Dear Government Member of Parliament,

Let us look quickly at your Government plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

From the above link – I have assumed your Government is aiming to reduce its emissions by between 5 and 15 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020. I have chosen the mid-range 10% reduction for the graphic below.

Let us further assume that Australian voters come to agree with your GreenLabor Government Carbon Tax plan – that the huge national sacrifice is worth the pain – to reduce our emissions by the ~80 million tonnes from current levels which gets us down to 10% below 2000 levels by 2020.

All those jobs exported to Asia – all those mortgage foreclosures – all those chilly winters as we try to reduce our rocketing electricity bills – all those rocketing grocery bills – fuel prices heading skywards – all will be worth it to do our bit to save the planet.

What will our decade long sacrifice mean in global terms if the above fairy story came to pass.

The figures show that China alone – not adding in the rest of the world – just China – will wipe out our tens years of painful ~80 million tonnes of carbon dioxide reductions in just 48 days of their emissions increase from 2008-2009.

48 days respite – that is what our decade of financial sacrifice will buy just from Chinese emission increases.

Luckily my little scenario was a fairy story – because Australian voters will not return your GreenLabor Government at the next election – whenever that is. An election could be held sooner than 2013 of course if the GreenLabor Government was to lose a seat in a byelection.

Your Government should do the decent thing – call a fresh election now and campaign on a platform to introduce your Carbon Tax – and then your Government could earn the mandate to introduce this colossal change to our national life.

PS: The BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2010 can be downloaded

Yours etc