Roger Pielke Jr.: Not With a Bang But a Whimper

So the long-running soap opera called Australian Climate Politics has reached its surprising end.

In a surprise move the Australian government has announced that it will abandon its plans to transition its newly implemented carbon tax into an Australian emissions trading system, and sign on the the European ETS.

There is no other way to read the Australian government’s decision other than that Prime Minister Gillard crying “uncle” and punting the issue far into the future. How does this play out? Here are a few initial thoughts:

Roger Pielke Jr.