How Barack Obama and Tony Abbott differ on climate change
The US president and the Australian prime minister ... this will not be a meeting of minds
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On the importance of climate change as a global issue
Barack Obama (interview with Thomas Friedman 2014, published in the New York Times): “The science is compelling ... If you profess leadership in this country at this moment in our history then you have to recognise that this is going to be one of the most significant long-term challenges, if not the most significant long-term challenge, that this country faces and the planet faces. The good news is that the public may get out ahead of some of these politicians, and I think that as the public starts seeing greater frequency of extreme weather events, as they
On the long-term future of coal
Abbott (Speech to minerals industry dinner 28 May, 2014): “It’s particularly important that we do not demonise the coal industry and if there was one fundamental problem, above all else, with the carbon tax was that it said to our people, it said to the wider world, that a commodity which in many years is our biggest single export, somehow should be left in the ground and not sold. Well really and truly, I can think of few things more damaging to our future.”Obama (in the Friedman interview): “Science is science … And there is no doubt that if we burnt all the fossil fuel that’s in the ground right now that the planet’s going to get too hot and the consequences could be dire.”
Friedman: "So we can’t burn it all?"
Obama: “We’re not going to be able to burn it all. Over the course of the next several decades, we’re going to have to build a ramp from how we currently use energy to where we need to use energy. And we’re not going to suddenly turn off a switch and suddenly we’re no longer using fossil fuels, but we have to use this time wisely, so that you have a tapering off of fossil fuels replaced by
On the link between climate change and increased prevalence of extreme weather events, including bushfire
Abbott, October 2013: “Climate change is real, as I've often said, and we should take strong action against it … But these fires are certainly not a function of climate change. They're just a function of life in Australia.”Asked about comments by the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, Christiana Figueres, that the fires proved the world is “already paying the price of carbon”, Abbott said: “The official in question is talking through her hat.”
Obama, speech at Georgetown University 25 June, 2013: “Now, we know that no single weather event is caused solely by climate change. Droughts and fires and floods, they go back to ancient times. But we also know that in a world that’s warmer than it used to be, all weather events are affected by a warming planet. The fact that sea level in New York, in New York harbour, are now a foot higher than a century ago – that didn’t cause hurricane Sandy, but it certainly contributed to the destruction that left large parts of our mightiest city dark and underwater …
On carbon markets
Abbott, July 2013: “This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about,” he told reporters. “It's a market, a so-called market, in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one.”Liberal policy document 2013: “This toxic, job-destroying tax punishes successful and hard-working Australian businesses, particularly trade-exposed businesses.”
Obama, Friedman interview: “So if there’s one thing I would like to see, it’d be for us to be able to price the cost of carbon emissions … We’ve obviously seen resistance from the Republican side of the aisle on that. And, out of fairness, there’s some Democrats who’ve been concerned about it as well, because regionally they’re very reliant on heavy industry and old-power plants … I still believe, though, that the more we can show the price of inaction – that billions and potentially trillions of dollars are going to be lost because we do not do something about it – ultimately leads us to be able to say, ‘Let’s go ahead and help the marketplace discourage this kind of activity.’ “
Obama, Georgetown speech, 25 June, 2013: “Nearly a dozen states have already implemented or are implementing their own market-based programs to reduce carbon pollution ... So the idea of setting higher pollution standards for our power plants is not new. It’s just time for Washington to catch up with the rest of the country. And that's what we intend to do … Now, what you’ll hear from the special interests and their allies in Congress is that this will kill jobs and crush the economy, and basically end American free enterprise as we know it. And the reason I know you'll hear those things is because that's what they said every time America sets clear rules and better standards for our air and our water and our children’s health. And every time, they've been wrong.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/how-barack-obama-and-tony-abbott-differ-on-climate-change
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