CLIMATE SPECTATOR: Carbon - it's just a pane in the glass

Whether the carbon price is right or wrong, it feels like a nail in the coffin driven by a hopeless political culture. But it would be a sad irony if the glass industry went the way of our solar one.

By Josh Dowse · 29 Sep 2011

By Josh Dowse ·
29 Sep 2011

Climate Spectator

It's hard to think of a product that we see more of every day, and think so little about. Yet it seems to be a highly relevant case of another Australian manufacturing industry that is close to the end of its tether. We'll buy and use a lot more glass in the future, but making it here may be harder and harder.

I was invited to speak at the annual industry conference, Ausfenex 2011, at the sustainability hub of Jupiters Casino. The set up was a 2-on-2 debate, ox-style (short-Oxford) on 'whether the carbon tax would be good for the industry'. Five minutes each. Go crazy.

Our speakers, for the affirmative, went hard on facts, logic and the future. The negative went hard on rhetoric and fear: "every screw, every nail, every tile, every brick, every pane will be more expensive”. We got smashed.

Actually, that's a bit hard on the negative. Tennant Reed from AIG broadly supported pricing carbon, but had problems with the supposed price (too high), timing (too soon), and compensation (not enough). Graeme Wolfe from HIA blamed the lack of government facts for his stirring fact-free call-to-the-barricades. The feeling in the room of 500 seemed to be that it's potentially a good thing, but not now, and certainly not from this mob.