Limber up for the pre-election backflip season

The Australian Labor Government may have abandoned the ETS field in the lead up the election. Ironically leaving Malcolm Turnbull as the only pro-CPRS player left, but on his way out.

Not content with his Pyrrhic victory, he uses this for his very own backflip back into politics. Welcome back on entertainment value alone, given this:

Kevin Rudd blames an opposition backflip and slow global progress on climate change action for the delay of the federal government's carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS).

But the prime minister says the government is still committed to meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Mr Rudd on Tuesday said the government would now wait until the end of 2012, when the current Kyoto commitment period ends, before implementing the CPRS.

Tim Dunlop is not impressed with the poor backbone action in Rudd's very own flip:

Kevin Rudd picks fights, but he doesn't want to take a punch. Maybe that's pragmatic and means he'll live to fight another day. But increasingly it looks like he has vacated the ring.

Can't say I am either. I can understand the reasons for vacating the ring for the election, but getting a bill through that is going to wrought massive changes on voters does need courage. might.

My problem with Rudd white-flagging the CPRS field is the signal it sends out to renewable energy investors and voters. And the potentially stalled progress on the issue.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

About f'king time, Mr Rudd

Respectfully, you should have been using this sort of hard language to publicly out and route these most insidious AGW deniers (not sceptics ~ sceptics form their views based on the peer-reviewed evidence) in the Liberal party, a lot earlier. We've already seen how many political cowards in the Liberal Party snuck across into the denier camp as the public bought your you-are-doing-something and climate change concern dropped in its priorities.

But, these words are as pleasing on the eyes as the drought-breaking rain is on the parched face of a cockie:

"These do-nothing climate change sceptics are prepared to destroy our children's future,"

"The do-nothing climate change sceptics are still alive and well in the coalition,"

"The argument that we must not act until others do is an argument that has been used by political cowards since time immemorial, both of the left and the right.

"They are reckless gamblers who are betting all our futures on their arrogant assumption that their intuitions should triumph over the evidence.

"You are betting our jobs, our houses, our farms, our reefs, our economy and our future on an intuition, on a gut feeling, on a political prejudice you have about science."

Well put, sir. Though, technically speaking, you just pinged them Do-Nothing Deniers. Now route 'em hard, and route 'em for good. Take the best damned deal you can to Copenhagen. We want 25% emissions cuts below 2000 levels, minimum.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Australia accused of dragging post-Kyoto chain

Glen Milne was saying only today that the Australian Labor Party might spin itself into being the first one-term government in the modern political era.

I can see that happening, if they do not follow through with the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol they ratified on Australia's behalf as their first act of government.

According to a delegate at the Bonn summit where representatives from 172 countries began gathering proposals on measures to slow global warming by curbing carbon emissions and on how to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

Australia has been accused of dragging the chain.

But participants said not enough ideas were put on the table, and environmental organisations accused Australia, the US and Canada of obstructing progress.

The Climate Institute CEO John Connor said Australia must reveal how much revenue from a carbon emissions trading scheme would be invested in climate change initiatives.

"These climate talks have concluded amidst mounting concern, but not yet panic, about the ability of world leaders to conclude a global agreement by end of 2009 as agreed in Bali," Mr Connor said from Bonn.

"In the end all parties agreed that a new spirit of commitment and urgency will be needed to reach the shared desire for a global agreement.

"Australia can help this by signalling that it will do its fair share by dedicating a significant amount of its emissions trading revenue into ensuring developing countries build clean energy infrastructure and help prepare them for the impacts of unavoidable climate change."

The fortnight of talks in Bonn marks the first major climate change meeting since the gathering in Bali last December.

The aim is to devise an accord to succeed the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which set targets for 37 industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of five per cent by 2012.

Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate change official, said the proposals needed to become much more focused.

Harald Dovland, the Norwegian chairman of a key working group, was frustrated at the slow progress in Bonn.

"We need a completely new spirit of co-operation," he said.

"If we continue in this mode and speed of work, I fear we will not succeed in achieving the goals set in our work program."

Delegates will reconvene in August in Accra, Ghana, and again in Poznan, Poland, in December.

At least four more major conferences are scheduled for 2009.

Comment was being sought from the Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.

Australia only contributes 1 or 2% of the world's GHG emissions, or so we are often told by the skeptics. And, if you exclude our coal exports, they have a point. If we only sluggishly work our way down to our targets, we are not going to make much of an overall impact. The skeptics are right about that.

So if we (the people) are going to go through the pain of transferring from one economy to another anyway, then there is only one way to do it that makes sense, and that is to take a leadership role and make the maximum impact possible. After 12 years of being known as denialists and delayers of action, we are uniquely positioned to lead by example, but only have one shot at assuming this: Before the standing ovation Australia's delegation received at the Bali conference becomes a distant memory.

Rudd government more different by the day

The real 'me-too' nature of the one-month old Australian Federal Labor is becoming more apparent with each passing day.


Day One. Kevin Rudd made good his election promise by triggering the instrument that sets in process the Australian Government ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, as his first act of government. It was signed hours after the new Labor cabinet was sworn in by the Governor-General, Sir Michael Jeffrey.

Although climate change policy was a clear point of difference for Labor, Rudd's immediate ratification of Kyoto yielded maximum symbolic impact. For the Australian electorate the surprise was not the signing, but the timing. Kev was telling us, "Ok, I'm onto it".

For the outside world, Rudd's first act of a few hours old government clearly signalled a dramatic departure from Howard's active, overt and covert opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. The significance was not lost on China Daily...

CANBERRA - Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, took the oath of office on Monday and immediately signed documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, ending his country's long-held opposition to the global climate agreement.

...not the Beeb...

Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has been sworn in as prime minister, following a landslide victory in parliamentary elections last week. Immediately after the ceremony, he signed documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, reversing the previous administration's policy. "This is the first official act of the new Australian government," he said.

...neither on the NYTimes...

CANBERRA, Australia — Kevin Rudd, the new prime minister of Australia, said on Monday that he had signed the paperwork to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, making good on an election promise that overturns a decade of opposition to the international global warming pact.

...and nor the rest of the world...

And the UN Climate Conference delegates assembling in Bali now loved it, giving Australia a rousing applause that would make an AA convention blush.

Everyone noted the significance... "Australia's new stance on Kyoto will isolate the US as the only developed nation not to have ratified the treaty." read the BBC.

Another dramatic departure from the Liberal's core policy of slavishly following Washington everywhere.


Day Ten. Australia, PNG to 'restore' relationship

Instead of acting the regional bully, the Rudd government has signalled our intentions to move past blunderbuss and fishnet stockings diplomacy.

Australia and Papua New Guinea will work on restoring their relationship after a frosty period under the previous Howard government. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his PNG counterpart Michael Somare agreed to restore contact after a bilateral meeting in Bali on Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations climate change conference. The relationship soured over PNG's involvement in helping disgraced former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti evade an Australian extradition attempt. But Mr Rudd said both countries were determined to repair the damage after a "good and long" conversation. "I said to Sir Michael, and he agreed, that it was time to turn a new page in Australia's relationship with Papua New Guinea," Mr Rudd told reporters at the Australian consulate. "This relationship has been through a very difficult period in recent times. There has, in effect, been a freeze on ministerial contact between the two governments. I do not believe that's an appropriate way forward for the future. "We have to get on with the business of reviewing the totality of our relationship and taking that relationship forward." Ministerial relations between the two nations will resume and a top-level delegation of ministers will visit PNG early next year for an Australian-PNG Ministerial Forum. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will head the Australian delegation, which will also include Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and economist Ross Garnaut, who is conducting the Rudd government's climate change review. "This is a critical relationship for Australia. We've got to get this relationship right," he said. The two leaders discussed climate change and deforestation. Australian officials will visit Port Moresby in January to discuss ways to stop the cutting down of PNG's rainforests.

Day Fifteen. Parliament to sit for 15 days longer under Rudd

Under the Howard Government it was unusual for the Upper or Lower House to sit on a Friday but now the House of Representatives will regularly sit five days a week.

Apart from allowing greater accountability and scrutiny, and greater access for the backbench, hopefully Australia is getting 25% greater productivity per ton of carbon emissions spent schlepping the parliamentarians in and out of Canberra.


Day Nineteen. Australia leads 31 countries in formal whaling protest to the Japanese Government

Er... Howard would not have done that. He never lifted a finger to stop the Japanese whalers conducting their 'research' in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary that Australia has responsibility for protecting. To be fair, we always had strong leadership in the International Whaling Commissions under Howard. But he would never have risked ruffling diplomatic feathers with our biggest trading partner.

The Federal Government and anti-whaling groups today welcomed as a small victory Japan's decision to suspend the planned kill of 50 humpbacks. But they have pledged to maintain pressure on Tokyo to end the so-called scientific whaling program. Japan said its decision not to catch humpbacks for "one year or two" came after consultation with the International Whaling Commission (IWC), although it noted the strength of the Australian opposition to the annual hunt.

There is a bit of wow factor here. How will this affect the relationship between our two countries, where the whaling issue being is the only note of discord in an otherwise harmonious relationship? Not a jot, I reckon, but who knows? The whaling lobby in Japan must be powerful to persist with their pursuit in the face of diminishing demand for whale meat.


Day Twenty. Federal Government Paves Way for Haneef To Work In Australia

Former terrorism suspect Mohamed Haneef is keen to reapply for his position at the Gold Coast Hospital after the federal government yesterday paved the way for his return. New Labor Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the Indian national was entitled to return to work after the full bench of the Federal Court upheld a judge's earlier decision to reinstate his work visa. The doctor's visa was withdrawn by the former Howard government on character grounds despite terrorism charges against him being dropped. Dr Haneef's Brisbane-based lawyer Peter Russo today informed the devout Muslim, who is currently in Mecca with his wife and mother, of Mr Evans' decision not to appeal the court's ruling.

Rudd's Government is signalling that it is not going to run the War on Terror as one of Howard's famous Culture Wars. I so hope this is born out. I am bored to death of 'em. Not only did this culture-skirmish make for bumpy relations with India and discredit us in their eyes, the Queensland hospital system copped collateral damage by losing a good doctor and the generation of bad PR for future overseas recruitments.


Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Bali agreement on a 2009 climate pact

Bloody hell, how hard is it for the US to accept the science? What an other-world reality they have about global warming. Complete denial is head-shaking stuff, but, hey, we were there not a month ago living under John Howard's special brand of 25 stations, nuclear-powered delusion.

Reality bumped Howard out of the way, and put Kyoto Kevin on the winner's dais.

And reality is crudely bumping a recalcitrant, intransigent US along in the direction that the progressive front-runners are heading in.

Overall it's better than I expected, but less than I hoped for. And I am pleased that the Washington wrecking crew did not manage to spoil further.

My prediction is that come the start of the 2009 climate pact meeting the first black, female, or climate-friendly, white, male Republican US President will receive the same rousing standing-ovation that greeted Kevin Rudd when he set in train the Kyoto Protocol ratification.

It is highly symbolic that he chose Kyoto ratification for his first act as Australian Prime Minister. Rudd has set a precedent; he has set-up a stage for a correctly thinking, new US President to step onto and send a powerful signal of, not just an engagement with the rest of the world on climate change solutions, but a highly symbolic collaborative re-engagement. It would improve their global image problem, overnight. As it has Australia's under Rudd's ratification.

clipped from news.smh.com.au Bali talks set 2009 for new climate pact A drama-filled 190-nation conference set a 2009 deadline for a landmark pact to fight global warming after an isolated United States backed down on last-ditch objections. The United States, the only major industrial nation to reject Kyoto, reached a compromise with the European Union (EU) to avoid mentioning any figures as a target for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement instead only makes an indirect reference to scientists' warnings that the world must sharply cut back emissions to prevent a rise in temperatures that would put millions of people at risk. But on an unscheduled 13th day of talks, the United States said it would not accept the statement as it wanted developing countries such as fast-growing China to make tougher commitments. Senior US negotiator Paula Dobriansky said she had heard "many strong statements from many major developing country leaders on a greater role in helping to address urgently this global problem". It "doesn't seem it's going to be reflected in our outcome here in the declaration," she said, telling the conference that the United States would reject the draft. Dobriansky was loudly booed by other delegations. A US environmental activist representing Papua New Guinea said on the floor to rousing cheers: "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way." After repeated verbal lashings, Dobriansky again took the microphone and said that Washington would "go forward and join consensus," to the cheers of the conference. Indian Science Minister Kapil Sibal, who had been vocally critical of the US position, offered his thanks to the United States for not blocking the consensus. "We believe that they too are as equally committed as the rest of the world to combat climate change. So thank you very much to the delegation of the United States for coming on board," Sibal said. The agreement came only after the head of the United Nations jetted in, the UN climate chief nearly broke down in tears and chairman Indonesia apologised abjectly for a disastrous procedural mix-up. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew in to make an unscheduled last-minute appeal for a deal. "Seize the moment, this moment, for the good of all humanity," Ban pleaded. "The world is watching," said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "The worst thing that can happen is for our great project, for the human race and our planet Earth to crumble because we cannot find the right wording."

Rudd the Ratifier clarifys Australia's Kyoto intentions

...to another round of applause at Bali. This time to the high-level Heads of State meeting.

clipped from www.smh.com.au Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told world leaders in Bali that climate change is the defining challenge of this generation, and says Australia stands ready to respond to the problem. The community of nations must reach agreement. There is no plan B. There is no other planet any of us can escape to. We only have this one. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd addresses the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Photo: Glen McCurtayne He told delegates at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali today that Australia would commit to "real" and "robust" short and medium term targets to slash greenhouse gases, after the Garnaut review is finished next year. Mr Rudd received enthusiastic applause as he was introduced at the high-level segment of the Bali talks, after earlier formally handing over the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. "It will require tough choices, and some of these will come at a political price," he said.

Singapore PM has a go at Howard's climate policies

There must be a great depth of feeling for the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, normally circumspect, to take a passing shot at the ex-Prime Minister, John Howard for his climate change recalcitrance.

He also gave the US a poke in the ribs.

clipped from www.smh.com.au Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - who will meet Mr Rudd later today for bilateral talks - took a veiled swipe at former prime minister John Howard, as he described the challenge of dealing with global warming as a "long and difficult process". "It will need political support from the populations of our countries, for we will face tough choices," Lee told the gathering. "In Europe, climate change policy is already a major political priority. "In Australia, public pressure forced former prime minister John Howard to change his government's stand after a severe decade-long drought. "Even in the US, attitudes are shifting." The island nation of Palau had praise for Australia's move to ratify Kyoto. "I congratulate the new Australian Government and Prime Minister Rudd for seeing the light," President Tommy Remengesau jnr said. "Let us hope that the United States will not be far behind."

Bush systematically mislead US on climate change

clipped from english.aljazeera.net The White House has systematically manipulated climate science for years to play down the dangers of global warming, a US congressional report says. Monday's report, prepared by Democrats after a 16-month investigation, came as the Bush administration pressed a UN climate meeting to drop targets for big cuts in greenhouse gases by rich nations. "The Bush administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming," the report said.

Howard years saw 42% increase in carbon emissions

That will be his legacy.

clipped from www.smh.com.au AUSTRALIA has been named as one of the top three world greenhouse gas "sinners" by a European environmental report, ranking it with the United States and Saudi Arabia for failing its responsibilities towards the global environment. "The worst climate sinners are Saudi Arabia, the US and Australia, which not only have extremely high and mounting emission levels, but also employ insufficient and inadequate climate policies," the director of the Climate Action Network, Matthias Duwe, said at a press conference at the United Nations talks in Bali. Australia ranked behind China, Russia and India because of its policies during the Howard years, the report says.

Global warming denier's get no hearing in Bali

Andrew Bolt is apoplectic.

Since the Bali Conference began, he has devoted six posts to bagging it. Here is his latest.

clipped from blogs.news.com.au With 15,000 global warming believers already choking the UN’s conference on how to cut the gases they emitted just getting there, it’s natural a few had to excluded. And how convenient those exclusions were: The United Nations has rejected all attempts by a group of dissenting scientists seeking to present information at the climate change conference taking place in Bali, Indonesia. The International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) has been denied the opportunity to present at panel discussions, side events, and exhibits; its members were denied press credentials. The group consists of distinguished scientists from Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The scientists, citing pivotal evidence on climate change published in peer-reviewed journals, have expressed their opposition to the UN’s alarmist theory of anthropogenic global warming.

Labor's climate change policies will 'boost Aust credibility'

The previous govt was mainly interested in developing ways that the uranium industry could take over from the oil industry.

clipped from www.abc.net.au The head of a climate change review commissioned by state and territory leaders earlier this year says Labor's policies will go a long way to boosting Australia's credibility at the climate change meeting in Bali next month. Professor Ross Garnaut is canvassing a range of options including emissions trading schemes. He says to be effective such a program would need to be overseen by an independent commission. Professor Garnaut says Australia's original decision to join the US and not sign the Kyoto agreement was discouraging for the rest of the international community, something which could be turned around in Bali. "Us going back, signing Kyoto, will be encouraging for the same reasons and it will mean that our voice will be a bit more credible in the discussions in Bali," he said. Professor Garnaut says progress towards reducing emissions will need to be led by developed countries.

Rudd backs deep 2020 emissions cuts

During the election campaign, Kevin Rudd has repeatedly said that Australia would not set its own 2020 target until he received a report from economist Ross Garnaut next year. But when he arrives in Bali next week he will face international expectations from Europe, China and Indonesia to make Australia's position clear whether, having ratified the Kyoto Protocol, it is committed to its own deep cuts:

clipped from www.smh.com.au THE Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, signalled his support for developed countries, including Australia, agreeing to making deep cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions in the next 12 years. In a significant move last night the Australian delegation to the UN climate talks stated it "fully supports" the proposal that developed countries need to cut their greenhouse gas emission by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020. The public statement came after China and Indonesia demanded at the UN climate change talks in Bali yesterday that developed nations who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol stick to this understanding reached earlier this year. Last night Australia publicly aligned itself with the nations under the Kyoto Protocol that have agreed to consider these cuts, distancing the new Rudd Government further from the US position. Saying Australia "fully supports" the position, the delegation said Australia was, "happy to proceed on this basis".

Chinese whispers at Bali Climate Conference

I heard on the radio that the Chinese are giving the developed world a bollocking over their emissions targets. Fair call. They have more people that will be affected than anyone else.

So I trotted over to China Daily (I'm becoming a regular these days), and found out that,..

China is well on its way to acquiring fully 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020, while the United States is dragging its feet on transitioning away from fossil fuels...

... but no bollocking. And that,..

Asia, home to 60 per cent of the world's population, will bear the brunt of global warming as more extreme climatic changes take place within the region.

... but still no bollocking. Nevertheless they had a pretty good run down on the conference to date.

Bali climate talks advance despite squabbling

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-04 23:19

Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate official, praised the December 3-14 meeting of 10,000 participants for progress towards a goal of launching formal talks on a long-term climate pact to succeed the UN's Kyoto Protocol.

"But in this process, as in so many, the devil's in the detail," he cautioned at a beach-side conference centre on the Indonesian island.

Governments set up a "special group" to examine options for the planned negotiations meant to bind the United States and developing nations more firmly into fighting climate change beyond Kyoto.

The meeting also agreed to study ways to do more to transfer clean technologies, such as solar panels or wind turbines, to developing nations. Such a move is key to greater involvement by developing nations in tackling their climate-warming emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol now binds 36 rich nations to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a step to curb droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas.

Canada said in a submission to the talks that "to be effective, a new international framework must include emission reduction obligations for all the largest emitting economies." It did not mention deeper cuts for rich nations beyond 2012.

And Japan on Monday called on all parties to effectively participate and contribute substantially.

"Canada and Japan are saying nothing about legally binding emission reductions for themselves after 2012," said Steven Guilbeault of environmental group Equiterre. "They are trying to shift the burden to China and India."

Then I found some promising stories. One about the Chinese delegate Su Wei, essentially saying developing nations had more at stake in the fight against climate change than developed nations. This exposes the threadbare logic of deniers claiming there is no sense in western nations doing anything about global warming, based on the rationale China is just about to overtake the US in emissions output.

Mr Wei also telegraphed China's attitude to Son of Kyoto — more of the same. This leae the US less room to spoil for 2012.

Su said the future arrangement to address climate change should focus on enhancing implementation of current provisions of the Convention and its Kyodo [sic] Protocol, and further strengthen those provisions in accordance to the latest scientific assessments.

Latest scientific assessments. Perhaps the US will start to consider them too, now that they have rediscovered what military intelligence is used for.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Blogging yer Bali Conference

Kyoto Kevin, Rudd the Ratifier, well done! Kevin Rudd made good his election promise by triggering the instrument that sets in process the Australian Government ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, as his first act of Government. It was signed hours after the new Labor cabinet was sworn in by the Governor-General, Sir Michael Jeffrey. Bizarre that the English Queen still has a hand in all this — but there you go.

China Daily noted it. They bloody like our Kevin. They love 'im. The headline of following link leads to a glowing write-up in China Daily today, and leaves one wondering just what they really thought of John Howard for 11 years. :::[A man of reason and foresight takes the reins]

And the UN Climate Conference delegates assembling in Bali now loved it, giving Australia a rousing applause for ratifying, that would make an AA convention blush.

Spontaneous applause erupted for Australia as hundreds of delegates at the Bali climate change conference lauded Canberra's decision to ratify the Kyoto protocol.

[....]

Indonesia's Environment Minister and the new president of the UNFCCC, Rachmat Witoelar, told the conference he spoke for everyone "giving a sigh of relief" on Australia's change of position.

After the initial reaction, Witoelar invited delegates to offer a second round of applause, which they enthusiastically did. Some delegates even rose to their feet.

UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer later told reporters: "I think that it was an emotional and spontaneous reaction to a very significant political decision on the part of the Australian government to ratify the Kyoto protocol".

"The long applause in fact reflects people's appreciation for the courage shown by Australia to take this dramatically different position, to engage even more strongly with the international community on the question of climate change."

Witoelar told reporters Australia would be given a seat at the negotiating table and invited to fully participate in talks for a new global warming treaty from 2012, when the Kyoto pact expires.

Leaves one wondering what they previously thought of us. Climate pariahs, apparently, according to The Australian.

So what happens next, and what does it all mean? That's what I'll be trying to work out, as I blog the UN Bali Conference over the next 13 days or so.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Rudd wins Australian Federal Election on Green vote

Well, that is it. The Australian electorate so convincingly repudiated the meanness and pettiness that became there trademark of the Howard Liberal government. Some rejected Howard's attack on refugees, and their inhumane detention centres. Some rejected the lies, and broken core-promise/non core-promise distinctions. Some rejected the way Hicks was treated in Gitmo Bay. WMB. Many rejected the way we went into the Iraq war, and as many rejected the unneeded assault on workers conditions going by the Orwellian Worchoices name.

For me, it was some of the above, but mainly, mainly because Australia will finally ratify Kyoto, and take our place among the responsible nations of the world committed to taking on the challenge of climate change. All the other stuff will seem like the trivial concerns of humans if we don't take up the fight to minimise global warming, and win.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Vote 1 — responsible approach to climate change

The main question for me in the Australian Federal Election, with three weeks to go (thank god) is, "who now has the best climate change policy?" Of course the economy is important, but how can anyone not see that the economy is but a sub-system within a larger environment? A failing environment will ultimately cause a failing economy. Health, education — they are all up there for me — but they will nay amount to a hill-o-beans for our kids and grandkids, if we don't arrest the development of more extreme scenarios modelled in IPCC 4.

I predicted that this would be a green election, and thus it has turned out.

It's the 2020 emissions reductions targets, stupid.

John Howard has set targets for 2050, and so has Rudd. Only the Greens have set intermediary targets for 2020.

• reduce greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2020 (80% by 2050)

Life is a long game. I see a big future for the Greens with policies like that. Howard still hasn't got it. Labor lost my interest when they re-nuanced Garrett's declaration that Labor would not wait for China to sign the Kyoto Protocol before signing.

I have a lot of respect for Garrett, politically, and as the activist musician of yesteryear — it's his call to diverge from his stated principles and stick to Labor's changing party line — but they lose my confidence. I'm pleased that The Greens and Labor have agreed to swap preferences.

Vote 1 The Greens in the Senate

The ideal outcome for me would be to see Labor throw this deceitful government out, with the help of the Greens, who go on to secure the balance of power in the Senate. The preference swap is one step towards this. Don't know who I'll vote for in the house, but it won't be Barry O'Farrell, not that I will make a dent in Bradfield. Wish I still lived in Wentworth, what with all that barristerial battering of the current member. I do like Turnbull for the most part, though, he just picked the wrong party, and approved the wrong pulp-mill in the wrong way.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Kevin Rudd and Tasmanian Gunns control

He's a good 'un, that Kevin.

He definitely does not want a repeat of Howard's surprising ascendency in Tasmania with the forestry union at the last election. So he has gone to spread oil on potentially troubled waters where all the elements are at play — the loggers, the greenies, nimbys, and now a group worried about the due process — not — that the Gunns pulp mill development applications is going through.

Tasmanians could be due for another rush of blood to the head from being on the national stage once again, come the elections.

clipped from www.news.com.au KEVIN Rudd has announced a $20 million Labor package to support the Tasmanian forestry industry and assess the possible impacts of climate change. Included in the package is: $9 MILLION to boost the export of forest products through a Forest Industries Development Fund; $8 MILLION to address major gaps in knowledge concerning the impact of climate change on the timber industry and the vulnerability of forest systems; $1 MILLION for a Forest and Forest Products Industry Skills Council to be known as ForestWorks; $1 MILLION to develop skills data, and; $1 MILLION to help regional governments and the industry combat illegal logging. Mr Lennon said. "It gives equal weight to both sides of the forestry debate and would be welcomed by reasonable observers who believe in a balanced approach," Mr Rudd said his position on a proposed pulp mill in Bass would depend on environmental impact assessments. Gunns Ltd wants to build a mill in the Tamar Valley, north of Launceston. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

John Howard 2.0 launched on stiff, clunky platform

Things have moved on since the Office of Prime Minister John Howard first launched their rather flat HTML website on December 3, 1998. Internet stocks boomed, bubbled and burst. Enron collapsed and then, 9/11. Everything changed — we perfected the art of no longer needing words to describe things. We had WMD, WoT, GWoT hit in quick succession. Now we have AWAs, SARS and GHGs to contend with. Even technology has caught ADHD and spawned the iPod and Web 2.0.

What's Web 2.0? Well, from an election media strategist's perspective, it's where you will catch the elusive 18-36 voting audience hanging out, after not finding them in the tv, radio, and print media audience studies. This new Technorati will be updating their FaceBook profile, fine-tuning their Google reader, catching up on their favourite Blogger's, or uploading YouTube video responses.

They tuned out to push media a while ago, and turned on the interactivity, personalisation, collaboration and immediacy offered by a slew of social networking sites, wikis, and other self-publishing platforms. The media is the message.They don't read or watch news any more, they pick out their highlights with Clipmarks to re-contextualise and recycle it, or bookmarking it at site like de.liscio.us, thereby voting for their preferred news in the great, big, Google on-going page-rank election. Web 2.0 turned the passive audiences of yore into a growing cast of a dynamic, interactive play, writ large.

Has the PM and his Office been taking notes? From JWH's debut on Web 2.0, apparently not...



However, it seems from their rapid YouTube video response, that Rudd and his Office has...



At the unofficial start of the election Rudd promised to play with Howard's mind. By luring him online with his FaceBook profile, Rudd just pwned Howard's arse and exposed him, once-more, as behind the times.

On consideration, maybe I am being a bit unfair to Howard. It's just that my broadband is so damned slow.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Carbon trading junction up ahead

The Australian Federal Elections 2007 will bring us to a crossroad. With the Howard Government committing to a cap and trade approach to developing a carbon market, aimed to be established by 2012, we now have choice at the election. In this article Steve Burrell of the SMH surveys the terrain up ahead.

clipped from www.smh.com.au Welcome to the Carbon Rush of the 21st Century, a potential bonanza that, globally, could make the 19th century gold rushes look small by comparison. But the precise path to the future - and the biggest winners and losers - will depend a lot on who wins the election later this year. While both sides now agree on the broad framework for solving the problem, they differ on crucial aspects, creating a new layer of uncertainty for business at least for the next year or so. Crucially, neither side has specified their short and medium-term targets for reducing CO2 - and won't until after the election. And that means the likely carbon price that will emerge is difficult to estimate even if you could predict the uncertain election outcome. But the price that emerges is central to which of the alternative technologies become economically viable, as well as the broad path of investment in existing generation technologies. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Aussies voters wooed with green and gold

I predicted early on that global warming is going to be a major factor in the Australian federal elections planned for the end of this year. Last week Prime Minister John Howard belatedly recognised this in attempting to divert the focus away from AGW and onto economic management, when he claimed that, "climate change is not the overriding moral challenge for Australians". Then he contradicted himself by clearing the way for a nuclear powered future, using global warming mitigation as his Trojan horse.

This weekend Labor pressed on with its perceived electoral advantage, announcing a policy to subsidise home generated solar energy for households earning under $250,00 per year by way of interest free loans. One big benefit of this approach, to my mind, is that it would stimulate a local solar and renewable energy industry.

clipped from www.smh.com.au Labor loans for green homes Phillip Hudson April 29, 2007 - 12:22PM About 200,000 households will be able to get cheap loans of up to $10,000 from a Labor Government to install solar panels, water tanks and other ''green'' climate friendly devices, Labor leader Kevin Rudd promised today. Announcing the $300 million policy at the ALP national conference in Sydney, Mr Rudd said it was a practical ''bread and butter'' plan to help families earning less than $250,000 a year to make their homes more energy and water efficient. He claimed the policy could generate up to $2 billion worth of green inspired investment and work for small business, especially tradespeople. He said it would cut up to $800 a year from household energy and water bills and ''increase the value of their homes''.

Global Warning Climate Change