It was very kind of Graham Readfearn to out me as one of a small group of ideologues who have frustrated climate change policy in Australia -- perhaps even the world.
Modesty, however, requires that I correct the record. It is true that I am suspicious of climate change policy proposals. I am suspicious of any politician who advocates increases in the size and scope of government intervention. It is true that I argued against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. After all carbon pollution is a stock pollutant -- the correct solution to that problem, if it exists, is a tax not cap and trade.
But it is the romanticism of Readfearn's argument that is wrong. A small group of people took on the entire establishment and won. That is really what he suggests in his article. Being named as one of that small group is, of course, a great honour and yet the truth is more mundane.
Climate change policy in Australia imploded due more or less to its own success. At the height of his powers and popularity Kevin Rudd gave an ugly, snarling speech to the Lowy Institute in November last year. There he claimed that a small number of people (not including me) were gambling with our futures and with the future of our children and grandchildren. But, we were told, his government would act. His government would follow the science. Several short months later he was crying on national television on his way out the door.
Today marks the first anniversary of the so-called ClimateGate scandal.
If we want to identify those responsible for the collapse of climate change policy we need look no further than Professor Philip Jones of the University of East Anglia. Singling him out is a bit unfair -- he was one of many involved in the scandal. His credentials as a climate scientist are impeccable. He has published widely in the field and is held in very high regard.
He is also the author of some very unfortunate emails that were hacked or stolen or leaked but somehow came to be posted on the internet. I am happy to concede upfront that various inquiries have exonerated him of any wrongdoing. Officially. Yet we live in a democracy. It is not clear that Jones has been exonerated in the court of public opinion.
This is the man who bragged of using ''Mike's Nature trick ... to hide the decline''. To be fair ''trick'' is a word with many meanings and usages and his meaning and usage is well within the scope of acceptability. ''Hide'' can never be appropriate in academic research or in public policy making. You don't need to be a highly trained climate scientist to think that hiding results is a bit dodgy.
Jones also undermined the very source of credibility that underpinned climate science. It was all peer-reviewed. Peer review was the gold standard of truth. Actually, it isn't but lay-people don't know that.
All they knew was that the climate science had been checked and rechecked and checked again. It was solid. Yet Jones's emails showed him undermining the peer review process. Official exoneration can only cover so many sins. It didn't help when it turned out that the IPCC reports (also peer-reviewed over and over) contained factual errors and non-peer review material.
So a major cause of the collapse of climate change policy was the gap between what was promised and the inevitable disappointment when it turned out that the scientists -- previously lauded as saviours of the planet -- were all too human.
But of course Jones wasn't alone. Here in Australia he had help in the form of the Australian Greens. True to its promise the Rudd government introduced legislation into the Parliament for an emissions trading scheme. It failed in the Senate despite Liberal senators crossing the floor to vote in favour of the ETS. For all the anger and angst about the lack of progress on climate change we should never forget that the Greens voted against the policy.
To be sure, they had their motives but it is rank hypocrisy to blame anyone other than the Greens for Australia not having an ETS.
So Graham, thank you. I'll be sure to show all my friends how important I am to promoting good policy in Australia. But between us, I have to thank Phil Jones and the Greens for doing the heavy lifting.
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