We must take immediate businesslike action to limit climate change to
2 degrees C, not for ourselves, but for future generations.
- Richard McNeall
Australian emissions 36 times sustainable level. July 24, 2007
According to the 2005 National Greenhouse Inventory, released earlier this year, Australia's annual emissions are 27.6 tonnes CO2e per capita.
The emissions level that the level that the earth can absorb without adding to the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere is 5 billion tonnes CO2e per year (Stern Review), or 0.76 tonnes CO2e per capita based on the estimated world population of 6.6 billion.
Therefore the extremely unpalatable truth is that our annual emissions of 27.6 tonnes CO2e per capita are 36 times the sustainable level !
Clearly every effort must be made to reduce this, including a strong carbon tax or tax-equivalent emissions trading system. A long delayed tapered-entry system with "safety valve" will just not do it.
