THE global push in favour of carbon markets is getting stronger. This week the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) all stressed the need for carbon pricing to address climate change. And a new survey has found that there are high expectations that China will have a carbon trading scheme and a carbon tax in place by the end of the decade.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has a two-pronged message for the world's finance ministers on climate policy: put a price on carbon and get rid of fuel subsidies.

Her counterpart at the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, agrees.  He concedes pricing carbon and cutting subsidies is politically difficult, but says there's a growing urgency about the need to act in key countries.

Expectations are high that China will move quickly to an Emission Trading Scheme. China has seven regional pilot emissions trading schemes planned, which will cover 250 million people. It's committed to a national scheme but the timing on when that will begin isn't clear.  The ANU's Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, in conjunction with the China-based NGO, the China Carbon Forum, has surveyed 86 China-based analysts, including from industry and research institutes. The ANU's Frank Jotzo led the survey and says almost all respondents expect China to have a national ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) and a carbon tax in place by the end of the decade. "When you talk to policy makers here, they've really understood that market mechanisms for pollution control are much more efficient in general than the sort of command and control and direct regulatory interventions that they've tended to use so far".

Last week the OECD secretary-general, Angel Gurria, said a price on carbon should be a cornerstone of climate policy and he released a report showing emissions trading systems are the lowest-cost way of reducing emissions.

In repealing a carbon price, Australia will be moving in the wrong direction.

Matthew Nott

www.cleanenergyforeternity.net.au

Excellent Quota event

Thank you to the Quota ladies for their fundraiser for macular disease held last Tuesday night at the Kinema.

These ladies gave so freely their time and put in so much effort. They have a wonderful group of supporters who regularly attend their functions and make their efforts worthwhile.

Quota does such a great job fundraising for various medical conditions and charities. I’d like to personally thank them as this money will indeed make a difference for so many who suffer with macular complaints – one in seven Australians over 55.

The money used for research is vital to continue offering new types of treatment to the vision impaired, changing their world for the better.

We are so fortunate in Narooma to have so many clubs, organisations and charity workers who work tirelessly to help others.

Lyndy Drury

Narooma

Revise home building

WITH the onset of global warming and certainty of increasing bushfires it is obvious the whole concept of house building be revised to design homes that are completely fireproof.

Surely modern technology can produce something, comparable in price to standard building costs?

The current tragedy of bushfire and lost homes will continue to happen if construction is not drastically re thought in forested and bush areas.

The foreseeable alternative will be clearing and massive de-forestation to remove the threat of fire posed by ‘fuel’ (the new name for our bush and wildflowers) in the Eucalypt forest, Australia’s wonderful icon; and all life within the incredible eco system with which no other country can compare (take a trip to Greece!).

Perhaps a circular, dome construction, steel framed with the base extending (one or two meters) underground, with skylight, guttering around the base to capture water into underground tanks.

Covered in a fireproof material such as ceramic tiles used on spaceships/rockets, heavily lined and insulated.

I enclose a rough sketch.

Of course, extensive testing would need to be undertaken for heat resistance, but such a concept makes sense, with nothing to catch fire on the outside.

I made this suggestion to my son who has a design company but he will probably dismiss it, as yet another one of mum’s implausible ideas. However, I live in hope that he just ‘may’ take me seriously!

Diana Honan

Moruya

NSW

Nature controls climate, not a crises

IT is now confirmed that nature, not human kind controls the climate, and climate change (dangerous global warming) is not a crisis.

The Green/ALP dogma - “the science is settled” is on the skids.

With the same set of peer-reviewed scientific papers available to them, the scientists of the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and the NIPCC (Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change), have come to diametrically opposing conclusions in their separate major 2013 reports recently issued.

For the first time due diligence analysis of the IPCC and NIPCC reports can be made.

Previously only the IPCC views were on offer ensured by government and the partiality of most media.

The UNIPCC’s mission since its formation in 1988, has been to find a human impact on climate change, and thus justify government control of greenhouse gas emissions, and thereby the economy.  It is why nature’s natural variability, and even the SUN were ignored.

Its work created the alarmist threat of human-caused global warming, reaching pandemic fear proportions in the world, causing many western nations to restructure their productive economies with massive financial transfers contributing to harmful outcomes for their populations, businesses, economies and competitiveness.  Australia is but one example.

In stark contrast, the NIPCC’s charter is not limited to one narrow part, but to investigate the causes and consequences of climate change from all perspectives.  To achieve this, scores of independent international climate scientists evaluated the most up-to-date research on the physical science of climate change.

The NIPCC’s 1,000 page report is titled ‘Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science‘.  Its key messages being (1) the human impact on climate is very small and (2) any change in temperatures that might be occurring or will occur in the future is so small that it will not be noticed against the climate’s natural variability.

I will send digital links to the NIPCC’s report to the Libraries in Eurobodalla and Bega Valley.

Neville Hughes

Surf Beach

Mayor's column - Water and fire

This week I am delighted to be launching the “Tap Water Please” campaign which aims to promote the benefits of choosing to drink tap or tank water over bottled water.

If you want to know why this is important, do a Google search and have a look at some of the many articles and videos about the impact that plastic bottles have on our environment and our marine life.

In Eurobodalla, as in most of Australia, we are lucky to have access to free, clean water and it only takes a minute to fill up a few reusable bottles every day and have them with you in your car, at work, at home and when you’re out and about.

To help you do this, we are giving away free reusable drink bottles at Moruya Markets this Saturday between 11am and 1pm along with information about the benefits of drinking tap water.

And stay tuned for the launch of a photographic competition in the next few weeks that will help us spread the “Tap Water Please” message.

Last week we launched the 2014 Environmental Calender and I met the 15 young illustrators whose artwork was chosen to feature on the calendar.

2014 marks 17 years of this calendar being produced and this year children were asked to explore the theme 'Stormwater Pollution' and its effects on the marine environment.

Students were helped by Council staff and their teachers to investigate different types of pollutants and how they reach our waterways and their art work sends a powerful and sometimes humorous message.

Free calendars can be picked up at council’s three libraries, the visitor information centres and from our offices in Moruya.

If you missed the new free public arts events and exhibitions at our three libraries this month, you will be pleased to know that we are hosting three more in November.

The program exhibits the work of local artists under the theme of SPUR; Springboard Promote Unveil Reveal, and includes floor talks from the artists. Check council’s website event calendar for details.

I know I share the concerns and thoughts of our community for the distress and loss bushfires across NSW are causing.

As I write this, Eurobodalla’s situation with the fire near Belowra appears to have improved but the Section 44 declared last week is still in place and I urge everyone to take extra care and make sure your bushfire plans are ready.

We have a long hot summer ahead of us.  As always, I offer thanks and my admiration to the volunteer and paid fire fighters who selflessly put their own comfort and in some cases their own lives at risk for the community every time bushfires strike. You are all amazing!

Please let me know if there is any issue you feel Eurobodalla Shire Council may be able to help you with. You can email me at mayor@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or phone me on 0418 279 215.

Cr Lindsay Brown

Eurobodalla Shire mayor

Blues Fest success

THE return of the Blues Festival to Narooma a few weeks back now seems like a distant memory.

After 12 months of planning thousands of people came to town and not only enjoyed the festival but also much the town has to offer.

There was quite a feeling of doubt for both Rhonda and myself as we took back over the festival in late 2012 with the plans to bring it home. Many hours of debate and discussion within a small group of insiders contribute to the task of producing the event.

The trust shown by most the loyal supporters who returned en mass cannot be understated. They are a truly great audience that travels from everywhere in Australia.

In fact 91.4 per cent of the people that attended the festival this year come from outside the Eurobodalla and Bega Valley shires.

I would like to particularly thank the business’s that supported the festival in its comeback year. They are a small, yet very loyal group of business folk who share the vision.

Our staff, performers, media partners and contractors…all 250-plus of them all make this a very special festival to be part of.

Finally, to those in town who complain and don’t like it…well you don’t have to like it but keep in mind it is three days per year that brings hundreds of thousands of dollars to struggling business’s and allow thousands of other folks to enjoy our little paradise.

Is it really that bad?

Who knows what 2014 will bring.

Neil Mumme

Producer – Great Southern Blues Festival