Reaction
The report was criticised by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the economic impact that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would have.
It was also heavily criticised by environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth and Rising Tide. The Australian Conservation Foundation praised the report for advocating a 450 ppm target, but was critical of Professor Garnaut’s 550ppm second best option and described the 2020 target of 10 per cent as weak.
Dr Clive Hamilton was heavily critical of the report, arguing that it reduced global expectations of what should be aimed for, naively exposed Australia's negotiating tactics to the international diplomatic sphere, alienates both the Australian public and the international community, misjudges the time frames necessary to avoid dangerous climate change, gives Australia numerous special deals, and would be rejected by the international community.
Responses from political parties were mixed. Australian Greens leader Bob Brown suggested that the report demonstrated that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would not come at the expense of Australia's economic growth. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong did not comment directly on the report but said that economic responsibility needed to be considered in responding to the report, and that the Government would wait for Treasury modelling on climate change mitigation before responding.
Economist John Humphreys criticised the report, arguing that massively overstating the projected costs of global warming (about three times the estimate of the Stern Report), and argued that therefore the costs of action in fact exceed the costs of inaction. However, it must be recognised that the Stern Report relates the cost of dealing with climate change in the United Kingdom to the GDP of the United Kingdom, whilst the Garnaut report compares these aspects in Australia and so such a comparison is not necessarily apt.
Read more about this topic: Garnaut Climate Change Review
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