Government unveils its cap and trade emissions trading scheme
The government has announced today that Australia will implement an cap and trade emission trading scheme. The majority of the policy announcements outlined today were detailed in the joint Government-business taskgroup on emissions trading, which reported earlier this year. It leaves the market to set price per tonne of carbon through an emissions trading scheme, which will not commence until 2011. The government has also delayed setting long-term emissions reduction targets until 2008, that is after the federal election. While some elements of the business community have welcomed the scheme, others remain concerned that the longer Australia delays the harder it will be to check runaway global warming. Erwin Jackson, policy and research director with the Climate Institute, gave his reponse to the Prime Minister’s announcement.