Consultant Dan
12 June 2010
Climate Politics: the final installment of the Deakins
Hundreds of people lined up tonight in the hope of getting a seat to the Politics of Climate Change, the final of the Deakin Lectures 2010. This is a great sign because it shows that the the public will to think through the problem has not been killed by the denialists nor the Copenhagen debate nor the ETS back-flip of the current Australian Labor Government.
Here are some of the key points made by the speakers in their presentations or in response to questions:
Baroness Valerie Amos, British High Commissioner to Australia and former Minister.
Climate concern in Britain is not a partisan issue: all parties support climate action as does the mainstream business lobby
UK accounts for about 2% of global emissions, about the same as Australia
- a carbon price is important but must be accompanied by other measures, including education, industry policy etc
- consumer choices depend on good information especially inspiration about the ways they can change their lifestyle
- Copenhagen created a ‘dynamism’ for change, so it was not a complete failure
Malcolm Turnbull, MP, former Minister for Environment and Water Resources and former leader of the Federal Opposition.
- we have every resource available to meet climate challenge except leadership
- PM Rudd did not have the courage to take on climate change and call a double dissolution on his ETS
- Opposes a feed in tariff because it is a subsidy to particular technologies, rather than a perfectly (economically) rational emissions reduction measure
- Rudd did use the ETS as a wedge against the Opposition although it was based on the previous iteration, of PM John Howard
- a carbon tax is simpler but the level of emissions is not defined as under a cap
Here is my recent take on political conservatives and economics.
Nick McKim, Leader of the Tasmanian Greens in 2008, and Cabinet Member (for Treasury and Employment, Climate Change, Attorney-General and Justice, Education, and Economic Development).
- we have 2 choices as a species:descend into conflict or take strong action, cooperate and share the solutions
- determined to show the leadership that is talked about
- Governments everywhere are running behind public sentiment, for example, we are spending 10-100 times more on roads than on sustainable transport
- we all have to play a role with our vote and civic voice
Mark Dreyfus, QC, MP and Chair of the Australian Labor Party’s National Policy Committee.
- the politics of climate change has cost Opposition 3 leaders
- the Senate Greens are to blame for not passing the ETS
- we need to avoid making the perfect the enemy of the good, focus on the negative and allow partisan positions to frustrate progress
- citizens need to advocate for action
Tim Flannery, curator of the Deakins.
- the most popular presentation to the Deakins so far was Professor Tim Jackson’s, on ways to decouple prosperity from economic growth
- Victoria still allows logging of old growth forests, which are the most carbon intense in the world
You will see from the video, when it is posted on the Wheeler site that the crowd atmosphere was more positive to politicians Turnbull and McKim than Dreyfus.
The most interesting question was from man who asked Tim Flannery whether we are focusing too much on carbon and not on the ultimate drivers of global change. The second most interesting question was whether the Greens proposal – backed by Garnaut – for a carbon tax is worth supporting.
RSS
Thanks for your coverage of The Deakins.
All our videos are now live and embeddable: http://wheelercentre.com/videos/tag/deakins-2010