Australia yesterday axed a divisive carbon tax after years of vexed political debate, handing the business-friendly government a victory, but prompting critics to label the move a “big step backwards.”
The Australian Senate voted 39-32 to scrap the charge, which was imposed by the former Labor government on major polluters from 2012 in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It followed days of protracted negotiations with the minor Palmer United Party, which embarrassed the government last week by pulling its crucial support for repeal of the tax at the last minute.
Power-broker Clive Palmer backed the legislation after winning concessions for tougher measures to ensure cuts to electricity and gas prices were passed through to consumers and businesses.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott went to the polls in September last year with repealing the pollution levy as a central campaign platform, arguing the cost was being passed to consumers, resulting in higher utility bills.
“Scrapping the carbon tax is a foundation of the government’s economic action strategy,” said Abbott, who once said evidence blaming humankind for climate change was “absolute crap.”
“A useless, destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families’ cost of living and which didn’t actually help the environment is finally gone,” he added.
Abbott’s conservative government says dumping the tax would save households A$550 (US$515) a year and strengthen the economy, which is among the world’s worst per capita polluters due to its reliance on coal-fired power and mining exports.
Under the carbon tax, the country’s biggest polluters, including mining, energy and aviation companies, paid for the emissions they produced, giving them an incentive to reduce them.
The current administration favors a “direct action” plan that includes financial incentives for polluters to increase their energy efficiency.
The Climate Action Tracker, an independent monitor of countries’ carbon pledges and actions, has said this method will increase Australia’s emissions by 12 percent in 2020 instead of reducing them by 5 percent from 2000 levels as per its own target.
Michael Raupach, director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University, said repealing the law was “a tragedy, not a triumph.”
“It flies in the face of three giant realities: human-induced climate change, the proper role of government as a defender of the common good, and the emerging quiet energy carbon revolution,” he said.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said Abbott had “embarrassed Australians.”
“Tony Abbott is taking Australia backwards while the rest of the world is moving forward,” he said in a statement.
“All of Australia’s major trading partners are taking serious action on climate change, including in our own region,” he said.
Greens leader Christine Milne joined Labor in expressing outrage, saying abolishing the tax would make Australia a world “pariah.”
“It is a monumental blunder for the nation under a climate-denying prime minister,” she said.
“It will make life worse for future generations and make Australia a global pariah,” she said.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
FIRST STAGE: Hamas has agreed to release 48 Israeli hostages in exchange for 250 ‘national security prisoners’ as well as 1,700 Gazans, but has resisted calls to disarm Israel plans to destroy what remains of Hamas’ network of tunnels under Gaza, working with US approval after its hostages are freed, it said yesterday. Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the operation would be conducted under an “international mechanism” led by the US. “Israel’s great challenge after the hostage release phase will be the destruction of all Hamas terrorist tunnels in Gaza,” Katz said. “I have ordered the army to prepare to carry out this mission,” he added. Hamas operates a network of tunnels under Gaza, allowing its fighters to operate out of sight of Israeli reconnaissance. Some have passed under
RSS