Monday 11 July 2011

Top firms call for tax on carbon

Courier Mail
7 July 2011, Page: 31

MORE than 50 Australian and international companies, including AGL Energy, General Electric, IKEA and Alstom, yesterday joined together to back the carbon tax. They said a carbon price should be implemented "as soon as possible" to prevent Australia being left behind by other economies, such as the European Union which has had a carbon price since 2005. "Australia must aim to be globally competitive in clean energy, energy efficiency and low carbon technology", they said in a joint statement.

Daniel Grollo, of construction firm Grocon, said: "I'm in favour of a cost on carbon. I see us at the threshold of some fantastic times and I get disillusioned when I see some critical decisions that need to be made for our future getting bogged down in politics".

Separately, Westpac owned fund manager Ascalon Capital Managers yesterday said it has launched Australia's only fund open to ordinary investors who want to invest in listed clean energy companies, such as solar, wind and geothermal energy firms, in global markets.

It said the Global Clean Energy Fund would also invest in companies involved in energy efficiency, energy storage, electric vehicles and clean building technologies. A similar fund running since 2008 has outperformed global market benchmarks, such as the MSCI World Index.

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