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Tony Abbott Branded ‘Climate Denier’ After Carbon Trading Tirade
Last updated on 15 July 2013, 8:11 am A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories. Email the team on info@rtcc.org or get in touch via Twitter. Tony Abbott has branded emissions trading as dealing in an “invisible substance”, carbon dioxide. (Source: Liberal Party) Australia: Opposition leader Tony Abbott has branded emissions trading a “so-called market” that deals in an “invisible substance”, carbon dioxide, as the Coalition digs in politically ahead of Labor’s looming overhaul of its clean energy package. ( Guardian ) Poland: Poland’s shale gas business is facing a serious challenge after the EU’s highest court, European Court of Justice, ruled that Warsaw violated European law by allowing licences to be issued for the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons, without fully open tenders. This affects around 100 shale gas exploration licences issued by Warsaw to firms believed to be in breach of the EU’s Hydrocarbon Directive. ( EurActiv ) UK: The government may be promoting the controversial practice of fracking for gas shale because figures from that industry hold senior advisory roles within the government, campaigners have warned. The former BP boss Lord Browne, Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw and BG Group director Baroness Hogg have all been accused of the potential for conflicts of interest. ( Independent ) Germany: The European Union is planning an investigation into Germany’s renewable energy law due to concerns that exemptions for some firms from charges levied on power users breaches competition rules. Lawyers in Brussels are rumoured to have been looking at the law which provides a framework for Germany’s push to renewable energy, and that Commissioner Joaquín Almunia had concluded it may breach EU rules. ( EurActiv ) China: China’s electricity consumption, used a barometer of economic activity, rose 6.3% year on year to 438.4 billion kilowatt hours in June, an official statement said Sunday. The National Energy Administration said that the growth rate was 2% higher than a year earlier and 1.3% points higher than in May. ( Xinhuanet ) China/Australia: A new research programme has been announced which will see Chinese and Australian researchers working together to confront the challenges of climate change policy. The $305,000 programme will be run by the Australian National University’s (ANU) and led by Associate Professor Frank Jotzo of the School’s Centre for Climate Economics and Policy. ( PS News ) Pakistan: Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to inaugurate Pakistan’s first private hydropower project in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, on Monday to be registered with the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate as a clean mechanism development project. The 84MW project is expected to replace 135,000 tons of oil import valued in excess of $100 million per annum. ( News Tribe ) Czech Republic: A new unique station near Bystrice nad Pernstejnem will examine the impact that expected climate changes will have on wheat and barley. The station, built with the EU’s financial support, consists of 24 automatically controlled chambers similar to greenhouses that enable researchers to simulate different climate phenomena which experts expect to develop in the Czech Republic in the next hundred years. ( Prague Monitor ) – See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/…h.aCxubGOy.dpuf Continue reading
Shanghai To Fine Firms For Breaching CO2 Market Rules
15 Jul 2013 10:13 Last updated: 15 Jul 2013 13:37 BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Shanghai companies that fail to surrender enough government-issued carbon permits for each tonne of CO2 they emit under the city’s Emissions Trading Scheme face government fines of up to 100,000 RMB ($16,000) and will be forced to buy permits in the market, according to draft rules released by city lawmakers. Shanghai plans to launch an emissions market before the end of the year, capping carbon dioxide emissions from 200 companies across a broad sector of the city’s economy, including big energy users such as Bao Steel, energy companies such as PetroChina as well as China Eastern Airlines. The city is one of seven designated regions in which the central government is trialing emission markets before rolling out a federal scheme later in the decade in a bid to rein in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency. The release of draft rules on Friday reveal for the first time how lawmakers intend to enforce environmental laws on companies responsible for pumping out about 110 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. “It is urgent to make clear rules on the basic issues as for carbon trading…. (the rules) will provide strong legal support and protection to carry out the pilot ETS,” the draft rules said. As well as fines for companies failing to surrender permits, companies that obstruct independent auditors in reporting emissions face penalties of up to RMB50,000 per breach. Emitters will be able to reduce the cost of complying with the scheme by offsetting up to 5 percent of their emissions by buying carbon credits, known as Chinese Certified Emission Reductions, from domestic projects that cut emissions. The rules, which were published on the local government’s website on Friday, still need to be ratified by government officials before becoming law. China, the world’s biggest emitter has been plagued by environmental problems associated with its rapid increase in coal consumption, with smog engulfing many of its cities located across the eastern seaboard. To improve energy efficiency the nation has a target to cut the emissions intensity of its economy – emissions per unit of GDP – by up to 45 percent by the end of the decade. To help it meet that goal, Shanghai plans to cut its carbon intensity by 19 percent below 2010 levels by 2015 and wants to curb 2013 energy consumption below 118.4 million tonnes of standard coal equivalent, increasing by 4.18 percent year-on-year. The city of Shenzhen was the first region in China to launch a carbon market in July, with permits changing hands at about $4.50-5.00 each, roughly the same price as those in Europe. By Kathy Chen – kathy.chen@thomsonreuters.com and Andrew Allan Continue reading
‘A So-Called Market In Invisible Stuff’: The Meaning Of Tony Abbott’s Carbon Rhetoric
July 15, 2013 Ben Cubby Environment Editor Abbott slammed on ‘invisible substance’ Tony Abbott has attracted criticism for saying the ETS is a “so-called market” for an “invisible substance”. Autoplay ON Video feedback on Monday, answering his own rhetorical question about what a carbon trading scheme is. Abbott’s emission was received with glee on social media, where people pointed out that there are many “invisible substances” – natural gas, oxygen and bacteria spring to mind – that both have market value and are essential to life on Earth. It’s the latest in a long campaign to redefine the stuff that comes from burning coal as a “colourless, odourless gas”, a harmless three-way cuddle between one carbon and two oxygen atoms that, happily, provides “plant food”. But, while the “invisible substance” line is facile, it is worth examining a little more closely, because it contains a few hints about the opposition’s strategy. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has ramped up his rhetoric against market regulation of carbon emissions. Photo: Jonathan Ng The phrase “so-called market” not only plays to the sympathies of people suspicious of money markets, it positions the Coalition as the party with the knowledge to discern real markets from fake ones. The “non-delivery” hints at Labor government unreliability, and the “no one” points to the ethereal nature of the carbon exchange mechanism, where permits have a set value for a set period of time, but become worthless after that, like unused movie tickets. The fact that you can’t really make a non-delivery to no-one seems to have escaped Abbott, but the staffer who penned the line could argue the twisted grammar echoes the confusing nature of an ETS that won’t actually reduce emissions for a few years. Best of all, “invisible substance” plugs into a medieval mistrust of scientists and their incomprehensible powers. The sentence links these modern-day alchemists together with the shadowy financiers who would run the so-called markets, trading invisibility while we pay for it. Or something. It suggests that Abbott is prepared to wear some public ridicule in exchange for speaking directly to that part of his supporter base that is unmoved by scientific evidence about global warming. Never mind that the Coalition is proposing to spend about $10 billion of the public’s money fighting an “invisible substance”. That can be hidden behind its earthy rhetoric of “direct action” and a “green army” getting its hands dirty with a hard day’s practical work. What the Coalition is really trying to do is wrest back control of the language of climate change, because if it can control the language, and debate on its own terms, it can win. Read more: http://www.theage.co…l#ixzz2Z8DAdFr5 Continue reading
