Lomborg: Your new climate correspondent

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The loon pond has struck back today with PM Turnbull capitulating to his foaming internal opposition, from BS:

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull won’t sign an international agreement to phase out fossil fuel subsidies amid concerns it could jeopardise Australia’s diesel fuel rebates.

Mr Turnbull has opted out of signing the key fossil fuel subsidy reform communique at major United Nations climate talks in Paris, a government spokeswoman confirmed.

The call to phase out the subsidies is being labelled the “missing piece of the climate change puzzle” and is led by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

We did sign up to ratifying Kyoto II and a bit more, from the AFR:

Australia will have more scope to buy international carbon permits to help meet its 2030 reduction targets after Malcolm Turnbull used his speech at the opening of critical United Nations climate talks in Paris to say he will join a handful of developing nations to ratify the second phase of the Kyoto agreement.

Saying Australia was “not daunted by the challenge” of global warming, Mr Turnbull announced a series of modest measures including reallocating an additional $800 million set aside for the foreign aid budget to “build climate resilience and reduce emissions” as well as signing up to the Mission Innovation initiative led by US President Barack Obama and Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at increasing funding for clean energy research.

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Alas, The Australian sent Byorn Lomborg as its correspondent:

Thousands are gathering here for the 21st international global warming meeting. Hotels are already near-full, broadcasters are setting up, protestors are preparing to roar.

All because this summit is “the last chance” to avert dangerous temperature rises, if we listen to the Earth League or a bunch of others. It’s going to be “too late” if a meaningful treaty isn’t negotiated here in the next few days, says the French president.

It’s a familiar script, though, isn’t it? I remember people including United Nations Secretary-General, Lord Stern, and the UK prime minister Gordon Brown all agreeing that the 2009 global warming meeting in Copenhagen was the world’s very ‘‘last chance’’.

…These summits have failed for a pretty simple reason. Solar and wind power are still too expensive and inefficient to replace our reliance on fossil fuels. The Copenhagen-Paris approach requires us to force immature green technologies on the world even though they are not ready or competitive.

That’s hugely expensive and inefficient.

Sure it is but how are you going to trigger that investment is the question. One contribution that can be made is by nations establishing climate normatives, which is what this summit is about. No, it’s not THE answer. NO, it won’t by itself cure climate change. But it will push nations in the right direction, albeit too slowly. Such is diplomacy.

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If there was no summit and various agreements what would happen? Absolutely nothing.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.