Nothing but hot air | The Courier-Mail

THE proposed 5 per cent carbon emissions reduction amounts to 5 per cent of 1 per cent which is, well, zero. Hot air is not good policy. The Government has blinked over carbon reduction policy.
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You might think that a scheme that has very little direct cost to households cannot do much harm even if it does produce little or no benefit in terms of global pollution reduction. That would be wrong. This scheme will require a truckload of regulatory infrastructure and administration by firms to record, monitor and audit emissions and to regulate the market for carbon permits. This regulation will involve the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Corporations Act 2001 and the Trade Practices Act 1974, and all the government bureaucracy that goes with it. This will cost the taxpayer directly and also indirectly through the compliance costs of firms.

Real leaders would set real targets | theage.com.au

Regrettably, most of the debate in Australia over the Garnaut Review, and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme green and white papers, has focused on who should bear the burden of adjustment within Australia. From the standpoint of protecting the planet, these questions are secondary to the relative burden Australia should accept as a developed nation.

Robyn Eckersley is a professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.