Fossil fuel subsidies are a stupid idea. We aren’t so much decarbonising our economy as turbocharging its carbon intensity
. Imagine if we had taken that approach to tobacco control.
Think I’m exaggerating? Well, before I try to explain the absurdity of the Albanese government’s latest plan to subsidise the coal and gas industries, let’s take a quick tour of the climate and energy policy options that dare not speak their name.Carbon taxes give a competitive advantage to energy generators that produce less carbon pollution and give individuals and companies an incentive to change their behaviour. And get this, they generate revenue for the government as well.
Fossil fuel subsidies are a stupid idea, unless you want more fossil fuels. Australia spends around $11bn a year on them. On top of that, Laborhas committed $1.9bn to the Northern Territory’s Middle Arm Petrochemical plant which will convert fracked gas from the Betaloo Basin into gas for export, fertiliser and plastics. Not only are there 114 new gas projects and coalmines seeking approval in Australia, the government is subsiding the construction of factories that will use those fossil fuels.
After decades of research showing the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to tax fossil fuels and subsidise renewables, Australian governments are still fixated on “sequestering” all the carbon pollution from our existing and planned new fossil fuel projects. Indeed, the Climate Change Authority, chaired by former gas executive, Grant King, recently “self-initiated” research into how many millions of tonnes of carbon can be stored in trees and underground.
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