News Article

Work together on carbon price framework, pollies told

16/06/2011 - The convenor of a national business forum on sustainable development has called on both sides of politics to work together to establish a carbon price framework.

The two-day forum at Parliament House in Canberra will hear from government leaders, including Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, and the opposition's climate action spokesman Greg Hunt.

Climate Commission chairman Tim Flannery on Thursday will update the forum on the science of climate change.

Forum convenor Molly Harriss-Olson, a director of policy firm EcoFutures, said political parties and business needed to show "guts and leadership" by moving vigorously towards a low carbon future.

All political parties needed to come together and make sure a carbon framework was established in Australia.

"It doesn't really matter what the framework is, what matters is that we put a price on carbon and start moving aggressively in this direction," Harriss-Olson told ABC Television.

The forum also would hear that Australia was at real risk of falling "far, far behind" if it did not take action.

Harriss-Olson said forum delegates would be surprised at what was happening in India and how far developing nations had come in embedding sustainability and low-carbon approaches.

"Even China has a five-year green plan," she said.


Source: AAP NewsWire
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Have your say...
Bill of Gc | 17/06/2011 06:00 1
I wondered who would follow the doomsayers and the screen actors in this crusade and now we know. The fact that she did not repudiate it, Ms. Olson clearly endorses the actions of our Prime Minister when she deliberately lied to the electorate on this issue. Interesting. The eco alarmists have failed miserably to connect with and put forward a convincing argument to the public on this issue and have parked any scruples they may have had and have agreed to support the deceiver. How can anyone trust these people. I like many people who it appears will not get to vote on this issue believe a carbon tax will do nothing other than strip money from the public (particularly middle and high income earners) and give it to the Feds and whom ever else they have to buy off to get it through. Power in 10-20 years time will still be primarily generated from coal and we are exporting millions of tons of it every year to developing nations that have much greater problems than worrying about being a low carbon country. Ms Olson goes on to say that "China has a 5 year green plan", well Ms. Olson plans are not action and we have to look no further than the federal Labor government's multiplicity of "plans" that were never realised or have been botched completely. Motherhood statements about a country's intentions are de-rigueur at the UN and Eco forums, they tell people what they want to hear and Ms.Olson knows it. As a point of interest perhaps Ms. Olson can also tell us all when and why did "Global Warming" become climate Change???
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