Carbon Trading Summit — Part 1 — The Economics of Climate Change
Clif and I recently attended the Carbon Trading Summit, which was presented by the Alliance of Industry Associations.
We were there to create a carbon inventory for the event — sustainable event management is one of the services Greensense offer — but we also enjoyed the presentations. There were seven speakers at the event, faciliated by the always engaging Gerry Gannon.
Tony Owen spoke first, a professor of economics at Curtin University. Tony explained the economic logic of an emissions trading scheme and a carbon tax. They both increase the direct costs incurred by consumers and businesses when they consume goods and services that generate greenhouse gases. This creates an incentive to make investments to reduce emissions. He suggested that, technically, they both had exactly the same effect and that he preferred a carbon tax over an emissions trading scheme.
He also decided to ridicule carbon labeling as promoted by Tesco’s. He suggested that if the cost of carbon is internalised into the price of a product, then that is sufficient to inform consumer choice. I disagree. The choice to buy one product over another is not a purely economic question. It is also a question of values.
Bruce Robinson spoke next on the topic of peak oil. Bruce is the convenor of ASPO Australia, the association for the study of peak oil. Peak oil is the point in time when the extraction of oil and gas peaks and, without sufficient preparation, there is a risk of social and economic breakdown.
Bruce took a number of opportunities to poke fun at economists who, he suggested, falsely believe that ever increasing demand will ensure ever increasing supply. Later, during the panel session, it was clear that Tony Owen, the resident economist was not a believer in peak oil.
The next speaker was Tim Shanahan, the Director of the Energy and Minerals Initiative at UWA. Tim began his presentation by showing the trailer for An Inconvenient Truth (embedded below), reminding us that climate change is a moral issue, not an economic one.
Tim spent some of his presentation talking about the research UWA is doing into geothermal energy. Rather than generating electricity, UWA is looking at using hydrothermal energy (i.e. warm water) with a heat exchanger to provide cooling or heating. This means that, while beneficial for the environment, the technology won’t attract renewable energy certificates, a good example of how Government policy doesn’t always provide the right incentives.
I’ll continue writing about the event in my next post.
Tags: carbon trading summit
