
Australia doesn’t care to break its coal habit in the face of climate change - okket
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/10/australia-officials-unconcerned-about-breaking-countrys-coal-habit/
======
shoo
In australia we used to have a carbon tax, until the Liberal party & National
party coalition was voted back in to federal government and repealed it.

You can see the impact of the carbon tax here:

[https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/jan/09...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/jan/09/australias-
emissions-are-rising-its-time-for-this-government-to-quick-pretending)

search for "The exclusion of LULUCF emissions shows just how greatly this
affects our goal of reducing emissions by 26%-28% below 2005 levels by 2030"

Spot the dip?

if you happen to live in a less ecologically lamentable country, please lobby
for trade sanctions on australia. we need a bit of encouragement to help feel
the pain of our short-sighted decisions early.

edit: to add a bit of subtlety that isn't mentioned in the article, australia
exports both thermal coal and coking coal. coke is used to produce steel. so
while running coal power plants is not a great idea, some coal may still be
necessary to produce steel. i don't have a handle on the relative proportion
of thermal coal vs coking coal exports

~~~
nailer
For the benefit of non Australians:

> liberal party & national party

"Liberal party" is theoretically "both strains of non-Labour thinking":
liberals and conservatives. But in reality they're the conservatives. Socially
liberal folk wouldn't vote for the Liberal party but for Labour or the Greens
[1].

National party are the farmers.

[1] This is assuming Labour is still moderate left. I like in the UK now so
it's entirely possible they shifted like Labour here did.

~~~
roenxi
"Socially liberal folk"

Bit of a can of worms with that one - what does socially liberal mean? The
Australian Liberals are reasonably socially liberal, they just think the
current status quo is pretty good and there is no need to change that.
Anyway...

There are big trans-national political umbrellas, the Australian Liberals are
aligned with the IDU like the US Republicans
([https://www.idu.org](https://www.idu.org)) and the Australian Labor Party
are aligned with he Progressive Alliance like the US Democrats
([http://progressive-alliance.info/en/](http://progressive-
alliance.info/en/)).

~~~
nailer
> The Australian Liberals are reasonably socially liberal

Historically, they're pro Monarchy, militarily hawkish, aligned with
religiously conservative groups, and anti-gay, which are all non-Liberal
positions.

~~~
roenxi
Pah, the Australian Labour have historically been associated with religiously
conservative Catholics. Religion isn't a party thing. Neither is hawkishness,
both our parties will fall into line behind the Americans when they want
troops somewhere. Pro-monarchy is meaningless, that is complete symbolism, and
Turnbull led the party despite having actively campaigned to move to a
republic.

And the liberal government just passed a massive great bill legalising gay
marriage, literally last year. If that is anti-gay, it'd be interesting to see
what utopia you have in mind for our homosexual friends.

Just because they aren't beating people over the head with progressive values
doesn't mean they aren't social liberals. Liberal has a specific meaning where
you leave people alone to do whatever it is they do.

 _PS_ Just for fun, 5 electorates that had some of the highest No votes for
the gay marriage plebiscite were safe Labor seats clustered in Western Sydney
- [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
australia-42006450](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42006450) \-
which shows the lack of true "liberalism" in parts of the Labor party base.

~~~
nailer
> Liberal has a specific meaning where you leave people alone to do whatever
> it is they do.

Well yes, as the comment you're responding to states. I did mention
'historical' as I've been out of Aus for 10 years, and did say that "provided
Labour hasn't changed like Labour UK has". It's entirely possible the
landscape has changed, with hard left going Green, liberals voting Liberal,
and social conservatives voting Labour. I'm out of touch, hence that proviso.

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yen223
This is particularly insane since climate change is directly affecting
Australia's other major industry - agriculture.

------
frereubu
This kind of attitude is not going to be easily forgiven in 50 years time.

------
dplgk
While they have a front row seat to the demise of the great reef. Doesn't give
me hope for humans.

~~~
everybodyknows
Focussed media attention on the Great Barrier Reef may be the one way to wake
up the Australian electorate.

Here in the U.S.A., hurricanes are great promoters of climate change
awareness.

------
ksec
Considering Australia has vast amount of unused land and sunlight, why do they
not have quarter of it cover in Solar panels? Lots of energy intensive
industry, and less Coal?

------
nailer
Mining has dwarfed so many other industries for so long: coal aside, gold,
iron ore, oil, and uranium are mined in Australia, sometimes for hundreds of
years.

That history, combined with Australia being a very myopic country (many older
people still think the 1990 global recession was caused by the Australian
Prime Minister due to a bad-faith reading of his comments about 80's
hyperinflation) means this is unlikely to change.

------
D_Alex
IMO, the Australian government policy on coal is a clear example of crony
capitalism and does not represent the wishes of a substantial majority of the
population.

~~~
cdmckay
That’s how all capitalism ends up.

