SYDEY, Australia — Australia’s new prime minister will not revive plans to embed carbon emissions targets in law, a thorny issue that triggered the ousting of his predecessor in a party coup. Australia is considered one of the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluters, and is a heavy user of coal-fired power. “The NEG is dead, long live reliability guarantee, long live default prices, long live backing new power generation,” he told the Weekend Australian on Saturday. Rudd’s Labor successor Julia Gillard, faced with a hung parliament, later introduced a carbon pricing scheme in exchange for support from two independents. The Liberals’ Tony Abbott, who defeated her in national elections in 2013 and who famously called climate change “absolute crap”, repealed the scheme a year later.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 09, 2018 04:52 UTC