Conclusion - Four Degrees of Global Warming - page 241

● subsidies, tax credits and abatements, and other cost-reduction incentives
that promote renewables;
● energy efficiency standards for equipment, vehicles and materials;
● national and local building codes and standards;
● emissions trading and cap-and-trade schemes;
● industrial policies that target renewable energy for jobs and international
competitiveness;
● social policies that address and ameliorate the impacts of the energy transition
renewable energy for its social benefits;
● frameworks for energy prices that reflect the full cost of energy, including
environmental and social costs; and phase-outs of perverse subsidies for fossil
fuel.

Australia's policy palette has few colours by contrast.

Whether we like it or not, things will change. The issue for us is the extent to
which future changes are of our choosing and in our control, and therefore the
extent to which we are prepared to act now to preserve our social, economic and
ecological wealth for the future. Public clamour for urgent action will increase in
response to the threats of climate change. The cost of renewable energy technol-
ogies will continue to fall, especially as the world's two largest emitters - China
and America - move to decarbonize their economies. The global market for fossil
fuels will contract. These shifts will force change in Australia. This topic has
made it clear that we must now choose do as much as we can, as fast as we can,
to cut our greenhouse emissions and assist in adaptation in Australia and abroad.
The positive outcomes of exemplary action are never certain, but they are a vast
improvement on the consequences of a powerful nation acting as a laggard.

Notes
1 This represented an increase in national emissions of around 5 per cent since 1990.
When the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in 1997, Australia argued for an exceptional
emissions target of 108 per cent above a 1990 baseline during the Protocol's first
commitment period (2008-2012). It was one of only three countries to be awarded
targets that permitted an emissions increase during that period. It received this having
also gained the inclusion of land clearing-related emissions in its baseline, to its
great advantage. See Hamilton, 2001. Stationary energy contributed around half of
Australia's emissions (its contribution has grown from 195 Mt CO 2 -e in 1990 to 288
Mt CO 2 -e in 2012), while agriculture accounted for 16 per cent and transport 15 per
cent in 2012.
2 Including land use and land use factors (LULUCF).
3 Excluding the EU27 as one 'country'.
4 This approach assumes that all states undertook additional mitigation regardless of
their development status whether they are highly developed or least developed states.
This is equitable, therefore, only in terms of a strict apportionment. A fairer response
would take national wealth, relative level of development and capacity to mitigate
into account: this would lead to an even higher target for Australia.

5 Australia was overtaken by Indonesia as the world's largest exporter in 2011.