On this day, October 31 in 1994, the ABC explained what was going on with Australian energy and climate policy.
“ABC Four Corners special on Monday when veteran ABC science reporter Gavin Gilchrist exposes an industry that has “failed dismally to match both the words and sentiment of national greenhouse response strategy”. Gilchrist looks at the Victorian model of electricity reform and the “white-anting” of national minimum energy performance standards – or MEPS – by manufactures and government.”
Fries. P. 1994. Insert. The Australian Financial Review, 28 October, p.3.
See also this in SA Greenhouse News #3
“At the ANZMEC meeting in September 1994, Ministers considered whether to proceed with mandatory MEPS, but did not agree to do so because of the position taken by the Victorian Minister for Energy, who was opposed to regulations of any kind, and who did not believe that the case for mandatory MEPS was strong enough to overcome the preference for ‘market forces’. This was a clear case of ideology getting in the way of rational policy making.”
And
The industry has since pointed out publicly (on the ABC’s Four Corners program on 31 October 1994) that the only practical and fair way to implement MEPS is through regulation, something which was never in dispute in all of the negotiations leading up to the ANZMEC meeting. The minimum energy performance standards proposal was ANZMEC’s first opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to the NGRS, and it conspicuously failed to do so. Whatever happens with MEPS now, the episode has demonstrated to the public and to the appliance industry how tenuous is the ANZMEC commitment to the NGRS, and how easy it is for individual State Ministers to delay or even derail its key programs.
from Feb 1995 Can the Future be Rescued report by The Australia Institute]
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 356.21ppm. At time of writing it was 421ishppm.
The context was this – There was a battle going on around whether the Keating government would introduce a carbon tax (it didn’t).
Why this matters.
We have known the truth, it has been broadcast (literally).
What happened next?
Gilchrist did some very solid reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald about what the “Australian Industry Greenhouse Network” was up to, and wrote a great book – “The Big Switch”.