Light Green Start To Emissions Trading

Wednesday, 16 July 2008 23:57

“There are some good elements but gaping holes that could severely damage the national effort on climate change.  Polluting industries such as coal fired power stations, energy hungry smelters and land clearing get favoured treatment.  This is a recipe for a scheme standing on weak legs,” said Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Centre.

“The coal power generators have run a scare campaign and the Rudd government has fallen for it.  The real intent is to stop Australia making the big shift from dirty coal power to clean, green power.  It is also surprising that while reafforestation gets a gurnsey for carbon credits, the other side of the coin - removal of trees - does not attract a carbon penalty.  Add in the millions of dollars of free permits to be given to trade exposed industry like aluminium smelters, and the ‘virtual’ non-inclusion of petrol - you have a scheme that is already in need of repair.”    

“Equal or stronger good elements are hard to find.  The fact there is no ‘soft start’ as suggested by Prof Garnaut could be good, but then the government might have a low carbon cap, instead.  In the absence of information about the 2020 target, it’s hard to give the scheme a tick,” said Mr. Angel.

“We are also going to need a lot more from the government on energy efficiency and public transport.  Only a few weeks ago, state and federal energy ministers decided not to require big business to implement their energy savings plans and adopted a very slow rollout of smart meters.  We can’t afford to keep energy efficiency at the bottom of the agenda.”