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Tony Abbott Pours Scorn On The Concept Of An ETS
BY:LAUREN WILSON From: The Australian July 15, 2013 ETS on the horizon Kevin Rudd says he’ll scrap the carbon tax and move to an emissions trading scheme a year earlier than was plann TONY Abbott has dismissed emissions trading schemes as markets for the “non-delivery of an invisible substance”. The Coalition Leader’s criticism of the widely accepted, market-based method of trying to curb carbon emissions came as Labor prepares to switch from a carbon tax to an ETS one year earlier than originally planned. Treasurer Chris Bowen said today the Rudd government’s decision to move early from a fixed to a floating carbon price was a response to changes in the Australian economy and a concession families could do with hip-pocket relief. But Mr Abbott, who has campaigned against a carbon tax, said the change meant nothing. “It’s more fake change from Kevin Rudd. The one thing he has done is he has admitted that what the Coalition was saying about the carbon tax was right all along,” he told reporters in Sydney. “This is not a true market, just ask yourself what an ETS is all about, it’s a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.” Under an ETS, companies trade permits allowing the right to discharge emissions. Permit buyers effectively pay a charge for polluting, providing an economic incentive for reducing emissions. Mr Bowen today conceded the costs of switching to an ETS next year will be “significant”, as he again refused to rule out a cut to industry assistance programs. However the Treasurer rejected opposition claims the hole punched in the budget by fast-tracking to an ETS would be in the order of $6 billion. “We are responding to two things, we are responding to the change in the Australian economy, the rapid transition away from the mining boom and the need to stimulate non-mining investment,” Mr Bowen told ABC radio. “And we are responding to people’s concerns about cost of living – it is an acknowledgement families can do with cost of living relief,” he said. The Treasurer said the cost of making the move to an internationally-linked ETS sooner was “significant”, but rejected Coalition claims of a revenue shortfall $6 billion. “The opposition doesn’t know what it’s talking about, we’ll be putting out the Treasury figures, the Treasury figures make it very clear what the cost is and how it is going to be paid for,” he said. “It’s obviously a significant cost but it’s not what the opposition are suggesting.” Mr Bowen said the household compensation would remain, but refused to rule out changes to the industry assistance package. “Yes there are industry assistance measures that are predicated on a certain price, but I am not pre-empting what are going to do in the package,” Mr Bowen told Sky News. He warned the government had made “tough choices” to find savings to offset the revenue shortfall, but stressed Labor was committed to the schoolkids bonus. “The schoolkids bonus is a very important measure, it’s very important to the government and it will remain very important to the government,” he said. Mr Abbott said the ETS was “still a tax”. “He won’t admit it but you will keep the carbon tax under Kevin Rudd. If you vote for the Coalition, the carbon tax is gone, lock stock and barrel. Not rebadged, not renamed but abolished,” the Opposition Leader told the Nine Network. “The best thing to do is to get rid of it altogether. Mr Rudd vindicated everything we have been saying about the carbon tax,” Mr Abbott said. Greens leader Christine Milne, who negotiated the original carbon pricing package with the Gillard government, warned the Prime Minister against taking the axe to green schemes. “I am really concerned with where the government is going to get the money it’s a $4 billion to $5 billion hit on the budget,” Senator Milne said. “I want to see the clean technology fund maintained, the biodiversity fund maintained, low carbon communities – enabling people who live in those communities to be more energy efficient – I want to make sure the Climate Change Authority stays,” she said. “I am really concerned Labor will slash them, they’ve already taken the knife to the biodiversity fund this year,” Senator Milne said. Continue reading
Shanghai To Fine Firms For Breaching CO2 Market Rules
15 Jul 2013 10:13 Last updated: 15 Jul 2013 13:37 BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Shanghai companies that fail to surrender enough government-issued carbon permits for each tonne of CO2 they emit under the city’s Emissions Trading Scheme face government fines of up to 100,000 RMB ($16,000) and will be forced to buy permits in the market, according to draft rules released by city lawmakers. Shanghai plans to launch an emissions market before the end of the year, capping carbon dioxide emissions from 200 companies across a broad sector of the city’s economy, including big energy users such as Bao Steel, energy companies such as PetroChina as well as China Eastern Airlines. The city is one of seven designated regions in which the central government is trialing emission markets before rolling out a federal scheme later in the decade in a bid to rein in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency. The release of draft rules on Friday reveal for the first time how lawmakers intend to enforce environmental laws on companies responsible for pumping out about 110 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. “It is urgent to make clear rules on the basic issues as for carbon trading…. (the rules) will provide strong legal support and protection to carry out the pilot ETS,” the draft rules said. As well as fines for companies failing to surrender permits, companies that obstruct independent auditors in reporting emissions face penalties of up to RMB50,000 per breach. Emitters will be able to reduce the cost of complying with the scheme by offsetting up to 5 percent of their emissions by buying carbon credits, known as Chinese Certified Emission Reductions, from domestic projects that cut emissions. The rules, which were published on the local government’s website on Friday, still need to be ratified by government officials before becoming law. China, the world’s biggest emitter has been plagued by environmental problems associated with its rapid increase in coal consumption, with smog engulfing many of its cities located across the eastern seaboard. To improve energy efficiency the nation has a target to cut the emissions intensity of its economy – emissions per unit of GDP – by up to 45 percent by the end of the decade. To help it meet that goal, Shanghai plans to cut its carbon intensity by 19 percent below 2010 levels by 2015 and wants to curb 2013 energy consumption below 118.4 million tonnes of standard coal equivalent, increasing by 4.18 percent year-on-year. The city of Shenzhen was the first region in China to launch a carbon market in July, with permits changing hands at about $4.50-5.00 each, roughly the same price as those in Europe. By Kathy Chen – kathy.chen@thomsonreuters.com and Andrew Allan Continue reading
Abbott On Carbon Trading: ‘Non-Delivery Of An Invisible Substance To No One’
Minister calls opposition leader ‘an economic illiterate and a climate change denier’ after he attacks emissions schemes Katharine Murphy , deputy political editor guardian.co.uk , Monday 15 July 2013 The federal opposition leader, Tony Abbott, in Sydney on Monday, said the world was turning its back on carbon pricing. Photograph: AAP/Paul Miller Tony Abbott has branded emissions trading a “so-called market” that deals in an “invisible substance”, carbon dioxide, as the Coalition digs in politically ahead of Labor’s looming overhaul of its clean energy package . Emissions trading is an internationally recognised market-based mechanism for reducing carbon pollution, and was the policy of the previous Howard government before it lost the election in 2007, but the opposition leader declared on Monday that carbon markets were not true markets because they traded an “invisible substance”. “This is not a true market,” Abbott told reporters during a campaign visit in Sydney. “Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It’s a market, a so-called market, in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one.” A reporter inquired whether this made carbon markets just the same as financial markets. Abbott repeated his definition: “Let’s think about it. It’s a market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one.” The opposition leader contended that the world was turning its back on carbon trading schemes and carbon taxes as policy mechanisms for reducing pollution. “Ever since Copenhagen it has been absolutely obvious that the world is not moving towards taxes, whether they are fixed taxes or floating taxes,” he said. “The world is moving towards the kind of direct action measures to improve the environment which the Coalition has long championed.” But during a recent appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program , the former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull appeared to suggest that direct action was a temporary policy for the Coalition on the way to joining other countries that have adopted market-based policies. The climate change minister, Mark Butler, blasted Abbott’s comments on Monday morning. “He has let the cat out of the bag again today. No matter how hard he tries to hide it, Tony Abbott is an economic illiterate and a climate change denier.” Abbott’s comments come as the government will unveil details this week of its plan to scrap the fixed price period of the carbon package. Labor says it intends to move to an emissions trading scheme from 1 July 2014 – one year earlier than currently legislated. The treasurer, Chris Bowen, is refusing to specify ahead of the formal announcement the cost to the budget of removing the fixed-price period. But he has indicated the cost to revenue is in the order of several billions. The finance minister, Penny Wong, said emissions trading was the lowest cost means of reducing pollution, and she blasted the Coalition’s direct action policy alternative. “That’s the whole point of an emissions trading scheme. You set a cap at the limit that you want to achieve and then you let firms work out how they achieve that. They can find the lowest cost way to reduce their emissions,” Wong told the ABC. “It’s a market-based mechanism – lower cost for families, lower cost for households. It stands in stark contrast to the kind of Soviet-style scheme that seems to be on offer from [opposition climate spokesman] Greg Hunt and Tony Abbott.” And with new opinion polls showing a federal election held today could deliver Australian voters another knife-edge result, Abbott used a breakfast television appearance to rule out negotiating with any crossbenchers to form a minority government along the lines seen in the 43rd parliament. “I don’t do deals. I do rule it out,” Abbott told the Nine Network. “I think that the Australian people are sick of hung parliaments.” Continue reading
