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Stern's heart of darkness: the release of Nicholas Stern's report on the economic impact of climate change re-ignited political tensions around the issue. Peter Christoff discusses what this means for Australia.

Article Excerpt
A perfect political storm is brewing in Australia over global warming. After the driest October since 1914, another bout of record high temperatures and the 1000-year drought intensifying the water crises in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane; after Al Gore's visit and the release of his film An Inconvenient Truth; and then a frenzied stream of media reports from overseas, public opinion tipped over the edge. By the start of November, according to Newspoll, 79 per cent of Australians thought Australia should ratify Kyoto, 86 per cent thought the Federal Government should be doing more to tackle climate change, and 92 per cent thought the government should increase funding for renewables.

Signs of turbulence include Howard throwing $250 million at solar energy research, talking about the need for a 'new Kyoto' and threatening to launch an inquiry into emissions trading. Kevin Rudd, in his first speech as leader of the Opposition, highlighted climate change alongside Iraq and industrial relations as one of three key issues to differentiate Labor from the government. The storm might just blow away Howard's resistance to ratification of Kyoto before next year's election. But it shows no signs of revealing the gulf between these political reactions and what the science is telling us is needed to deal with the problem. The details are buried in the dark heart of the Stern report.

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is the most important recent addition to international debate over the costs of climate change. It is also a major contributor to Australia's political flare-up over the issue. Released late in October, it received widespread international and local media coverage, including banner headline treatment in Australia's leading dailies--'Britain pressures Australia to join climate change plan', 'A Planet on the Brink'. The papers trumpeted 'the economist's warning to the world'. More importantly, papers like Melbourne's Age reported on the need to act now. 'On current trends, average temperatures will rise by up to three degrees within 50 years'.

The UK, along with Germany, has been a leader in pushing for substantial emissions reductions by the European Union and others. In 2003 Tony Blair announced an emissions target of a 60 per cent reduction by 2050 and by 2004...

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