Emissions trading plan to be outlined

Launceston Examiner
Tuesday 18/3/2008 Page: 16

CANBERRA - The Federal Government will offer a much awaited glimpse of its emissions trading plans when a green paper is released in July. A timetable released yesterday said the Government would by the end of the year give a "firm indication" of the scheme's trajectory, which would determine the initial price of carbon. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong reaffirmed the scheme - the centerpiece of efforts to curb greenhouse gases - would begin in 2010.

The timetable includes releasing draft laws by December on creating the system and introducing them to Parliament next March. The Government aims to enact the scheme by the third quarter of 2009 and establish a regulator, allowing the scheme to begin operating the following year. "The introduction of emissions trading will constitute the most significant economic and structural reform undertaken in Australia since the trade liberalisation of the 1980s," Senator Wong said.

She said consultations with stakeholders that began this month would drive the green paper coming out in July. "The green paper will canvass options and preferred approaches on a range of critical issues such as which sectors will be covered and how emissions caps will be set," she told Parliament. "It will also include ways to reduce the impacts of emissions trading on Australian households." Senator Wong said feedback from the green paper would influence the draft legislation to be released in December.

The design of the scheme would also be informed by Federal Treasury modelling and the climate change review being prepared for the Government by economist Ross Garnaut. Professor Garnaut is scheduled to release a discussion paper on emissions trading on Thursday. Senator Wong said while the Government would set a cap on emissions and have permits up to that level, the market would set the price of carbon. Federal Opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt said stakeholders were expecting a soft start to the trading scheme, with the Government's renewable energy target trying to pick up the slack.