While i dont doubt that could be the motivation and mechanism at play behind attempts to discredit it.
I'm not so sure they lose anything.
Case in point with the australian carbon tax, the govt hits the polluters with a 26 dollar a ton tax, the industrys in question simply pass that on to the consumer.
Classic example the govt sent out consultants to eligable homes, they replaced free of charge old lightbulbs with new compact fluro bulbs, and other power saving stuff.
Household power usage dropped, so the power companys increased the price.
Now people pay more to use less.........
Same with solar panels, Govt gave massive rebates every second house on my street has solar roof panels a dynamic thats country wide.
The utility companys are forced to buy the excess generated power, they dont like this one bit, so to offset this..... they increased usage tarrifs to cover their costs yet again.
Any carbon tax on big oil will simply be treated as aproduction cost and passed on at the pump.
And coupled with population growth, there is no net reduction in carbon emmissions......
Thats the thing people need to look at,
He says recent efforts globally to reduce emissions have had little impact on emissions growth. “Recent emissions seem to be near the high end of the fossil fuel use scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The National Greenhouse Gas Inventory data
released yesterday for the December 2010 quarter showed that emissions increased last year by 0.5% to 543 million tonnes, still below pre-GFC levels. The emissions produced by the significant pick-up in economic activity from the GFC-induced fall in 2009 was partly offset by a drop in electricity demand due to lower temperatures, the flooding of Queensland coal mines that reduced fugitive emissions and greater use of hydro-electric power due to greater rainfall.
Those factors are temporary, meaning
emissions are set to increase significantly more this year.
But even in the unlikely event that emissions growth is constrained to the muted 2010 level, it would still mean national emissions of over 570 million tonnes per annum in 2020, well above the target of about 530 million tonnes.
Despite the world's focus on China's coal-fired power plants, a bigger threat may be the construction industry, warn the authors of Carbonising the Dragon,
which was published on Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
The paper notes that China has been building the equivalent of 2bn square metres of floor space every year, which increases the country's carbon footprint enormously. Calculated at the point of consumption, cement is said to account for 46% of China emissions, and iron and steel 20% in total.
In contrast, it says electricity generation – which is usually cited as the primary problem – is about 30%. Despite the surge in demand for extra power, the authors say the Chinese government's investments in renewables and nuclear power have not greatly changed the energy mix.
2bn square metres of floor space every year, which increases the country's carbon footprint enormously
As the adage goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but global population growth coupled with demand for better lifestyles for all those people mean there can be no reductions in emissions.
Anyone taking your cash and telling you its helping, is pissing on your leg and insisting its just raining.
If we want to reduce emissions, we have to reduce population, any thing else is a blatant con job.
