Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release Friday, 27 January 2017

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au

Coalition sticks with policies of ‘green’ economic destruction

Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg have both confirmed this week that Australia will commit to the destructive Paris climate agreement regardless if US President Donald Trump cancels the agreement as he’s pledged to do.

On ABC radio on 23 January, faced with the question of whether Australia should follow Trump in walking away from the Paris deal, Barnaby Joyce said “We don’t sign agreements to pull out of them. I think Australia is known as an honourable party in these.” Barnaby should well know it’s not honourable to be trashing Australia’s economy, destroying productive industries and increasing poverty as the Paris agreement will invariably do.

On 24 January Frydenberg admitted there are costs: “We think it’s a balanced target, it is not cost-free, the Australian Energy [Market] Commission has said that the cost of the RET [Renewable Energy Target] is about $63 a year for the average household in terms of their electricity bills,” he noted. But Frydenberg didn’t mention that $63 is certainly the tip of the iceberg. Expensive, intermittent electricity will lead to more brownouts and blackouts; it will smash an already battered manufacturing sector; and the flow-on and multiplier effects will be far greater than Frydenberg will ever publicly admit.

The official government policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030—without nuclear power—is economic suicide. The stubborn decision committing Australia to such a policy will do nothing to meaningfully reduce pollution. Coal-fired power stations with fabric filters and electrostatic precipitators capture more than 99 per cent of particulate pollution and contribute only a small fraction to air pollution. EPA reports consistently identify air quality surrounding coal-fired power stations to be mostly good to very good. Vehicle traffic emissions in congested cities poses a much more significant health risk, yet governments have failed to adequately fund transport infrastructure to alleviate this problem. A 2005 NSW EPA report noted “[b]ushfires are responsible for most occurrences of high levels of particulate pollution.” Increased funding for fire protection would do far more to reduce pollution than the Paris agreement.

Reducing Australia’s emissions won’t change the global climate by any measureable quantity, particularly as the rise in CO₂ emissions is not a major factor in “climate change”. Moreover, the three biggest carbon dioxide emitters, China, United States and India produce more than half the world’s total industrial emissions. China’s new five-year plan will raise coal-fired power capacity from around 900 gigawatts last year to as high as 1,100 gigawatts by 2020, more than the total power capacity of Canada! China will keep increasing emissions through to 2030. Under Trump’s plan to scrap the Paris agreement and expand industrial production, US emissions will increase. India, the third largest emitter, has an ambitious plan to reduce poverty by rapidly expanding coal-fired power stations. An 8 December media release from the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India notes: “A roadmap has been prepared by Coal India Limited (CIL) to substantially enhance production of coal to 1 billion tonnes by 2019-20 from the current level of production of 538.75 MT in 2015-16.” In 2015 Indian CO₂ emissions grew by a massive 5.2 per cent. Numerous other developing countries also plan to increase emissions, so total global emissions will increase no matter what Australia does.

Sensible measures to reduce air pollution in our cities, such as improved transport infrastructure should be welcomed, but the Turnbull government’s commitment to deindustrialisation in the name of fighting climate change must be stopped!

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