Thirty three years ago, on this day, June 26th, 1992 the Business Council of Australia was defending the short-term interests of the rich, while weeping crocodile tears for the poor and completely ignoring the future. So good that they’ve changed their MO since then, eh?
“Australia would be “severely disadvantaged economically” if a 20 per cent reduction of greenhouse gases is achieved by 2005, according to the Business Council of Australia.
The council’s assistant director, Chris Burnup, in her address to the Institution of Engineers’ greenhouse policy seminar yesterday, said that Australia’s international trade competitiveness would decline and there would be a fall in the standard of living.”
Sibley, D. 1992. Economy may suffer if gases reduced. Canberra Times, June 27, p.4.
This was at an Institution of Engineers Australia seminar – see also
Diesendorf, M., Kinrade, P., 1992. Integrated greenhouse policies for energy and transport post-Rio. Institution of Engineers Australia seminar on Australia’s greenhouse policy, Canberra, 26 June 1992. Australian Conservation Foundation, Melbourne.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 356ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the Rio Earth Summit had finally been agreed; it did not contain targets and timetables for emissions reduction (Uncle Sam had threatened to boycott if those were in the text, and the French blinked). Australia had signed, having said no to a carbon tax at the same time (there’d be another battle in a couple of years).
What I think we can learn from this, Business always wants to keep the beaches open. What’s a few people chomped by Great Whites between friends?
What happened next. The BCA continued to play a spoiler role. Of course. Crucially, it and the Minerals Council of Australia (then known as AMIC) created the “Australian Industry Greenhouse Network”, which fought against domestic and international action with great success.
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.
Also on this day:
June 26, 1991 “environment is not flavor of the month any more” – All Our Yesterdays