Climate protectionism wastes Australia’s energy comparative advantage
Protecting dirty fossil fuels by remaining outside the global climate consensus means Australia risks missing out on the massive clean industry opportunities in hydrogen and carbon capture.
Australia’s emergence as an energy superpower depends on other economies remaining open to imports of zero emissions products.
Paul Samuelson, the most influential American economist through the long postwar expansion, once nominated “comparative advantage” as the idea in economics that was both non-trivial and correct. Australians developed an elaborate theory of why Australia operated under different rules. The Australian way was different, and wrong.
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Ross Garnaut is emeritus professor of economics at University of Melbourne. His new book Let’s Tax Carbon and Other Ideas for a Better Australia is published by Black Inc with La Trobe University Press.
