Quote: Should we be embarrassed to carry on the way we do
( well SOME of us) Abbott springs to mind....?
Australia's climate policies, such as the national renewable energy target, were found to be equivalent to forcing the power industry
to pay $US1.70 ($A1.71) per tonne of carbon dioxide.
By contrast,
China has an underlying carbon price on its power sector
of $US14.20 - eight times higher. China's policies include the forced shutdown of its worst-performing coal-fired power stations, and the world's largest renewable energy program - $US35 billion invested last year, compared with $US18 billion in the US. It is considering a carbon trading scheme.
Britain ($US29.30 a tonne), the US ($US5.10) and Japan ($US3.10)[/b] were each found to be ahead of Australia in encouraging a shift to cleaner power.
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/australia-lags-far-behind-on...
Economist and government adviser Ross Garnaut recently said convincing Australians how much other countries - particularly China - were doing to tackle climate change was one of the most important challenges facing the government.
''I am frankly shocked at how persistent the ignorance in Australia is of that,'' Professor Garnaut said. ''It is as if a lead veil had been inserted around the brains of most Australians and made them impervious to information that is not secret, about what is going on in other countries.''
[[b]i]And this would be the same Ross Garnaut, the great saver of the environment and Economist that puts his own money making schemes ahead of the welfare of the environment:[/i]
Climate change expert Ross Garnaut behind controversial PNG mines
From: AAP
September 09, 2010 10:46PM
CLIMATE-change expert Ross Garnaut is linked with two companies accused of using a controversial method of releasing mine waste into rivers and the ocean in Papua New Guinea. Professor Garnaut conducted the Rudd government's 2008 climate-change review which urged action on the issue, including an emissions trading scheme.
But the economist also chairs Lihir Gold, a mining company which has merged with Newcrest Gold, and he is a director of OK Tedi Mining Limited.Lihir was the subject of a takeover bid by Newcrest Mining and Prof Garnaut will relinquish his $US300,000 ($A327,225) role as a result of the merger.
The Lihir group is set to produce one million ounces of gold a year on Lihir Island, 900km north of Port Moresby.
OK Tedi extracts copper, gold and silver from its remote Star Mountains operation in PNG's Western Province where it reportedly discharges 56 million tonnes of metalliferous waste into local river systems each year.Tiffany Nonggorr, a lawyer representing indigenous PNG landowners, says the practice by Lihir of
dumping billions of tonnes of mine waste and metalliferous tailings, including cyanide and heavy metals, is a great concern.The practice is banned in China, Canada and the US."This sort of technology is frontier technology," Ms Nonggorr told ABC Television tonight.
OK Tedi's operation is already having a far-reaching impact, she said, quoting "a couple of studies" by the CSIRO.
"They quite clearly show that this deep-sea tailings placement has severely impacted the ecology of the area," Ms Nonggorr said.
The river where the tailings are dumped has been left a "moonscape" and she estimated that the copper levels 800km from the mine in the river's silt are 3000 times the safe level.
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