Fed: Australia's emissions will continue to rise after ETS delay

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2010
Fed: Australia's emissions will continue to rise after ETS delay

By Cathy Alexander

CANBERRA, April 27 AAP - Australia's greenhouse gas emissions will soar after the federal
government shelved plans to tackle climate change.

Labor went to the last election promising to start an emissions trading scheme (ETS)
- which limits the carbon pollution blamed for global warming - this year.

Now, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reneged, announcing on Tuesday the scheme would
start in 2013 at the earliest.

That means it's business as usual on climate change. Action on emissions will take
place later, and may have to be harsher and more costly when it does start.

Australia's emissions have been rising for decades and, without a major climate-busting
scheme, are forecast to rise for years.

Government data says emissions will increase 20 per cent between 2000 and 2020 without
emissions trading.

Mr Rudd described climate change as the greatest moral challenge of our time before
the last election.

But he went cool on global warming on Tuesday, pushing back emissions trading until
2013 at the earliest.

"The opposition decided to backflip on its historical commitment to bringing in a carbon
pollution reduction scheme, and there's been slow progress in the realisation of global
action on climate change," Mr Rudd told reporters in Penrith, in Sydney's west.

"These two factors together inevitably mean that the implementation of a carbon pollution
reduction scheme in Australia will be delayed."

An ETS acts as a tax on emissions, encouraging firms and individuals to pollute less
by hitting them in the hip pocket, especially for coal-fired electricity.

Australia's ETS has been shelved amid confusion around how it works, and the stalling
of climate action by other countries - particularly the US - in the wake of December's
failed Copenhagen summit.

The delay in the ETS may be a reprieve for heavy-polluting industries like coal-fired
power stations, aluminium smelting and steel production. They won't have to pay to pollute
for some time.

The ETS would have pushed up electricity prices and, to a lesser extent, gas and petrol
prices. That won't happen soon.

But the delay also pushes back the start of action to bring down emissions. Australia
has promised to cut emissions by between 5 and 25 per cent by 2020.

Any reduction will now start later and take place over a shorter period of time.

That may mean a bigger shock to the economy. Some experts say delaying action to reduce
emissions means it costs more to do it.

The delay in emissions trading may also affect international climate talks.

Australia has joined a list of countries who have backed away on global warming in
recent months. Each delay is being cited by other countries in justifying their own delays.

The US, the biggest historical polluter, is struggling on climate change as its own
ETS is stalled in the Senate.

Mr Rudd's decision to delay the ETS was welcomed by some business groups, but conservationists
are up in arms.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said the
delay was "a step in the right direction".

But Tony Mohr from the Australian Conservation Foundation said the delay was bad news
for the environment and for business, which would not have certainty over a carbon price
for some time.

The delay was "dangerous" because it sent the wrong signal to other countries, and
it would mean Australia's emissions would rise further, Mr Mohr said.

AAP ca/sb/ht

KEYWORD: CLIMATE WRAP

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