Modernising climate policy in Australia: climate narratives and the undoing of a Prime Minister
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Author(s)
Curran, Giorel
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2011
Metadata
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Australia came very close to legislating an emissions trading scheme as part of a climate policy package in 2009. This climate policy was driven by a new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who had made addressing climate change his signature policy commitment both before and after the 2007 election that brought the Australian Labor Party to power. His climate policy was underpinned by two main interrelated narratives: ecological modernisation and climate justice. In this paper I consider the story of the Rudd government's climate policy experience through an ecological modernisation lens. In the end, it was the seeming disjuncture ...
View more >Australia came very close to legislating an emissions trading scheme as part of a climate policy package in 2009. This climate policy was driven by a new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who had made addressing climate change his signature policy commitment both before and after the 2007 election that brought the Australian Labor Party to power. His climate policy was underpinned by two main interrelated narratives: ecological modernisation and climate justice. In this paper I consider the story of the Rudd government's climate policy experience through an ecological modernisation lens. In the end, it was the seeming disjuncture between political rhetoric and policy outcomes that brought the Rudd prime ministership down. The telling of the Rudd climate story through these narratives reveals some of the limitations of (mainstream) ecological modernisation as a major environmental management approach, as well as highlighting the vagaries of political leadership.
View less >
View more >Australia came very close to legislating an emissions trading scheme as part of a climate policy package in 2009. This climate policy was driven by a new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who had made addressing climate change his signature policy commitment both before and after the 2007 election that brought the Australian Labor Party to power. His climate policy was underpinned by two main interrelated narratives: ecological modernisation and climate justice. In this paper I consider the story of the Rudd government's climate policy experience through an ecological modernisation lens. In the end, it was the seeming disjuncture between political rhetoric and policy outcomes that brought the Rudd prime ministership down. The telling of the Rudd climate story through these narratives reveals some of the limitations of (mainstream) ecological modernisation as a major environmental management approach, as well as highlighting the vagaries of political leadership.
View less >
Journal Title
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy
Volume
29
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2011 Pion Ltd., London. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Environmental Politics