How climate change could hit your pocket

Federal parliament resumes today with a huge issue, that will affect your finances, before it.

That’s right. Climate change.

The critical vote, though, will not be taken in the House of Representatives, which comes back today, but in the Senate, which resumes a week later.

The government, of course, doesn’t have the numbers in this upper house, to ensure safe passage of   the legislation, which would set up its planned carbon pollution reduction scheme.

At present, the nation depends, very heavily, on its coal exports.

And Australian coal is a major contributor to global carbon pollution, when it is burnt in Chinese power stations and steel mills.

You may think that this doesn’t concern you, directly.  But it does.  If the Federal government lost the revenue it raises, from that industry, it would have to look elsewhere, to replace it.

You would not be overlooked, in that hunt.

The government is planning a carbon pollution reduction scheme, based largely on carbon trading permits.

These will, certainly, affect the coal industry.

That has led some conservative politicians to argue that its bill should simply be rejected.

But there are dangers that way, too.

There is no better illustration of  that than this year’s bankruptcy of General Motors, a company that was once among the most powerful corporations in the world.

It went broke, essentially, because it kept producing big, gas guzzling cars, when Americans wanted smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles.

The coal industry isn’t going to disappear overnight.

But it, will, eventually,  go the way of the steam locomotive, as the world becomes much more serious about combating climate change.

The scientific evidence, already in, will make this essential.

But there are several things we should remember.

The change won’t happen overnight.  So there will be time to adjust.

It will be important, though, not to panic.

That will mean resisting the fear mongering now being spread by people who should know better.

One senior Conservative politician, who wisely chose to remain nameless was warning, at the weekend, for example, that carbon trading would cause Australia’s beef and sheep meat industries to collapse, overnight.

That, of course, is nonsense.  It should be seen as such.

This kind of talk is, essentially, based on what economists call “static analysis.”

It is all about “what is” now, not what will be.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has been right about one thing, at least.

The  jobs, in future, will be in new industries, not in those we have today.

Australia can’t allow itself  to be trapped in coming decades, relying too heavily on commodities, like coal, which have only, a limited and restricted future.