The global warming debate is polarised because the left hugs trees and the right hugs coal. A compromise sounds simple: an energy policy that cuts emissions at the cheapest cost to the economy.
Australian politics is deeply fractured on climate change, the defining environmental issue of our age. We are more divided on this now than a decade ago, and much more divided than when the issue first emerged 30 years ago.
Central to this is energy policy where the left frames climate change as a cause, symbolised by aspirational emission targets and the iconography of renewables. Conservatives see energy as a service, prioritising cost and reliability, with emissions reduction acknowledged but subordinate to these primary functions.
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Matthew Warren is a former chief executive of the Australian Energy Council, the Energy Supply Association of Australia and the Clean Energy Council.
