Some 60,000 delegates from all over the world are now converging on Johannesburg to take part in a grand environment summit. Australia's Environment Minister is taking a taxpayer financed party of 50. Johannesburg will provide an opportunity for busybodies to swarm and attack the US (and Australia) for not hog-tying their economies with the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
The meeting comes shortly after publication of a petition sponsored by the extreme left wing Australia Institute. Signed by 254 economists, this urges the Australian Government to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
Most of the signatories are inactive in the global warming debate. Economists pontificating on matters outside of their expertise present a truly forlorn sight. One is reminded of the 364 economists who, twenty years ago, warned Mrs Thatcher that her budget stringency would mean recession. As it turned out, it set the stage for the resurrection of the British economy.
The Australian Institute's petition contains one clause that no reputable professional economist could sign. That clause claims, "Policy options are available that would slow climate change without harming employment or living standards in Australia".
Computer runs around the world have all demonstrated considerable costs from forcing lower greenhouse gas emissions. This did not stop some at Monash's Centre for Policy Studies signing even though a report they produced for the Victorian Government said, "the cost to Australia of complying with the Protocol would be significant"!
The Australian Government has already taken action that will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. This includes a requirement that by 2010 some 4 per cent of electricity (9,500 gigawatt hours) must come from exotic renewable forms of energy. These energy sources include wind, solar and small scale hydro. The additional cost of this measure alone is $380 million per annum. Such measures, in combination with cleverly redefining our emission levels, puts us within spitting distance of our Kyoto target.
Even so, Australia says it will not sign the Kyoto Protocol because it brings us particular disadvantages. This is because of the energy-intensive nature of much of our industry and the fact that our developing country rivals are not obliged to reduce their own emissions. Drastic actions to reduce our emissions would enable other countries to undercut our competitiveness and hammer our living standards.
The greenhouse effect on global temperatures remains a theory. And the only fool-proof measures of global temperatures available since 1978, those from satellites, have shown no warming. Moreover, because developing countries are excluded, even if all nations met their Kyoto obligations and the theory is proved correct, this would only put back a 2°C global warming from 2100 to 2104.
None of this has prevented hyped-up claims like the fantasy that windfarms (which with heavy subsidies might eventually comprise one percent of electricity) could offer a solution and provide Victoria 2,000 new jobs. If true, this means their productivity is extremely low since this is the level of employment of the rest of the generation industry!
For Australia, an efficient low-cost energy industry is too important to be sacrificed on the alter of grand gestures.
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