Australia鈥檚 landslide election result seems to be bad news for the climate. Following the , Australia is to abolish its emissions trading scheme, disband a climate advisory body and institute a carbon reduction policy that experts say will fail to meet its meagre target.
It will also scale back the country鈥檚 embryonic National Broadband Network and direct funding away from research projects it deems 鈥渞idiculous鈥�.
The conservative Liberal-National coalition, headed by incoming prime minister Tony Abbott, triumphed at the polls this weekend. It ran for election with a core idea of . In the last term of the Labor government, a price on carbon was introduced, under pressure from the Australian Greens party, with whom they shared power in a minority government. The carbon price 鈥� widely called a 鈥渃arbon tax鈥� 鈥� was set to increase gradually until 2015 when carbon credits would be opened for trading, allowing the market to set the price.
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Abbott鈥檚 coalition also signalled that it would disband Australia鈥檚 Climate Commission 鈥� an independent scientific body that provides reliable information on climate change to the public. In response to a report the commission released, warning that extreme weather was made more likely by climate change, Abbott said:
Contentious views
In 2009, Abbott said, when talking about climate change, that the and but accepted that against it was a good idea.
Australia鈥檚 carbon reduction policy currently has three key pillars: the emissions trading scheme, a renewable energy target of 20 per cent and government financing for clean energy projects. The renewable energy target is the only part of the policy that won鈥檛 be removed immediately, but Abbott has said that of it.
Replacing the current system, the coalition says it will institute a 鈥渄irect action鈥� plan to . This relies mostly on farmers voluntarily storing carbon in soils and planting trees, but will also finance lowering the emissions of power stations and create incentives for the uptake of renewable energy.
includes A$300 million (US$280 million) for the establishment of a 鈥淕reen Army鈥� of 15,000 troops, the functions of which have not been outlined.
It is a 鈥済reat leap backwards鈥�, says from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. He says that no experts think the targets will be met and that the stance is ideological, because senior members of the government don鈥檛 think climate change is man-made He worries that the outgoing government will also see the election result as a reason to abandon serious effort on climate policy.
Despite one suggesting that the direct action plan鈥檚 funding of A$3.2 billion represents less than half of what is needed to meet the 5 per cent target, Abbott indicated .
Research under fire
During its campaign, the Liberal-National coalition also said it would . The first example it gave was a philosophy project entitled 鈥� a A$595,000 grant aimed at 鈥渞eaching a better understanding of the self鈥�.
The researcher behind the project, Diego Bubbio, from the University of Western Sydney, tells New 杏吧原创 that the project is examining how conceptions of the self have changed throughout history, and how they can be affected by those around us.
He thinks the attack is unfair and says politicians are in no place to judge the value of research. 鈥淚f we accept that a field has something to contribute to our understanding of the world, then the best thing to do is for scholars and scientists in each field to make their judgement about the quality of each project being assessed,鈥� he says.
The politicisation of research funding angered , a representative body for scientists. Its CEO, Catriona Jackson, said that the government should set research priorities but should not have a role in 鈥減icking and choosing鈥� projects.
The new government will also scale back plans for a . Australia is connecting almost every home to a fibre-optic network. Part of the new government鈥檚 plan is to lay cables to street corners, from where the old copper telephone wires would carry the signal to people鈥檚 homes, reducing maximum speeds, but also reducing infrastructure costs. Meanwhile, there are also plans to cut A$42 million from NICTA, Australia鈥檚 Information Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence.
