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Australia Committed to Price on Carbon, Minister Says (Update3)
2010-10-12 05:49:28.918 GMT
(Updates with Gillard comment in sixth paragraph.)
By Ben Sharples
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Australia, the world's largest
exporter of coal, is committed to establishing a price on carbon
to ensure the country retains its international competitiveness,
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said.
Emitting carbon pollution should no longer be "free,"
Combet said at a conference in Melbourne today. It's in the
country's "national interest" to impose a price, which is the
cheapest way of reducing emissions, he said.
Australia in April shelved climate change laws until after
2012 amid lawmaker opposition and a lack of action by other
countries. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has established a multi-
party committee to study options for introducing a price on
carbon in a country where coal accounts for more than 80 percent
of power production. The group met for the first time last week.
"I don't think much is going to happen in the next few
years," Robert Hill, chairman of the Australian Carbon Trust,
said in a separate address. There'll be a lot of debate and a
carbon price is "well off," said the former environment
minister and ex-ambassador to the United Nations.
Gillard held on to power in an Aug. 21 election after
losing her majority and gaining support from the Greens Party
and three independents. The committee will consider proposals
including a market-based emissions-trading system, a carbon tax
or a "hybrid" of both and will "usually" meet monthly, she
said Sept. 27.
Policy Proposals
"The multi-party climate change committee has all options
on the table about pricing carbon," Gillard told the Queensland
Media Club in Brisbane today. The committee will meet until the
end of 2011, and will then consider how much progress has been
made before making policy proposals, she said.
Lawmakers should consider an emissions-trading system that
applies only to electricity generation and excludes transport
and agriculture, AGL Energy Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Michael
Fraser said Sept. 15. The Sydney-based company is the nation's
largest electricity retailer.
Australia needs to move away from coal as its main source
of power to avoid competitive disadvantage once a global price
on carbon emerges, BHP Billiton Ltd. Chief Executive Officer
Marius Kloppers said Sept. 15. The Melbourne-based company is
the world's largest mining company and a partner in the biggest
exporter of steelmaking coal.
"A market mechanism, such as a cap-and-trade emissions
trading scheme is a very efficient way of going about achieving
quantifiable emissions reductions," said Climate Minister
Combet, a former coal-mining engineer and union leader.
Australia at Risk
There is "real movement" happening on climate change in
China and the U.S., and there's a risk that Australia and other
European countries may be left behind, Aldersgate Group Chairman
Peter Young said in an address. China is spending $9 billion a
month on low-carbon technologies, he said.
Aldersgate, based in London, is a coalition of businesses,
organizations and individuals including United Utilities Group
Plc and the Renewable Energy Association.
"All that the introduction of a carbon price is doing is
recognizing within the economy the costs of carbon pollution,"
said Howard Bamsey, deputy secretary of Australia's Department
of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. "Not to do that is to
create distortions in the economy and is to continue a
trajectory in which Australian companies will lose
competitiveness."
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP AU <GO>
Top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
--With assistance from Marion Rae in Canberra. Editors: John
Viljoen, Jane Lee.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ben Sharples in Melbourne at +61-3-9228-8732 or
bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell in Singapore at +65-6311-2423 or
crussell7@bloomberg.net
