Twenty five years ago, on this day, May 21, 1998, Australian politicians danced around the idea of “emissions trading.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased to be here with you today to share with you my assessment of the opportunities and far-reaching role that international emissions trading will play in the successful implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. International emissions trading provides the means of harnessing the power of the market to provide cost effective solutions to emission abatement.
Emissions Trading: Harnessing the Power of the Market
Address by the Hon Alexander Downer, MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the ABARE International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading, Sydney, 21 May 1998
http://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/1998/abare21may98.html
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 369.5ppm. As of 2023 it is 420ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that by this stage the idea of putting a price on carbon dioxide – especially one way you could start trading trees, as New South Wales premier Bob Carr was keen to do – was the kind of market environmentalism that “rational” “capital L” liberals might go for. It was therefore relatively painless for Alexander Downer to give a hedged speech in his capacity as Foreign Affairs Minister.
What I think we can learn from this
Politicians like this stuff because it makes it look like they’re doing something when they absolutely are not.
What happened next
Well, an emissions trading scheme was put in front of the cabinet in 2000 and killed off by Senator Nick Minchin.. And then in 2003 the scheme got killed off by Howard. Meanwhile, the Sydney Futures Trading idea had been aborted by 1999.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.