Tony Abbott is Afraid of Innovation

TONY ABBOTT - ADDRESS TO THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
2 SEPTEMBER 2013

"The carbon tax will reduce Australia’s domestic coal use from over 70 per cent of our power needs to under 10 per cent, absent carbon capture and storage.

The Australian coal industry will only survive because the Chinese, without a carbon tax, will do what we are no longer supposed to do: namely buy and burn coal.

Australia’s biggest export industry will only endure because others will do what we think we should no longer do ourselves."

TONY ABBOTT - ADDRESS TO THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
28 MAY 2014

"It’s particularly important that we do not demonise the coal industry.

If there was one fundamental problem, above all else, with the carbon tax was that it said to our people, it said to the wider world, that a commodity which in many years is our biggest single export, somehow should be left in the ground and not sold.

Well really and truly, I can think of few things more damaging to our future."

Meanwhile, in news from the real world:

China to ban new coal-fired power plants around Beijing over pollution concerns

BEIJING | 12 September 2013 | China announced Thursday that it will ban new coal-fired power plants in three key industrial regions around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in its latest bid to combat the country's notorious air pollution.
(Read more ...)

U.S. lays out strict limits on coal funding abroad

By Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON | 29 October 2013 | (Reuters) | The United States said Tuesday it plans to use its leverage within global development banks to limit financing for coal-fired power plants abroad as part of Washington's international strategy to combat climate change.
(Read more ...)

UK urges global climate deal, halt to funding for overseas coal-fired power

London (Platts) | 20 November 2013
COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL

"It is completely illogical for countries like the UK and the US to be decarbonizing our own energy sectors while paying for coal-fired power plants to be built in other countries," UK energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey said.

The UK will also join the US in agreeing to end support for public financing of new coal-fired power plants overseas, "except in rare circumstances in which the poorest countries have no feasible alternative," Davey said.

When burned, coal emits roughly twice the volume of carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced than natural gas -- putting coal-fired power plants in the firing line for governments and regulators seeking meaningful emissions reductions.

The UK and US will work together to secure the support of other countries and Multilateral Development Banks to adopt similar policies, Davey said.
(Read more ...)

UK puts brakes on coal fired power plants

“As part of our commitment to accelerating the transition to low-carbon energy systems worldwide, the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden will join the United States in ending public financing for new coal-fired power plants overseas, except in rare circumstances. We will work together to secure the support of other countries and multilateral development banks to adopt similar policies.”
(Read more ...)

China set for carbon pricing: new study

ASIA & THE PACIFIC | 10 October 2013 | As Australia moves to scrap its pioneering carbon-pricing scheme, China is expected to have seven pilot pricing systems in place no later than 2015, followed by a national scheme, according to a new survey from ANU.

The survey – a joint initiative between the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific’s Crawford School and Beijing-based NGO China Carbon Forum – collected the opinions of 86 China-based carbon pricing experts.

The survey found strong confidence that China will introduce carbon-pricing mechanisms in coming years, that the price of emitting carbon will rise over time, and that China will have both a national emissions trading and a carbon tax by the end of the decade.
(Read more ...)

Tony Abbott - afraid of a price on carbon