In a way it’s a good sign: there is life beyond COVID. And to be fair, of all the stories that've managed to get just a little bit of oxygen in the past few months, the climate change agenda made it to daylight more than any other.
The latest chapter could be so fantastically complex no-one truly understands what's going on. We have fresh reforms, we have change to the emissions trading scheme.
There is a new cap of 160 million tonnes of co2 equivalent greenhouses gases over 2021 to 2025, along with a provisional emission budget for the same period of 354 million tonnes.
There are also price controls that will act as a backstop when auctioning is introduced, designed to stop prices going too high or too low.
There is also an extension to participants' access to the fixed price option, which acts as the scheme's defacto price setting.
However, the government has opted to push back implementing major forestry polices till 2023 along with bringing in penalties for smaller foresters. Got it? Simple, eh? This is all part of the emissions trading reform bill which is being dealt with by parliament this week.
Also sorted are the so-called hot air credits which were imported and of dubious nature. Unless you're a wonk, a lot of that means nothing. Does it work? Is it the answer? If it is, when by, what real time effect am I going to see as a result? Those are the questions that have no answers.
As a package, says James Shaw, these reforms take a big step towards a safer future. What does that mean? Shaw also wants the recently-formed climate change commission to  provide advice on whether our commitments under the Paris Agreement are ambitious enough to meet the United Nations target. Now, I do understand that bit. That’s kowtowing to a dysfunctional mess in New York masquerading as a world authority.
Now this is the point: if you are barely surviving as a business, if you’ve lost your job, if you are struggling under level 2, if you're still at home working from your new office, if you are on a mortgage holiday, if your future is up in the air because of COVID, does any of this mean anything to you? Is climate change really an issue for you? Or are these just a bunch of noise-makers in Wellington chasing their tails over an invented system of credits and trades that may or may not mean something to someone one day?
And most importantly, does it make doing business more complex and more expensive? And given it does, do you think they might want to read the room a little better than they currently are? While we are working out credits, Australia is being led by a resources resurgence that like it or not is still heavily in demand all over the world. So, as to our economic future, who's got the right answer, James and his commission, or Scott and his shovel?
Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you
