How to make fossil fuel companies pay for climate costs | Climate of the Nation

A significant majority of Australians (at least 75%) are concerned about the impact of the climate crisis on food supply, agriculture and insurance premiums, and support policies that would force fossil fuel companies to pay for the damage they are causing, according to the Australia Institute’s 2023 Climate of the Nation report.

[gerryhouska]

As long as the donation keep coming in, and sinecures on boards or with lobbyist organisations are on offer after politics, our politicians will do nothing.

[Timothy]

Remember Julia Gillard's Carbon Tax? It would seem as though she has been vindicated time and time again. Financially and environmentally we'd be so much better off if had been allowed to run. Pity that the country still has people of the same ilk as Tony Abbott influencing the policy making in Australia.

[JBBunno]

Our local shire purchased 300 acres of native bush from a friend who had native bush and cleared land as a farm. The shire paid half a million dollars. They stated this block will never be logged or developed allowing them to have a larger carbon offset so they could put more shire vehcles on the road and that the additional pollution will be offset by the recent purchase.
So by using taxpayers money they spent half a million to protect trees that have never been in danger and they can pollute more as the tress will offset the increased pollution.
In terms of the net outcome for the planet, no new trees were planted, no carbon was removed. But we have increased pollution. And as a shire resident I had a rates increase of 9% to cover these and other new costs.
All Im seeing in a machine that makes money and the middle class are paying for it out of their hip pockects. This has nothing to do with climate change, this is a scheme utilising climate change as a work around without actually ding anything for the planet.
So the take home: If you have money you can buy offsets and pollute as miuch as you want. But you dont actually have to help the planet.

[timbd]

More generally, we need to sort out transfer pricing and raise tax revenue from all multinationals.

[gerardbiddle]

Well said Polly. I support carbon tax on export of fossil fuels. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[nottenvironmental]

Yep, fossil fuels and extreme weather is inflationary with the bonus increased inequality and wealth transfer overseas

[johngeier]

Arrhenius who described the greenhouse effect in the late 19th century opined that carbon dioxide emissions from human activity would have the beneficial effects of increased agricultural yields (main effect) and postponement of the next glacial maximum. You can add reduced winter heating costs and fewer deaths from hypothermia.
Both the current mean annual surface temperature of Earth and the current atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration are suboptimal for plant growth. Warming is initially beneficial and cooling is detrimental.
It is lunacy spending trillions of dollars of taxpayers money trying to prevent small and largely beneficial changes to the earth’s climate.
Net Zero is economically destructive delusional insanity.

[gstar]

Very destructive suggestions. Coal is by far the cheapest, and most efficient way to produce electricity for human-kind. Period.

[chascodelviso]

Maybe some lung cancer or disease, but the climate has been changing for a billion years. It oscillates going from freeze to tropical👍