Comments on: Cancun can-do is a con

By: jupes

jupes — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:08:11 +0000

I don’t want to hear about China.

The good news is that Australia has banned incandescant light bulbs so global warming is crawling back under the rock it came from.

By: johanna

johanna — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:35:58 +0000

brc – I agree. Both sides of politics all over the world caught the CAGW virus around 2007, its peak.

By: brc

brc — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:07:30 +0000

johanna- but Howard erected all the pieces for Labor to put a carbon tax in place. He was all for the RET and talked about implementing an ETS in the midst of all the warmy frenzy of 2006/7.

There is no way that Labor could have put in a carbon tax without the Australian Greenhouse office. And all the Kyoto rubbish was already in place, including the restrictions on clearing land (which is all that carbon credits are, in one form).

Howard put in place at lot of the things that Labor went on to finish. On that score, I’m less of a believer that Abbott will really reform anything.

By: Jim Rose

Jim Rose — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:04:45 +0000

alan, In 2010 at Copenhagen’s final private negotiations, Obama, Brown, Sarko and Merkel sat down with He Yafei, the Chinese vice-minister of foreign affairs. Wen Jiabao refused to attend most of the negotiating sessions.

Given the choice of walking out and sitting down with a vice-minister, they choose humiliation.

one response of Obama was: “It would be nice to negotiate with somebody who can make political decisions”

There is a tape of this meeting on der spiegel linked at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/07/secret-copenhagen-talks-climate-recording

By: johanna

johanna — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 01:49:40 +0000

I sometimes think the US has a death wish.

They borrow money from China to buy – solar panels from China! Then they raise the price of electricity to accommodate solar subsidies, and industry and consumers get slugged again (over and above their taxes to keep the loans rolling over).

We would be not far behind had not the Howard government left the economy in good shape and the public sector in the black.

The Chinese have done a lot towards fostering a booming economy, but they sure have had a lot of help from lemmings in the West.

By: Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B. — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 01:07:58 +0000

cold reality usually dominates policy actions

Except in Australia, where a uni-dimensional warmist reality exists as a completely parallel policy universe. We are girt by more than just sea.

By: The Beer Whisperer

The Beer Whisperer — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:56:54 +0000

“I would say it is working. The Chinese know all this and are not playing. As far as they are concerned the West is moving towards their system of a state directed economy benefiting political insiders and cronies.”

We’re trying to out-corrupt China; a considerable challenge. But if we (they) try hard enough, they (we) will get there eventually.

If Abbott doesn’t considerably dismantle the rampant, institutionalised cronyism, he will be a monumental failure. Merely delaying the complete corruption of Australia for 3 or 6 years is not good enough. On this count Howard failed, sorry to say.

By: Sleetmute

Sleetmute — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:26:42 +0000

Tony, for the 2011/12 fin year, average wholesale prices were $30/MWh in NSW, $29 in Qld, $30 in SA and $27 in Vic. Admittedly, peak demand was quite low in that year but still, Alan's point is far from hyperbole. Perhaps you should do some research before insulting people.

By: alan moran

alan moran — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:23:54 +0000

Tony
Doubling may be hyperbole but here are the current prices per MWh ($1/tonne carbon tax equates to $1/MWh coal based elecricity).

NSW1 $51.45
QLD1 $52.51
SA1 $51.1
VIC1 $47.99

Though the current prices are abnormally low, you may be confusing wholesale and retail prices in thinking the numbers are exaggerated

By: Sleetmute

Sleetmute — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:02:53 +0000

Great stat on China, Alan. Apologists always go on about what China is doing to reduce its emissions intensity. And you were being generous by referring to GDP in PPP terms. In USD terms China is much ‘worse’.