Comparing apples and fridges: Greg Hunt’s climate con
April 2015
As environment minster, Greg Hunt claimed that Labor’s carbon tax was more than 93 times more expensive than the Coalition’s Emissions Reduction Fund at reducing emissions.
Hunt claimed that the carbon tax “reduced emissions at over $1,300 per tonne [while] the Emissions Reduction Fund auction price averages $13.95 per tonne”.
“That’s about as wrong as you can possibly get it,” climate expert Professor Frank Jotzo told New Matilda. He said the real price was in the 20-odd dollar range.
Hunt also omitted to say that while the Coalition’s policy was a cost, the carbon tax raised revenue.
The Coalition spent $660 million of taxpayers’ funds buying 47 million tonnes of carbon abatement.
In contrast, the carbon price achieved an abatement of between 11 and 17 million tonnes over its two-year life, while raising around $6 billion according to Professor Jotzo’s ANU study on the emissions reductions directly attributable to the carbon price in the electricity sector alone.
As John Connor, the CEO of the Climate Institute, put it, Hunt’s price comparisons are like “comparing apples and fridges”.
A 30-year veteran of the mainstream media, Liz was the editor of MWMuntil June 2021. Liz began her career in journalism in 1990 and worked at The Age newspaper for two 10-year stints. She also worked at The Guardian newspaper in London for more than seven years. A former professional tennis player who represented Australia in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Liz has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Letters (Hons).