Greenpeace activist: Why Oz shouldn't Bankroll Coal & HRL proposal

Excellent article by Julien Vincent who leaves the best argument against HRL to last, specifically that a "clean energy future" means stopping burning fossil fuels. In the face of a worsening climate crisis, subsidizing fossil fuel burning is an outrage.

The annual subsidies for fossil fuel burning in Australia now total $12 billion (see “Australia spends $11 billion more encouraging pollution than cleaning it up” ACF, 1 March 2011: http://acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=3308 ).

If the pro-coal, pro-gas, pro-war Gillard Labor Government were fair dinkum about "tackling climate change" it would not have gone for a disastrous and dishonest Carbon Tax-ETS that MIGHT deliver $1 billion for renewable energy each year - but instead it would have simply cut fossil fuel subsides by $1 billion or simply cancelled export licences for $1 billion of fossil fuels exports.

Australian Treasury, ABARE and US EIA data indicate that under Labor's Carbon Tax-ETS Australia's Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution will INCREASE 1.7-fold by 2020 and 4.2-fold by 2050 relative to 2000 levels.

Not reported by lying Mainstream media in Australia, in 2009 the WBGU, that advises the German Government on climate change, estimated that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2C temperature rise (would you board a plane with a 25% chance of crashing?) the World can emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2010 an zero emissions in 2050. Australia's Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution is so high that Australia had used up its "fair share" of this terminal GHG pollution budget by mid-2011 and is now stealing the entitlement of impoverished countries like Somalia and Bangladesh.

Another way of seeing things is by fossil fuel burning-based Carbon Debt = Historical Carbon Debt (from burning post-1750) - Climate Credit (share of the terminal 600 billion tonnes of CO2 pollution). In million of tonnes of CO2 the worst Carbon Debtors are United States (72,244), Germany (16,765), United Kingdom (16,277), Russia (14,392), France (3,763), Australia (3,631), and Japan (3,069). The US is currently increasing its Net Carbon Debt by 10% per year and Australia by 39% per year.

At a fair dinkum Carbon Price of $100/tonne CO2 (that would favor a coal to wind transition) the US Carbon Debt is $7.2 trillion and that of Australia is $0.36 trillion (one third of our annual GDP). The World will have great difficulty getting the nuclear-armed US to pay up but Climate Debtor Australia (population 22 million) is another matter entirely. Australia should not be adding to its already huge Carbon Debt when it is very likely that we will be asked repay the Carbon Debt.

There is no way that a properly informed, rational and humane society that believes that "all men are created equal" would permit the HRL project.