Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, you have spoken many times and have stated that the science is basically conclusive on this and that the effects of CO2on temperature are very well understood. You as an engineer in a previous life would understand that scientifically, if you have got some sort of bar and you put a certain stress on it, you know the point at which that is going to fail. Given that the science is so well understood, assume that the rest of the planet goes on with business as usual under the IPCC scenarios for all global economies apart from Australia and we have a carbon tax/ETS: can you please tell me what we are after? After all, it is not actually reducing CO2, it is actually reducing global average temperatures. Can you please tell me what effect our scheme will have on global average temperatures by the year 2100?

Next, assume that all nations actually act on climate change in exactly the same way as Australia does: what is Australia's effect on global average temperatures then by 2100? And in the Australian context, how much will the total cost of this be? What is the anticipated price required per tonne of CO2abatement as opposed to CO2—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:02 to 17:15

The final part of the question I was asking before the suspension is: what will that cost be per household?

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