Climate sense from Peter Costello

Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Costello explains the fallacy of the government's position on the ETS vote:

If the big countries (including developing countries) don't agree to reduce emissions, then nothing Australia does will have the slightest impact on global emissions. The only thing affected will be Australian jobs (which will go overseas) and prices (which will go up).

And that's why it's plain silly to say Australia must finalise the design of its scheme before the forthcoming negotiations in Copenhagen. The shape of our scheme will not affect what happens at Copenhagen. What happens at Copenhagen will determine the shape of our scheme. Let's get a sense of perspective here. The cock crows because the sun rises. The sun does not rise because the cock crows.

Read it here.