Emissions could rise under ETS
Market watch top headlines
Australian reports
- Aust markets: Aussie markets receive positive leads
- Aust dollar report: $A opens higher on firm US data
- Aust credit close: Bonds weaker after rebound
World reports
- World commodities: Oil prices climb higher
- World markets: Stocks rise on positive economic data
CANBERRA, Feb 8 AAP
February 08 2010, 7:18PM
The federal government cannot guarantee that its controversial climate plan will cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions at all.
Labor and the Liberals are fiercely arguing over whose climate change plan is the best.
Both plans aim to reduce emissions by 5 per cent by 2020.
The government says the opposition's plan won't work and could see emissions rise.
But the same argument could be levelled against the government's proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS).
Government data appears to show that under the ETS, Australia's emissions would rise from 553 million tonnes in 2000 to 585 million tonnes by 2020.
The target to cut emissions by 5 per cent is only reached by paying other countries to reduce their emissions.
Modelling from the Treasury Department says Australia's emissions don't begin to fall under the ETS "until the mid-2030s".
Junior climate change minister Greg Combet was unable to guarantee the ETS would reduce Australia's emissions by 2020 when asked on Monday.
When asked how much of the emission reduction would come from domestic sources, he said: "That's up to the market".
"The place where it is going to be the cheapest and most efficient to achieve those reductions is where it will take place first," Mr Combet told reporters in Canberra.
The government's ETS aims to tackle climate change by forcing business to pay for its pollution.
The opposition's rival plan would pay farmers and others to suck emissions out of the sky and store them in plants and soil. It does not appear to rely on international permits.
A key element of the opposition's plan is not clear - what happens to businesses who hike up their emissions.
The opposition's plan says a company that increases its emissions above "business as usual" is fined, but it's not clear what "business as usual" means, or how much they would have to pay.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Monday said only businesses who increased their "emissions intensity" would have to pay. This is a different concept to "business as usual", which usually refers to total emissions.
Mr Combet said there appeared to be a secret penalties regime and business - and investors - needed to know what they might end up paying.
"The detailed work is not done on this policy," he said of the opposition's plan.
Owen Pascoe, climate change campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the government should change its ETS to reduce emissions at home.
The ETS "allows too big a role for international permit trading, and should be refocused onto domestic action", Mr Pascoe told AAP.
By Cathy Alexander
