Nobel prize-winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz said Australia is at risk of falling behind Europe in the development of low-carbon technologies while awaiting clarity on the worldwide accord.
”It’s really important for Australia to do more - on its own - even though there isn’t a global agreement to embrace,” Dr Stiglitz said, calling for a higher price on carbon even if the science is not perfectly certain.
”While other countries are developing technology and competencies, Australia really hasn’t been doing as much as other places,” he said in an interview, citing example of European economies re-gearing for a less carbon intensive future.
Dr Stiglitz’s comments come days after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a set of election pledges aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, widely blamed for rising global temperatures. Those policies, though, fell short of the economy-wide carbon price planned under her predecessor Kevin Rudd, which he dropped earlier this year.
Mr Rudd’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was blocked in the Senate by the Coalition and Greens, with public support for such action dropping after the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change failed to produce a binding global agreement.
“Global warming necessitates a retrofitting of the economy that will require enormous investments,” wrote Dr Stiglitz in his latest book Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy.
Governments and private-sector investors in Europe have ploughed considerable money into renewable wind, hydro-power and solar energy projects. The euro zone has also made strides in developing their carbon-trading markets, like the European Climate Exchange, which traded $112 billion (68 billion euro) in carbon credits last year.
