Professor Ross Garnaut – economist, government adviser, and climate policy reviewer – has today given his pronouncement about the way Australia should tackle climate change. Given that his last report heralded disastrous climate change impacts such as the loss of the Great Barrier Reef and the melting of the polar ice caps if the global response didn’t shift into high gear fast, we are forgiven for expecting that today’s announcement would be squarely aimed at avoiding such catastrophe.
But unfortunately we were wrong.
The Professor’s line of thinking instead tended towards debilitating pessimism and economic rationalism at its worst. His reasoning goes that since it would be so politically unpalatable to make the changes required to stabilise the climate at relatively safe levels, we should instead aim for an unsafe level, which has a very high chance of triggering catastrophic impacts.
Brilliant logic!
And perhaps, he continued, once we’re on our way there – without stepping on the toes of big business too much! – we can then reconsider whether we want to take bold and visionary action to secure a future for our grandchildren. But if other countries don’t want to play the game, we should just give up and aim for a really really unsafe level instead.
Because that would obviously provide the international leadership to bring those other countries on board with a global strategy, wouldn’t it?
And who needs the Great Barrier Reef anyway? Just some fish and few tourism operators.
The fact that Australia is responsible for a small percentage of global emissions and yet stands to suffer worse consequences of climate change than many other countries makes it absolutely imperative that we don’t just give up at the first hurdle. We have extremely high stakes in ensuring the success of international negotiations on climate change. It’s our planet that’s burning and we’re already the driest continent on Earth.
The way we can play the most constructive and influential role in that process is to lead the way with a strong domestic emissions reduction target which will encourage other countries to come on board. It is deeply disappointing that Garnaut has failed to acknowledge this.
Presumably he doesn’t dare suggest a change to the status quo, in which powerful companies and industry groups are profiting from cooking the climate. It is a very sad state of affairs.
