On the one hand: Our prosperity as a nation depends on our access to cheap, reliable energy. This is needed by both consumers and businesses. More importantly, as businesses in the future are likely to be more energy hungry, using more humanoid robots and Ai, countries that offer cheaper, reliable energy are more likely to attract more companies and people to set up businesses on their shores. It is also in our interests to have a wide variety of energy sources. If there is a supply or cost problem with one source, we need other cheaper or more reliable sources to cover the shortfall.
On the other hand: We want to live in a cleaner, healthier, environment.
Getting the right balance between the two is a challenge, but one we must overcome. Big users of fossil fuel-based energy need to be incentivised to reduce environmentally unfriendly emissions, and the market needs to be incentivised to undertake greening projects that produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide – in other words plant more trees, shrubs, and other plants. CLA is therefore generally supportive of carbon credit trading but not of legislation putting penalties on producers – because that may result in their products being uncompetitive.
If the consumer market cares enough about the environment and their own health, it will not buy product from those companies who are net producers of carbon dioxide or not buy from those polluting the environment and can put pressure on the executives of those producing companies to do less environmental damage.
While energy consuming companies should aim to achieve ‘net zero’, this should not apply to us as a country. Why – because it results in the ludicrous situation where rather than manufacturers consuming fossil fuels in Australia, we export our fossil fuels for use by manufacturers in countries that don’t have net zero or other emission-reduction targets. Our exporting fossil fuels does not reduce the world’s emissions. In fact, it increases the world’s emissions because the factories and plants we export our fossil fuels to have lower environmental standards.