MPCCC shenanigans 16 June

Good piece from Business Spectator on the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee.

It’s mostly about the face-off between Christine Milne and Martin Ferguson, but includes interesting stuff on a Labour backbencher called Stephen Jones, and on rooftop solar panels. It concludes –

There’s no doubt the carbon debate has moved forward substantially in the past week, but with more and more of the facts on the table, the political stakes just get higher. MPCCC negotiations will go down to the wire, but there will clearly have to be substantial ground given on both sides.

Labor will do so to avoid annihilation. And the Greens must do likewise. If they don’t, the same voters who think roof-top panels will save the world will simplistically view Milne and her colleagues as the party that blocked carbon pricing legislation yet again.

Youtube – The Climate Commission for Beginners

Covers the when, why, who, how in 90 seconds.

The MPCCC game of chicken continues…

From the front page of the Australian Financial Review 15 June
“The Gillard government is threatening to jettison negotiations with the Greens and key independents over a carbon price if it fails to secure compensation for the highest emitting coalmines and coal-fired generators.”

Uhuh. A credible threat? Gillard may be toast, but she’s toast sooner if the carbon price don’t get through. We will see if the Greens and indies blink…

Further down in the story, by Marcus Priest and Peter Kerr “Labor hauls Greens over the coals” we learn that modelling about job losses which was of course much-trumpetted by the Murdoch press may not have been quite so worthy of the acres of newsprint it got. It was done by ACIL-Tasman (creators of useful-to-the-rich factoids) for those cuddly Australian Coal Association types. According to the Fin, investment analysts questioned the modelling, saying it was “based upon no government assistance being provided.”
And the Grattan Institute said the report did not take into account the likelihood of offsetting rises in coal prices if there was a noticeable withdrawal of Australian production.
The Fin then quotes Grattan ceo John Daley thusly –
“The study is based on unreliable data, its findings are contrary to data published by coal producers themselves, the study ignores the dynamics between Australian production and global prices, and the study fails to mention that even if it is right, there is unlikely to be any net change in Australian unemployment.”

Doubtless Andrew Bolt is, as I type this, busily pointing the ratshittness of the ACIL-Tasman report to his legions of followers, and asking them to reflect on how much of what they read in the Murdoch press is pure spin and bollocks… … tumbleweed….

UPDATE 22 June: The Australian Coal Association has started its campaign. Rob Oakeshott is muttering about a carbon price of $15 or so.

“Climate Smart Precincts” Initiative – Adelaide Workshops report

So this page on the Climate Group’s website (quoted below) has a link to the full report they’re talkin’ about.

Date: 14 June 2011

This report is the latest in a series produced as part of Australia’s Climate Smart Precincts Initiative, which involves a coalition of leading businesses and state governments working with flagship urban precincts to test the policies, technologies and new business models that will lead to an integrated, precinct-wide approach to urban growth and redesign becoming the norm.

In February 2011, The Climate Group facilitated two workshops as part of this program, hosted by the South Australian Government’s Land Management Corporation and The Department of Trade and Economic Development. Participants included Arup, Delfin Lend Lease, GE, IBM, Johnson Controls and Origin Energy, as well as the Green Building Council of Australia, the Monash Sustainability Institute, Sustainability Victoria and South Australia’s Integrated Design Commissioner. Other participants of the Climate Smart Precincts Initiative include Cisco, Better Place and Alstom power.

The workshops looked at two real-world development sites in Adelaide – Bowden Village and Tonsley Park – examining the ideas and opportunities for designing them as Climate Smart Precincts. The Report outlines the nature and extent of the discussions during the site visits and the workshops, recording participants’ observations, insights, relevant case studies and suggestions.

The nature of the workshops and discussions also mean that many of the observations and suggestions will hold broad applicability to future development, in Australia and around the world, as part of the Clean Revolution.