Dusk river trailride musings on Oz Carbon Tax for cleantech business

We took the chance to head out for a brief ride near dusk last night, finding a great section of river trail that meandered along next to the Murrumbidgee River. A good place for some fine tuning of suspension settings and technical riding, necessary to deal with small roots, large rocks and keeping the ride comfortable. It was great to see the river flowing with a recent rain surge, along sections that normally run a little drier.

Along the way, we couldn't help but ponder on the opportunity created for small scale manufacturing for clean transport solutions and the positive incentives created by the introduction of the Carbon tax here in Australia. The strident opposition to this initiative by some sections of the body politic in Australia just leaves us a little bemused, as a hectically busy small business with full time day-job and parenting commitments. We see great potential in tipping the scale to factor in the price of previously uncosted externalities like CO2 emissions. There is a manufacturing capacity and capability for innovation waiting to respond to it, but re-orienting a car-focused manufacturing base that is used to operating at monolithic scale and sucking on the teat of the state will take time. In the face of accelerating CO2 emissions, disruptive innovation is more necessary than ever. Bring on the [r]evolution of our transport fabric..it can't come soon enough. 

We're looking forward to reading in closer detail the Weathering the Change Action Plan proposed for the ACT and doing what we can to help co-create a vision of possibility. There's such inertia to overcome when trying to wean people off car usage (myself included) but the benefits are soooo worth it. If you've come this far, we recommend also taking a look at the Rocky Mountain Institutes discussion on their Five Step program for ending our oil addiction.

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