Global Development: Views from the Center
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July 16, 2007
Australia to US: Coal Dependency No Longer Excuses Inaction on Climate Change
Posted by David Wheeler at 12:40 PM
In June 2002, Australia renounced its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and joined the US in outright opposition to the treaty. Conservative Prime Minister John Howard offered this explanation to Australia’s Parliament: "It is not in Australia's interests to ratify. The protocol would cost us jobs and damage our industry." The table below clearly shows the source of Howard’s concern: according to CGD’s CARMA database, Australia’s power sector is hugely dependent on coal, which is by far the most potent source of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, Australia’s 74% coal share in the energy sector dwarfs America’s 48% share.
|
Country
|
Coal
|
Oil
|
Gas
|
Total Fossil Fuels
|
Non-Emitting Sources**
|
Other Sources
|
Total
|
|
Australia
|
74.0
|
0.9
|
8.3
|
83.2
|
15.6
|
1.2
|
100.0
|
|
United States
|
47.6
|
3.2
|
15.5
|
66.3
|
31.9
|
1.8
|
100.0
|
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Howard has just reversed himself and embraced greenhouse emissions reduction. According to today’s Australian: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22080702-601,00.html “In a determined bid to turn around the Coalition's electoral fortunes, John Howard will this week outline the key elements of a national emissions trading scheme, to come into effect from 2011. The Prime Minister will seek to revive the Coalition's faltering election hopes by outlining plans to further develop low emissions technologies in key sectors such as coal.”
So the people of Australia have spoken clearly on the matter, and Australia’s conservative Prime Minister has listened. Australia will join the UK, Canada and New Zealand in aggressively reducing greenhouse emissions. In this sphere, the traditional five-country alliance has evaporated and the US now stands alone.
Meanwhile, US opponents of proposed emissions reduction legislation continue to bombard Congress with dire warnings about the potential cost to our “coal-dependent” economy. The burden is now on them to answer a simple question: “If our traditional allies the Australians can do this, despite a coal dependency over 50% greater than ours, why can’t we?”
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Comments
John Howard is not a leader - he has been dragged kicking and screaming to this issue. I guess that is one of the good things about elections - in election years politicians do pay attention to what voters want. The Australian community and business are way ahead of the government on this issue, and I think there is a growing sense that the country needs a leader who will lead, not one who acts only when bludgeoned into it. No wonder the opposition has a huge lead in the polls - consistently large for the past 6 months.
Posted by: Gillian at July 17, 2007 03:06 AM
So Australia has been accused of being the worst polluter and our coal fueled power stations worse than china, India or Russia etc. per head of population. How can that be? Our population is
20million compare that to China, India, Russia,
US, Canada, Europe. Our largest city Sydney has a population of 4million. We have strict pollution
and air quality standards, I don't see any pollution in my area or others that I travel around. These figures that you have come up with are very suspect, Australia did not sign Kyoto
but we are still on track to meet our targets
which cannot be said for a lot of countries who did sign up. I believe the figures you have posted are untrue and no more than trying to interfere in our elections. Attack the real polluters. angry, clean, green Aussie
Posted by: frank at November 15, 2007 07:02 PM