Tony Abbott, Doubly Wrong

The new Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, came to a doubly wrong conclusion when he recently said, “Despite a carbon tax of $37 a ton by 2020, Australia’s domestic emissions were going up, not down. The carbon tax was basically socialism masquerading as environmentalism, and that’s why it’s going to get abolished.”

The socialism, of course, is that given to polluters who pollute for free, paying no damage costs for ruining the Commons now and far into the future while they pocket the profits.

Beyond this, Australia has seen GHG reductions. From this April:

"Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation have fallen to a 10-year low as coal-fired power slumped to its lowest level in a decade, a new report says..... At the same time, the share of renewable energy in the National Electricity Market (NEM) has soared beyond 12 per cent and looks set to continue rising..... In its latest quarterly emissions outlook, energy and carbon research firm RepuTex found coal power made up 74.8 per cent of the NEM in the three months ended in March - its lowest point in 10 years.... As a result, Australia's CO2 emissions were driven down to a ten-year low, he said."