Australian Carbon Trading Questions
Barely one day after being announced, Australia's fledging carbon
trading scheme is leaking badly with some of the country's biggest
polluting industries - such as electricity generators and aluminum
producers - receiving free carbon permits.
Most of the large drought-affected agriculture industry had also been
granted carbon payment exemptions from the scheme until 2015.
And with petrol remaining at the same price both environmentalists and
economists question whether the Australian version of carbon trading
will work or is just an elaborate exercise in greenwashing.
One of the many critics, the Australian Conservation Foundation,
protested at the huge waiver afforded to electricity generators.
"Polluting industries that have spent the last decade doing little or
nothing to prepare for a carbon-constrained economy should not get a
golden handshake," said ACF climate change programme manager Tony
Mohr.
Although Kevin Rudd's Labor Government has yet to reveal any details as
to how the scheme would set pollution levels and the price carbon, the
Business Council of Australia questioned whether the system could
achieve the twin objectives of sustaining growth while meaningfully
reducing emissions.
Climate Minister Penny Wong said Australia was one of the hottest and
driest continents on Earth with a high per capita volume of carbon
polluters.
Australia could no longer pour carbon into the atmosphere as if there
was no cost, Wong said.
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