Australia, the unlucky country
The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has finally announced his Government’s intention to establish a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, but it will be implemented — not just yet. The stated reason for the delay in implementation is to allow time to study the economic impacts of emissions caps on Australian companies. Funny how the British Government, facing the very same policy issue, decided there would be national economic and business advantages to entering the emissions trading market early, rather than in entering it late. Perhaps this is why London is a centre for carbon emissions and carbon offsets trading, while Sydney is not.
Strange also how a British Labour government understands more about business strategy than a conservative Australian one.
Mr Howard’s stated reason is, in our opinion, just rhetoric. Mr Howard has never given any indication that he believes in the reality of global warming. All he is doing now is responding to his own and his party’s low opinion poll ratings by trying to appear to be adopting a popular environmental policy. The key verb in that last sentence is “to appear”. Pity, for Australia’s sake and for the planet’s.