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It’s on. Abbott dumps Paris, speaks science and ramps it up against Turnbull

It’s about time

Thank goodness for Tony Abbott  

Nine years ago the Australian Liberals were on the verge of splitting. Turnbull was about to give the Labor Party a free pass on the Emissions Trading Scheme and sell Australia out to the EU. Climategate broke (thank you FOIA) and the party rebelled and tossed out Turnbull. Now, after three elections where the people voted No to carbon taxes every time they could, we have an emissions trading scheme, a Renewable Energy Target,  and one of the most crippling Paris targets of any nation. This is despite our rapidly growing population, huge distances and massive resources and the failure of almost every other nation to even achieve their Paris goals.  We are The Global Patsy, obediently sacrificing competitive advantage, GDP, and lifestyle – all so Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull get invited to the right parties. Economic carnage in a glorious quest to make the weather nicer.

UPDATE: Time to pull out of Paris full speech

It has got to end. The NEG (The National Energy Guarantee) is a dog:

Turnbull is repeating mistakes says Abbott:

Simon Benson, The Australian

Delivering his most strident attack to date on his government’s own energy policy, the former prime minister has warned Liberal colleagues they risk a ­repeat of a split that almost ­destroyed the party a decade ago.

Less than four weeks before five critical by-elections, Mr ­Abbott has sought to escalate the internal campaign against the ­national energy guarantee ahead of a pivotal August meeting of COAG in which the government will seek support from Labor states.

“Does the Liberal Party nine years on realise the wheel has turned full circle and we are back to where we were in late 2009, with Malcolm Turnbull trying to do a deal with the Labor Party on emissions reduction,” Mr Abbott told The Australian, ahead of a speech tonight to the climate sceptic-think tank, the Australian Environment Foundation.

It’s a fight, not a negotiation because there is no negotiating with witchcraft. Abbott is spot on:

“It’s not a circle you can square with the Labor Party … it is a fight that has to be won. There can be no consensus on climate change … you either win or lose … and at the moment we are losing.”

Abbott is discussing scientific points. This is rare from a politician — he’s not just debating the dismal economics, he’s confident, and right, about science. This is good. We want a science debate every bit as much as they don’t want one:

Latika Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald

He said despite the rate of carbon in the atmosphere increasing from 300 to 400 parts per million there had been no “dramatic consequences” on the climate.
“Storms are not more severe; droughts are not more prolonged; floods are not greater; and fires are not more intense than a century ago – despite hyperventilating reportage and over-the-top claims from Green politicians,” the former prime minister said…

“Sea levels have hardly risen and temperatures are still below those of the medieval warm period.

“Over time, temperature change seems to correlate rather more with sun spot activity than with carbon dioxide levels,” he claimed…

Unlike other politicians Abbott is unloading the past, cleaning the slate

The former PM now says he never anticipated the climate change reduction targets he signed up would be binding. ..

Mr Abbott said both he and John Howard had been in the dark about the full implications of their own climate change mitigation policies including the renewable energy target and the international emissions reductions pledges.

“I’m not sure that the Howard government fully anticipated where the renewable energy target would lead when it first made the decision to impose one,” he said.

When Abbott was PM he worked to get his direct action plan implemented (a cheap auction system that actually works to reduce carbon for bargain prices like $14/ton). Then up pops the macabre combo of Clive Palmer and Al Gore, and Palmer was got at. The coal miner suddenly “had” to have a seemingly empty clause leaving the door open for an emissions trading plan. The clause would only came into effect if all the other major world economies acted together which everyone knew would never happen. But that clause was the thin edge of the wedge, and when the Paris Agreement was crafted, all those big nations (India, China) agreed to do nothing, but officially, they agreed to do it together. The Paris deal was meaningless but they signed it, triggering sub clauses in domestic legislation in Australia, and probably in other Patsy Nations too.

When he was prime minister, Mr Abbott signed Australia up to reducing emissions to 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. But he said on Tuesday that was only ever intended to be an aspiration.

“I certainly didn’t anticipate, as prime minister, how the aspirational targets we agreed to at Paris would, in different hands, become binding commitments,” he said.

The word trickery had paved the way for Turnbull to claim he was sticking to Abbott’s plan even as Turnbull did the exact opposite of the spirit of everything Abbott had gone to the election with. He sold the nation out. He has to go.

h/t Pat

Australia tried too hard to please,
The U.N., the E.U. and appease,
The Green beast that roared,
Which should now be ignored,
And begin to rise up off its knees.

–Ruairi

Flashback:

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