Economy suffering in climate policy debate: RBA director

ABC News Online, Posted 4 hours 46 minutes ago

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/07/2326661.htm

A director of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) says policy uncertainty about climate change is costing the economy.

Professor Warwick McKibbin says there is a fixation with targets and timetables for addressing climate change and it is crucial to "get the balance right" between long-term environmental gains and short-term economic costs.

Professor McKibbin is an economics professor at the Australian National University and has been studying climate change for 17 years.

He has told a national finance conference on the Gold Coast that Australia should take a leading role in developing a global framework to reduce carbon emissions.

But he said it was critical to "get the balance right between the long-term environmental gains and the short term economic costs".

"I think that is what we have been missing in the global negotiations," he said.

"In the global negotiations people are focused on the environmental outcomes mostly alone, and not really taking into account enough the costs of getting there."

Professor McKibbin says there is a fixation with targets and timetables for addressing climate change.

He says countries should be concerned about reducing the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere.

"You see people presenting reports saying science tells us we have to cut Australia's emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, well that's just completely not right," he said.

"What science says is that we have to build a global framework so that all countries together can reduce emissions as quickly as possible to stop the bath tub from overflowing."