placing a limit and a price on emissions will change the things we produce, the way we produce them, and the things we buy', states the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper, which compares the economic impact of the proposed emissions trading scheme with the

An agreement to try to reach a deal by 2015 on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is the bottom line of the past fortnight's climate change jamboree in Durban. A few days before the conference's inevitable failure to reach any meaningful agreement on emission reductions,

When Adam Smith famously pointed out that "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation", he had in mind the foolishness of its political leaders. The passage of the carbon tax through the House of Representatives, underscores his insights. It is far from unprecedented for a government to sacrifice its nation's wealth 

Ross Garnaut issued his interim report on climate change in February and is due to issue a draft report next month. Conspicuously absent from the February report is the N-word. Nuclear power is not even canvassed in passing or dismissed as being high cost, politically unpalatable or dangerous.

Campaigning by politicians through the power generation regions of the Latrobe Valley and the Hunter have focussed on the effects of a carbon tax on power station jobs. However, the really significant feature of these vulnerable areas is just how few jobs are involved.

If implemented, Julia Gillard's proposed carbon price starting at $23 per tonne will push us closer to economic stagnation. If the Government wanted to make the 159 million tonnes saving in 2020 it seeks, it would not attempt to do this with a domestic tax.

A 100-megawatt solar power station is planned for Mildura. And last weekend Energy Minister Martin Ferguson announced funding for two new projects, a 150-megawatt solar plant for NSW and a 250-megawatt facility for Queensland.

In a chapter of a recentIy published Anthology, "Energy, Sustainability and the Environment" edited by F.P. Sioshansi, I observed that "International trade means countries that export energy intensive products incur emissions on behalf of other countries.

On April 13, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet's spin for a carbon tax pushed new frontiers in the art of being economical with the truth. He said: "Australia release[s] more pollution per person than any other country in the developed world, more than the US."

A Galaxy poll commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs has found that only a third of Australians think the world is warming due to human carbon dioxide emissions. The poll, taken last weekend, represents no shift in views from those in an identical poll eight

Shortly before Christmas, federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson announced seven proposals were being assessed for two spots in the first round of subsidies for large-scale solar power. Though dwarfed by the waste demonstrated in the $42 billion Building the Education Revolution, the

You might think that these people are deranged but there were 1,400 of them, tertiary educated to a person, clapping and cheering enthusiastically. It’s a sobering thought that these people financed from the public purse and dedicated to destroying the Victorian coal and gas based electricity generation

In Mexico early last year, 75,000 people took to the streets in protest of the increasing cost of basic grain, in what were branded the ‘tortilla riots.' In March 2008, there were food riots in Egypt. And in April, Haitians rioted over the price of basic foodstuffs.

Flush from its near death experience following the hung parliament, the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCC) has published its briefing to the incoming Gillard Government. It talks of its mission to bring to the government advice of the "highest quality", which is "integrated", "objective", and 

The Government has initiated a new saga in addressing greenhouse gases policy options. It has set up a parliamentary committee with membership restricted to "those who are committed to tackling climate change and who acknowledge that effectively reducing carbon pollution by 2020 will require a carbon price".

IT was almost as if BHP Billiton's Marius Kloppers had already cleared with the government the speech he delivered in favour of a carbon tax. The new Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson were quick to welcome it.

Having been feted as the Great Moral Challenge and been the key factor behind the demise of Malcolm Turnbull, climate change policies are nearly invisible in the present election campaign. Aside from the "cash for clunkers" gimmick, both major parties have so far steered clear of giving the matter prominence.

Labor's wasteful and tokenistic "cash for clunkers" subsidy to scrap old cars is one of the few carbon emission reduction policy announcements this election campaign. This is notwithstanding the priority on "climate change" carbon reduction measures that both parties have said is a priority.

Under pressure from local election defeats, the French Government has abandoned its plans to introduce a carbon tax, having suddenly discovered it would, "damage the competitiveness of French companies".

Coal-powered electricity generators and abundant coal supplies bring Victoria the world's cheapest electricity. This will change, partly because of the risk of a government carbon tax. This makes it impossible for companies to build new coal-powered generators

Canberra's decision to shelve its greenhouse tax, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), was a dramatic political backdown. Ironically, though, it brought immense relief to the NSW Government.

Having portrayed a global treaty to reduce carbon emissions as essential and inevitable, the Rudd Government has abruptly changed tack and now sees an emissions reduction program to be unnecessary and costly. This remarkable reversal echoes changes by other governments.

Most politicians across the world recognise that measures to reduce CO2 emissions impose costs on their economies, whether they employ a carbon tax, cap-and-trade or regulatory approach. Failure at Copenhagen showed politicians recognise such costs exceed the benefits.

"Public loses faith in climate change" was the headline of a report in Britain's The Guardian newspaper last month. According to a Mori poll, the proportion of British adults who believe climate change is "definitely" a reality has fallen from 44 to 31 per cent over the past year. And while only six per cent said climate

As a face-saver to December's collapse of the world climate negotiations, governments agreed to the Copenhagen Accord. This had vague provisions to pursue measures to limit global temperature increases to 2C. The accord offered no guidance as to how this might be achieved but did say it would involve 

This week in Canberra the Government and Opposition issued rival plans for handling emissions of greenhouse gases. The policies from both sides are targeted at reducing emissions by 5 per cent by 2020. This really means a reduction of 27 per cent in 2020 emissions per head, because the target base is the 

Greenhouse issues are dominating the economic debate. Most people want to protect the environment and have been told that the tax from the Emissions Trading Scheme will only have minor consequences. In fact, the ETS tax designed to choke-off carbon emissions will have a devastating effect on the 

Barry Jones accuses climate sceptics of using ad hominem attacks yet embarks on the most remarkable such tactics himself. Out-hyping all who came before him, not only does he associate sceptics with those who deny the holocaust, AIDS and the link between smoking and lung cancer, but for good measure adds 

The government says its emissions trading scheme tax will bring no risk to the economy. Indeed, Kevin Rudd constantly harps about savings of 15 per cent if we move early to implement the tax. In fact, there is a considerable risk to the economy from the ETS tax and any alternative measures designed to force 

A form of carbon tax such as the emissions trading scheme cannot reduce global emissions unless there is agreement for a similar level of tax across all economies. That aside, the government's immediate issues are how to spend the money the tax raises, including how to avoid compensating the privatised 

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The Government's climate change policy adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, said last year that the coming Copenhagen Conference would bring an agreement on global measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The 20 per cent Renewable Energy Target (RET), passed in the Senate yesterday, represents a triumph for vested interests in creating negative value. It guarantees that high cost, inefficient windmills will be built by forcing electricity suppliers (and therefore consumers) to pay a premium on electricity supply, 

The Institute of Public Affairs has been researching the economic impact of climate change policies since the early 1990s. The Institute of Public Affairs has a research track record in the climate change field of two decades. As you decide on Australia's climate change policies you should consider the following 

Countdown For Climate Change Vote is the banner on the ALP web site. It explains that only five days remain before Parliament's climate change vote. Canberra's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would eventually require 90 per cent of electricity to be derived from renewable sources, with perhaps 

The goal of international agreements being considered on climate change is to stabilise the world’s human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. This ambition is barely conceivable. For the main gas, carbon dioxide, it would require emissions to be set at an average global level of about three tonnes per capita. 

The renewable energy bill now before the Senate proposes that 20 per cent of electricity be derived from renewable sources.

There was a large dose of whimsy in the G8 leaders getting together in Berlusconi's Italy last week. Not only did it place the host's colourful private life at the centre of the world's stage but it was further enlivened by the world leaders' decision to adopt targets for emission levels 40 years into the future.

Even though the US House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade emission restraint bill last week, it has to pass the more formidable hurdle of the Senate before it can become law. The bill requires a 20 per cent reduction in US emissions by 2020 and an 83 per cent reduction by 2050.

Twelve years ago, as a sop to wind farm lobbyists and green activists, the Howard government announced a "2 per cent renewable energy requirement". This compels electricity retailers to incorporate high-cost wind and solar generated electricity within supplies. Vested interests ratcheted up the renewable share 

Politicians have converted the global warming policy chess match into a poker game with a constantly revised bidding currency, comprising tradable emission rights, carbon taxes and a range of other measures. Carbon taxes, and tradable rights to emit carbon, like the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), are 

Despite the Government announcing it has backed away from early action to reduce carbon emissions, the Prime Minister's website continues to say, "The cost of inaction on climate change will be much greater than the cost of taking action now." Like others working for Kevin Rudd, his website managers can't ke

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