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Man what a crazy few weeks it’s been. I’ve been trying to get into the frame of mind to write some sort of Climate Change related blog but before I put metaphorical pen to paper some new development happens that derails my original rant. From leaked e-mails to coalition leadership challenges to the ETS failure in the senate to Turnbell calling Abbott’s stance on climate change “bullshit” to NASA scientists discrediting the effectiveness of an ETS to Tony Abbott backflipping on never introducing a carbon tax to more leaked documents, it’s amazing anyone has managed to keep up.

Easily my favourite quote of the saga comes from the usually overly verbose Kevin Rudd when called on to public debate Tony Abbott on climate change mere hours after the ETS failed:

“I’d suggest the Leader of the Opposition calms down, puts in the hard yards and actually develops a policy”

Sometimes simple is best.

Which kind of brings me to the crux of why I am writing. I could easily rehash a lot of what has already been covered by the media and the blogosphere in the last few weeks but what’s the point? You can probably read a far better blow by blow of the events on Crikey or the ABC’s excellent new analysis site The Drum. Instead I thought I’d offer my two cents on Australia’s options for tackling climate change in the very near future.

In my opinion a cap and trade emissions tax, especially one that contains as many concessions as Rudd’s, is fundamentally flawed. All it’s going to do is allow big polluters the ability to buy their way out of reducing emissions while patting themselves on the back for doing such a great job with the environment. To quote NASA climate scientist Dr James Hansen in his interview with Lateline on Monday night: “Basically … it’s like the indulgences of the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church would sell forgiveness for sins. This was great for the bishops, they collected a lot of moolah, and it was great for the sinners, because they got forgiven and they could still go to heaven or at least they thought they could.”

I’d prefer a more hard-line stance against the big polluters but right now that’s not going to happen. Rudd is too afraid of pissing people off to enforce a carbon tax without a trading scheme or even to pass laws criminalising pollution. So what we get is an ineffectual policy – it’s like if your doctor tells you to change your diet or you’re going to die and you decide switching from regular to diet coke will be enough.

But what’s the alternative? When the election comes what will the opposition bring to the table? At the moment, nothing. The coalition, while making all the right noises, essentially would prefer to deny that climate change is even happening. Sure, Abbott and his Shadows will formulate some sort of climate change policy to counter the government but in the words of Malcolm Turnbell “Any policy that is announced will simply be a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing”.

So the options are either go with the party that will do nothing or go with the party that will do something which will probably do very little to reduce the impact of climate change. Sheesh.

When faced with a choice like this my decision of who to support comes down to the proverb The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend. If inaction is the enemy of climate change and the ETS is the enemy of the coalition’s policy of inaction then the ETS is my friend.

I may not agree with it. I may not have faith that an ETS can stop the climate change juggernaut but it has my support. Because I’d like to think that when the party that is proposing the ETS sees how ineffectual it is in practice they’ll propose stronger and stronger measures until we get to a point where we’re able to turn the tide. A party that doesn’t have a policy or whose policy is likely to be a metaphorical figleaf can only be worse.

Of course when Abbott announces his policy I will judge it on its merits. I just don’t have faith that it will amount to anything that is remotely near effective enough, even by the diet coke standards of the ETS.

And for those climate skeptics out there I leave you with this: The World Meteorological Organisation has announced that 2009 was Australia’s third hottest year on record with above normal temperatures recorded on all continents. 2010 is tipped to be even hotter. As a result the 00’s are the hottest decade so far. Followed by the 90’s then the 80’s.

Notice a pattern here?