The head of the Australian government’s independent Climate Change Authority (CAA) has strongly rebuked the conservative Liberal-National government for its attitude to climate change
Chair of the CCA and former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser said the government of the Prime Minister Tony Abbott was putting the interests of big business ahead of ordinary Australians when it came to climate change.
AAP Newsagency reports Mr Fraser also said it was “indefensible” for the government to claim to support the science of climate change, but refuses to back it up with real action.
In a rare move, Mr Fraser openly criticised the government’s plan to repeal carbon pricing and review the Renewable Energy Target (RET), warning it would have fewer options at hand to deal with global warming.
The conservative Liberal-National government has presented legislation to parliament to repeal Australia’s clean energy laws but so far the move has been blocked in the upper house Senate, where the Labor opposition and the Australian Greens Party hold the balance of power.
AAP reports the former Treasury secretary said while business and mining groups could be expected to act in their self interest by opposing the carbon price and mining tax, the government had different responsibilities.
“It seems clear to me that in the area of climate change policy, the government is backing in business interests, and big business interests for the large part, ahead of community interest,” he told the National Press Club.
His criticism came as fellow former Treasury head Dr Ken Henry threw his support behind carbon pricing, saying any other mechanism for tackling the problem would damage the economy more than emissions trading.
He also backed prominent economist and former climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut, who warned recently the government’s plan for reducing emissions could blow out the budget by billions of dollars every year.
“I wouldn’t question Ross on these issues, I think he probably has his numbers right,” he told ABC TV.
These statements contradict the government’s insistence that its Direct Action plan can achieve a five per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 at lower costs than the former Labor government Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
The Liberal-National govnernment’s mechanism for meeting that target is capped at $1.55 billion for its first three years, but it’s faced intense scrutiny over whether it can meet its goals at that cost.
Mr Fraser said there were many unanswered questions about the plan, but its main limitation was that the federal budget ,not the climate science, would determine how well it succeeded.
Australia needed a “toolkit” with a mix of policy options, including market mechanisms like emissions trading and carbon pricing and direct measures like regulating pollution from new cars.
AAP reports Mr Fraser said he feared the “alignment” of business and government interests was stifling the national debate on what needed to be done, and all signs suggested it would be a lopsided discussion for some time.
“While the government professes to accept the science of climate change, the indications are that it’s unlikely to back that acceptance with appropriate actions,” he said.
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I think it’s really lightening, rather than adding too, that policy toolkit.”
The authority recently recommended the government triple its emissions reduction target to at least 15 per cent by 2020, prompting an outcry from business and mining groups.
As part of its legislative action the government has attempted to abolish the CCA, but so far its attempts to dismantle it have been rejected by the Senate.