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.
BackstrandK.LovbrandE., 2006, “Planting trees to mitigate climate change: Contested discourses of ecological modernisation, green governmentality and civic environmentalism” Global Environmental Politics650–75
8.
BaileyI.WilsonG., 2009, “Theorising transitional pathways in response to climate change: Technocentrism, ecocentrism, and the carbon economy” Environment and Planning A412324–2341
ChristoffP., 2005, “Policy autism or double-edged dismissiveness? Australia's climate policy under the Howard government” Global Change, Peace and Security1729–44
18.
ChristoffC., 2010, “Touching the void: The Garnaut Review in the chasm between climate science, economics and politics” Global Environmental Change20214–217
19.
CrowleyK., 2007, “Is Australia faking it? The Kyoto Protocol and the Greenhouse Policy challenge” Global Environmental Politics7118–139
20.
CurranG., 2009, “Ecological modernisation and climate change in Australia” Environmental Politics18201–217
21.
DiesendorfM., 2007Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy (University of New South Wales Press, Sydney)
22.
DryzekJ., 2005The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
23.
DryzekJ.HunoldC.SchlosbergD.DownesD.HernesH-K, 2002, “Environmental transformation of the state: The USA, Norway, Germany and the UK” Political Studies50659–682
24.
EckersleyR., 2000, “Deliberative democracy, ecological risk, and ‘communities-of-fate’”, in Democratic Innovation Ed. SawardM. (Routledge, London) pp 117–132
25.
EckersleyR., 2009, “Just carbon trading?”, in Climate Change and Social Justice Ed. MossJ. (Melbourne University Press, Carlton) pp 99–129
26.
FearJ.DennissR., 2009, “Zero-sum game: The human dimensions of emissions trading”, paper No. 2, The Australia Institute, August
27.
FisherD RFreudenburgW R, 2001, “Ecological modernization and its critics: Assessing the past and looking toward the future” Society and Natural Resources14701–709
28.
FreebairnJ., 2009, “Some distributional issues in greenhouse gas policy design”, in Climate Change and Social Justice Ed. MossJ. (Melbourne University Press, Carlton) pp 82–98
GoodinR., 1996, “Enfranchising the Earth, and its alternatives” Political Studies44835–849
31.
GouldsonA.MurphyJ., 2000, “Environmental policy and industrial innovation: Integrating environment and economy through ecological modernisation” Geoforum3133–44
32.
HajerM., 1995The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernisation and the Policy Process (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
33.
HarveyD., 1996Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Blackwell, Oxford)
HowesM.McKenzieM.GleesonB.GrayR.ByrneJ.DanielsP., 2010, “Adapting the idea of ecological modernisation to the Australian context” Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences71–17
36.
HuberJ., 2008, “Pioneer countries and the global diffusion of environmental innovations: Theses from the viewpoint of ecological modernisation theory” Global Environmental Change18360–367
37.
JagersS.Duus-OtterstromG., 2008, “Dual climate change responsibility: On moral divergences between mitigation and adaptation” Environmental Politics17576–591
38.
JanickeM., 2008, “Ecological modernisation: New perspectives” Journal of Cleaner Technology16557–565
39.
LivermanD., 2009, “Conventions of climate change: Constructions of danger and the dispossession of the atmosphere” Journal of Historical Geography35279–295
MarrD., 2010Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd Quarterly Essay 38 (Black Inc. Books, Collingwood, Victoria)
42.
MolA P J, 1996, “Ecological modernisation and institutional reflexivity: Environmental reform in the late modern age” Environmental Politics5302–323
43.
MolA P J, 1997, “Ecological modernisation: Industrial transformations and environmental reform”, in The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology Eds RedcliftM.WoodgateG (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos) pp 138–149
44.
MolA P J, 2003, “Joint environmental policymaking in Europe: Between deregulation and political modernisation” Society and Natural Resources16335–348
45.
MossJ. (Ed.), 2009Climate Change and Social Justice (Melbourne University Press, Carlton)
PageE., 2008, “Distributing the burdens of climate change” Environmental Politics17556–575
48.
ParkerL.BlodgettJ., 2008Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Perspectives on the Top 20 Emitters and Developed Versus Developing Nations. Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC
49.
PearceG., 2009Quarry Vision: Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom Quarterly Essay 33 (Black Inc. Books, Collingwood, Victoria)
50.
RootesC., 2008, “The first climate change election? The Australian general election of 24 November 2007” Environmental Politics17473–480
51.
RuddK., 2007, “Speech at high level segment of the 13th Conference of the Parties”, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Bali, Indonesia, 12 December, http://www.pm.gov.au/node/6006
SaddlerH.DiesendorfM.DennissR., 2007, “Clean energy scenarios for Australia” Energy Policy351245–1256
56.
ScheinbergA.MolA P J, 2010, “Multiple modernities: Transitional Bulgaria and the ecological modernisation of solid waste management” Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy2818–36
57.
SingerP., 2009, “Climate change as an ethical issue”, in Climate Change and Social Justice Ed. MossJ. (Melbourne University Press, Carlton) pp 38–50
58.
SpaargarenG., 1997The Ecological Modernisation of Production and Consumption: Essays in Environmental Sociology (Wageningen University, Wageningen)
59.
StevensonH., 2009, “Cheating on climate change? Australia's challenge to global warming norms” Australian Journal of International Affairs63165–186
60.
StuartN., 2010Rudd's Way: November 2007–June2010 (Scribe, Melbourne)
61.
ThielA., 2010, “Ecological modernisation and the scalar level of contradictions in Southern European water politics: The case of the Odelouca Dam in Portugal” Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy28492–511
