The true price of Kyoto

Remember Kevin Rudd, jetting off to Bali in the first blush of his term of office, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol? Remember that Howard was the great climate change denier who, like George W Bush, had refused to ratify it? Remember how the liberal media raved about the decision?

Well, far from being just a pointless political gesture (which it still is), it is also potentially a huge burden on Australia's weakened economy. The Australian reports that the UN has imposed a new target on cutting greenhouse emissions - and if Australia fails to meet it, could cost the Government $870 million in carbon credits.

But putting aside the detailed forecasts, calculations and estimates, which will be disputed right through until the end of 2012, two indisputable facts emerge: there is a huge potential cost to business and taxpayers through the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the global financial crisis has created uncertainty, even chaos, for emissions trading schemes and carbon markets across the world.

The global recession is changing all the estimates for economic growth, and therefore greenhouse gas emissions, for the short and medium terms.

In the face of all this change the Rudd Government, through the Climate Change Minister, is framing an emissions trading scheme that requires big investment to establish a workable price that will offset carbon emissions and eventually force them down.

Climate Madness in Kruddistan.

Read it here.