Better things to buy than offsets

Ziggy Switkowski, The Australian
"When it comes to greenhouse gases, Treasury modelling points to about a 1 per cent reduction in global emissions in 2050 arising from Australia's purchases of carbon credits on the international market at a cumulative cost of more than $600 billion ....Finally, for much less than $600bn Australia could have a national network of nuclear power stations to provide 100 per cent of our electricity needs safely and cost-effectively with near zero greenhouse gas emissions. There'd be money left over to build a central repository for spent fuel and other nuclear waste as well as to start an enrichment industry, and to buy and maintain nuclear submarines.

All our stationary energy emission targets would be easily met, and society and industry would have something to point to for their dollars. The intensity of the political debate and media commentary reflects an assumption that climate change is the headline issue of modern times. But is it, and how might all that effort and money be better allocated? I think that's a debate worth having.

Ziggy Switkowski is chancellor of RMIT University."