Australia Trails World in Climate Policy
Australia is trailing the rest of the world in climate change policy and risks becoming uncompetitive, says climate change economist Cameron Hepburn, senior research fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, at the University of Oxford.
Dr Cameron Hepburn, at the Mining under the Microscope Conference in Wollongong, NSW, said that “There is no risk of Australia taking a leadership position,” and that Australia ”is so far behind the post we risk coming last.”
“China says it will introduce an emissions trading scheme in the next 5 years… They are very serious about it. India has just in July imposed a carbon tax.”
India has introduced a clean energy tax on coal, at the rate of Rs. 50 (~USD 1) per tonne, which will apply to both domestically produced and imported coal. This money will go into a National Clean Energy Fund that will be used for funding research, innovative projects in clean energy technologies, and environmental remedial programmes. The expected earnings from this tax is around USD 500 million for the financial year 2010-11.
Japan prepares the implementation of an emissions trading scheme in 2013, and South Korea is also considering an emissions trading scheme. And that is in addition to the trading schemes in place in the EU and the US.
Dr Hepburn said Australia needed a price on carbon if it was to remain in step with global trends and stay competitive.
“If we don’t price carbon soon we will be forced to do it at some point, in a way we don’t like very much. If you do things rapidly, they tend to cost more. The mining industry has an interest in moderate and stable carbon prices.”
That’s exactly what BHP CEO Kloppers said - or meant to say in a raoundabout way. But while Australian business is doing everything to delay that very necessary process, companies overseas have or will develop a perceptible advantage for a possible worldwide greenhouse gas market, and significant experience with regard to the operation of
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Martina Linnenluecke
Alexander Stathakis
