abusesaffiliationarrow-downarrow-leftarrow-rightarrow-upattack-typeburgerchevron-downchevron-leftchevron-rightchevron-upClock iconclosedeletedevelopment-povertydiscriminationdollardownloademailenvironmentexternal-linkfacebookfiltergenderglobegroupshealthC4067174-3DD9-4B9E-AD64-284FDAAE6338@1xinformation-outlineinformationinstagraminvestment-trade-globalisationissueslabourlanguagesShapeCombined Shapeline, chart, up, arrow, graphLinkedInlocationmap-pinminusnewsorganisationotheroverviewpluspreviewArtboard 185profilerefreshIconnewssearchsecurityPathStock downStock steadyStock uptagticktooltiptwitteruniversalityweb
Article

6 Aug 2015

Author:
Graham Readfearn, Guardian (UK)

Australia was ready to act on climate 25 years ago, so what happened next?

See all tags

…In 1990 Bob Hawke announced his government wanted the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2005…But a new book investigates how the industries that stood to lose the most worked to undermine the science and entirely reshape the story being told to the public…[In her] book, called Global Warming and Climate Change: What Australia Knew and Buried … Then Framed a New Reality for the Public”…Taylor explains how from the late 1980s industry groups, free market advocates and climate contrarians got to work to reframe the issue from the science to the economics…Taylor highlights two reports…by mining company CRA (a division of what became Rio Tinto) that “established the contrarian themes that came to dominate the decade”…One of the many ways the book shows how [the fossil fuel] industry managed to impose its interests on policy was in the Howard government’s reliance on modelling from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics on the costs of particular climate policies…That modelling was supported financially by the likes of the Australian Coal Association, the oil giant Exxon Mobil and the mining majors BHP and Rio Tinto…