Australian Senate defeats carbon trading bill

[clear eye]

Source: The Guardian

Defeat of carbon trading bill delivers blow to government that had hoped to set an example at international climate change talks in Copenhagen

Toni O'Loughlin in Sydney guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 December 2009 09.35 GMT

Australia has dumped its plan to cut the nation's carbon emissions for the second time this year after climate sceptics seized control of the conservative opposition.

The Senate, where the government of the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, does not hold a majority, rejected 41-33 his administration's proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.

...But parliamentarians from the Australian Greens party welcomed the demise of the Labor government's carbon emissions trading scheme, calling it "a dirty deal, an exercise in double think, and a deceipt on the Australian people".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/02/australia-senate-defeats-carbon-trading-bill

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Unfortunately, the action shows the strength of those refusing to link the rapid climate change to human activities.

What say we get Gore to line up showings of An Inconvenient Truth there?

[SpiralHawk]

1. I will never understand why these clowns get called 'conservatives'

Since they conserve nothing whatsoever, except their ignorance.

Try conserving the planet we all depend upon, for a change...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. "Cap and trade" is a crock anyway

Companies can keep polluting as long as they buy "credits" from other companies. There is already a "stock market" and speculation in cap-and-trade in Europe.

The only way to cut emissions is to CUT them: require scrubbing of emissions, shift away from private cars to mass transit in urban areas, replace short-haul plane trips with high-speed rail.

[Fool Count]

6. Exactly, that idiotic belief that any problem can be solved

by creating another "market" should have been put soundly to rest by now.
All it does is creating another extensively useless infrastructure of
exchanges, populated by armies of traders, brokers, specialists and
all sorts of other parasites, making their comfortable living off the backs
of the productive sector, all living in big houses and driving big cars,
and flying their private jets around. And all that to possibly achieve
(or not, who can be sure) an uncertain reduction in CO2 emissions, all the
while when a certain and quantifiable reductions can be had by simply
cutting those emissions via laws and stricter government regulations.
What a crock.

[swilton]

3. Cap and Trade

is a waste that subsidizes big businesses that pollute. I'm glad this was defeated - although it's never good to hear that the flat earthers have taken control of democratic processes.

[depakid]

7. Actually, having Abbott and lunatic right in control ensures a Senate majority in upcoming elections

with the Greens likely holding the balance of power.

After which, we can pass something better than the current ETS.

[beyond cynical]

4. Copenhagen...Kyoto...An Inconvenient Truth...

So much bluster, so little accomplished.

[lagavulin]

5. "Carbon trading" doesn't seem to be off-setting or reducing anything.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businesslatestnews/6686057/European-Climate-Exchange-chief-Patrick-Birley-defends-the-carbon-trading-system.html
">This from the Telegraph just a couple days ago:

"...campaigners such as Friends of the Earth have argued that the entire system is so flawed it may need to be demolished in favour of a straightforward tax on polluters.

Firstly, they insist, the European system has failed in its fundamental aim to reduce emissions, meaning its only effect is to redistribute wealth among companies and traders. Secondly, the market is a magnet for derivatives that few people understand, brewing up a second sub-prime bubble. Lastly, the opportunities for fraud are vast, given the intangible nature of the product."

...

The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission even believes that within five years, carbon could surpass crude oil as the world's most traded commodity...."Carbon-related products are probably the most profitable part of trading for any of the investment banks right now, because the margins are so good"