Twenty seven years ago, on this day, October 24th, 1999,
99/346 GREENHOUSE CHALLENGE DELIVERS RESULTS
An independent evaluation of Australia’s Greenhouse Challenge program has revealed that the voluntary program has been highly effective in achieving greenhouse gas emissions abatement.
Releasing the Greenhouse challenge Program Evaluation Report today, the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Senator Nick Minchin, said participants in the program were set to achieve significant emissions savings in 2000.
“The review found that industrial end users will deliver 23.5 million tonnes (Mt) carbon dioxide equivalent or a 16 per cent reduction in emissions and electricity generators will deliver 5 Mt, a 3 per cent reduction by 2000”, Senator Minchin said.
“These emissions savings are being delivered by a broad and diverse range of companies that are participating in the Greenhouse Challenge. Challenge membership includes 98 per cent of electricity generators, distributors and transmitters; all cement manufacturers; all aluminium smelters and refiners; all steel manufacturers and 91 per cent of coal miners.
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media/pressrel/SAH06%22
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 368ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that Australian governments had resisted carbon pricing and eventually had created, at the behest of the incumbent extractors, (miners and so on) a voluntary scheme, which would take the heat as a political issue, if not out of the atmosphere, so that everyone could pretend that something was being done, and the evil hand of the nanny state was not thwacking anyone.
The trouble with these voluntary schemes is that they deliver nothing, but you have to pretend that they do.
So you stand there while other people bullshit about them, and you feel unclean and complicit because you didn’t speak up, and then you are complicit, and then it becomes that much harder to tell the truth when there’s an audience that might want to listen to the truth, such as the dilemma specific context.
The specific context was that the greenhouse challenge was clearly not delivering, and the truth would be breaking through shortly, when in 2000 Robert Hill chided states and corporates.
What I think we can learn from this – voluntary schemes are, as Admiral Akbar would put it – a trap.
What happened next The Greenhouse Challenge was rebooted, and then died an ugly and unlamented death in 2004.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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.
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Also on this day:
October 24, 1967 – editor of Science warns about C02 build-up
October 24, 1983 – EPA releases study on sea-level rise
October 24, 1991 – Australian Minerals and Energy Environment Foundation launched