The conventional wisdom has attributed the China boom to low labour costs but it must also be due in part to their pollute-for-free status. A carbon tariff on their finished goods will share the pain between the Chinese producer and the Western consumer. Maybe the revenue could be handed back 50/50 for green programs. That tariff would have no moral legitimacy unless the West got its emissions way down first. Some have suggested that China will run short of coal as early as five years from now which explains their buy-up of Australian coal mines.

Yet another scenario is they could lead the world in low carbon energy. They have three nuclear reactors under fast construction based on the Westinghouse AP 1000 design then they plan to build more than a hundred others. Perhaps the Chinese will need to show the rest of the world how to do it. However if they drag their feet on a coal phase out they will be demonised, for example as the cause of the next Katrina magnitude event. Perhaps if Australia gets token emissions trading in 2010 we can extend that to a token tariff on Chinese imports. When climate issues get serious then carbon pricing can get serious since the mechanism will be in place.

Emissions in China are indeed everything, and getting any agreement out of the Chinese that they might actually pay attention to is nearly impossible. At worst they may agree to something, if they can get a few billion dollars in subsidies, then everyone will hail the agreement only for the Chinese to ignore it. they may declare, a few years later, that they have met the goals and even produce government stats to prove their case, but it will all be complete nonsense.. the whole business about cutting emissions is a waste of time.

This article should be compulsory reading for Penny Wong and Peter Garrett.Australia will have as much impact as a single flea on a very large dog,while China continues to be an economic powerhouse.

We should be looking at ways to turn carbon dioxide into cash by building infrastructure to make central Australia into a blooming desert. The water that runs out to sea should be diverted inland, and used to produce food. Food is just solid carbon dioxide.