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Vocal climate-sceptic scientists were deployed in the next stage of the debate in Australia, which was about both the level of ambition of Australia’s emissions reduction targets, and the policy tools to reduce emissions. The approach of the Carbon Club broadened during the early 2000s as key members formed links with like-minded activists in the United States and emulated their strategies. According to Wilkinson, during this stage in the climate policy debate, the focus of the Carbon Club was predominantly on arguing that the Kyoto protocol would have negative economic effects on investment and employment. John Howard refused to sign the agreement and it was only ratified after a new Prime Minister (Kevin Rudd) was installed in 2007. Although the protocol was finalised in December 1997 (after Australia argued for and received special treatment), there proceeded a lengthy debate over whether Australia should sign it. One early stage involved the development of the Kyoto protocol, which was an early attempt to achieve international agreements on targets to reduce global carbon emissions. The evolution of the methods of the Carbon Club is traced through major stages in debate about Australia’s climate policy. The members of the Club also sought to generate alarm about the economic consequences of strong actions to reduce emissions, particularly in regional communities reliant on fossil fuels and to sow doubt about the global impact of Australian actions to reduce emissions, given both Australia’s small share of global emissions (around 1.5%) and expectations of continued rapid growth in emissions from large developing countries like India and China. It also narrowed the terms of the debate to the economic and employment effects of climate policies. She argues this provided a basis to apply the tag ‘climate change alarmists’ to scientists and environmental groups calling for strong action by Australia. Wilkinson views this support as playing an important role in undermining the moral imperative to act on climate change by creating doubt about the extent of global warming and its causes.
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It did this, in part, by supporting climate-sceptic scientists.
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Credit: AAPĪccording to Wilkinson, the methods of the Carbon Club were designed to challenge the moral and economic case for taking action to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions. Those identified as members of this unofficial club include politicians like Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce, Nick Minchin, Andrew Robb and Cory Bernadi business identities such as Hugh Morgan, Maurice Newman and Gina Reinhart climate-science sceptics such as Bob Carter, Ian Plimer and Peter Ridd media identifies such as Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones and organisations such as the Institute for Public Affairs. The Club is not a defined group but rather a loose confederation of individuals and organisations united in scepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change, and in opposition to calls for Australia to take a lead in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The Carbon Club identifies the members of the Carbon Club and their methods in relation to the fraught debate on Australia’s climate change policy. The book adds to a growing literature on corporate influence on Australian politics, alongside the recent book by Lindy Edward, called Corporate Power in Australian Democracy: Do the 1% rule? (Monash University Publishing). The book is by acclaimed journalist Marian Wilkinson and contributes to debate about the degree of corporate influence on policy making by tracking how a loose network of climate change sceptics, politicians, business leaders and business groups set out to shape community attitudes and influence climate change policy in Australia from the late 1990s to the present. Jeff Hole reviews Marian Wilkinson’s recent book The Carbon Club: How a network of influential climate sceptics, politicians and business leaders fought to control Australia’s climate policy, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2020Īnyone interested in the question of whether business interests wield too much influence over politicians and policy in Australia should read The Carbon Club.