So the carbon price means climate policy is sorted, right? Wrong…

Post date: Nov 11, 2011 4:59:37 AM

So the carbon price means climate policy is sorted, right? Wrong…

The job’s not done yet!

The carbon price package is a good start, but let’s not kid ourselves that it will deliver a safe climate future. Here are just some of the key issues:

· Australia’s greenhouse pollution is set to continue to rise until at least 2030

· By 2050, the Government itself expects greenhouse pollution to fall by just 2%

· The claim that emissions will be 80% lower in 2050 is based entirely on the purchase of ‘offsets’ from developing countries – these have been shown to not represent genuine pollution reduction – often just the opposite

· Purchasing ‘offsets’ will see billions of dollars flow every year to dodgy projects overseas – money that should be invested in renewable energy, green jobs and helping vulnerable households, communities and companies to transition to a low-carbon future

· The Government’s own modeling shows that the ‘clean energy’ package puts us on track for 550ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere by 2050 – a level that essentially all climate scientists in the world would consider highly dangerous, guaranteeing a dangerously unstable global climate and accelerating human and ecological catastrophes

· The lack of genuine leadership from Australia – the biggest per-capita polluter of all the developed countries – undermines efforts to reach a meaningful global solution

· Because emissions will continue to rise, Australian industry is not even beginning the transition to a genuinely sustainable path in a low-carbon world, putting our future competitiveness and jobs at risk

· Not one additional kWh of renewable energy will result from this package before 2020 at the earliest – in the meantime, Australia’s renewable energy industry is in crisis

· The Government rejected the recommendation of the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency and refused to set an energy savings target for Australia

Don’t get down about climate change – get up, get inspired and get active!

Join Climate Action Hobart and do your bit to fix this the only way it can be fixed – by grassroots political action!

Turn up to a meeting, join us on Facebook or send us an email at climateactionhobart@gmail.com

We meet on the 1^st and 3^rd Tuesday of every month, from 5.30pm in the Community Meeting Room at Sustainable Living Tasmania, Level 1, 71 Murray St, Hobart.