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Australia Sets Up Committee to Study Price on Carbon (Update1)
2010-09-27 05:56:09.143 GMT
(Updates with meeting plans in fifth paragraph.)
By James Paton
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia
Gillard established a multi-party committee to study options to
introduce a price on carbon to curb greenhouse gas emissions and
encourage investment in renewable energy technologies.
Gillard will chair the group, with Climate Change Minister
Greg Combet serving as deputy and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne
Swan also representing the government, she said in a statement
today. Greens Party Senator Christine Milne is a co-deputy chair.
The government will invite two lawmakers from the
opposition Liberal-National coalition, two from the Greens Party
as well as independent lawmakers, to be on the committee,
Gillard said. One of the independent legislators, Tony Windsor,
is willing to sit on the body, set to meet for the first time
next month, Gillard said at a press conference in Canberra.
"Parliamentary members of the committee will be drawn from
those who are committed to tackling climate change and who
acknowledge that effectively reducing carbon pollution by 2020
will require a carbon price," Gillard said in her statement.
The committee will consider proposals including a market-
based emissions-trading system, a carbon tax or a "hybrid" of
both and will meet "usually" monthly, according to the
statement.
Ross Garnaut, a professor and a climate change adviser to
the Australian government under Kevin Rudd, is one of four
independent experts who will advise the committee.
Greens Surge
The group includes Will Steffen, the executive director of
the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute,
and Rod Sims, a director of consulting firm Port Jackson
Partners Ltd. Patricia Faulkner, chair of the Australian Social
Inclusion Board, is the fourth adviser.
Gillard pledged to set up the committee as part of an
agreement with the Greens Party. The Greens received a surge in
voter support in Australia's August election after the ruling
Labor Party deferred its cap-and-trade plan to reduce carbon
pollution until after 2012 amid opposition from lawmakers.
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP AU <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
--Editors: John Viljoen, Amit Prakash.
To contact the reporter on this story:
James Paton in Sydney +61-2-9777-8698 or jpaton4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Amit Prakash at +65-6212-1167 or aprakash1@bloomberg.net.
