Australia

Ah, good news! I'd forgotten about that Liberal-National fudging, until the National's party member on QandA this week referred to them in defence of their terrible inaction.

This is a bit unfortunate:

“We certainly won’t be introducing anything like an economy wide carbon price,” he said.

“Australia is the only country that’s done it and then repealed it in the world …So you’re reigniting the climate wars if you do that, I think – and the times have changed.

“The price signals about renewable energy are a lot different in 2023 than they were in 2009. So that’s why we’ve gone down the sectoral approach.”

Although their reasoning is understandable given the unhinged response from the media we could expect and because renewables are so competitive at this point. A shame though, given it's a very effective way to reduce emissions, as the period before the repeal of the price by the Abbott-led Coalition government demonstrated.

Even aside from the temptation to use offsets to kick the can down the road for reduction targets, the rampant abuse of carbon credits make this absolutely the right decision.

Relevant viewing: Wendover Productions: The Carbon Offset Problem