Don’t be fooled - the light isn’t that bright
Especially not in the Liberal party. Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced the phasing out of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2012.
Great idea. It at least gets more people thinking about energy consumption. What bugs me though is how much the Liberal government are going to rely on these small changes and avoid making the big decisions.
Let’s take a closer look at this particular initiative. By 2012, this change is expected to cut greenhouse emissions by 800,000 tonnes a year, jumping up to 4 million tonnes a year in 2015. Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2004 were around 564.7 million tonnes.
Now I’m no Stephen Hawking, but that amounts to a 0.71% reduction in our total emissions. That’s not even taking into account that our emissions are projected to rise dramatically over the coming years.
Pull your head out Prime Minister Howard and make a real decision.