Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Carbon Trading

Details of Carbon Tax Package

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“A NEW carbon cop will be given sweeping powers to enter company premises, compel individuals to give self-incriminating evidence and copy sensitive records under a carbon tax package that will force about 60,000 businesses to pay 6c a litre extra for fuel.

“The tough new powers of the Clean Energy Regulator were included in the fine detail of the carbon tax package released yesterday, which enshrines national emissions cuts of 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year after 2016, if the government of the day rejects targets proposed by its Climate Change Authority.

“The package, which shows that the government will cement in law the body of its carbon tax structure in a bid to force Tony Abbott to win the approval of both houses of parliament to complete his promise to scrap it, also tasks the Productivity Commission with inquiries into assistance to trade-exposed industries, international climate change action and the future of fuel taxes…

from The Australian
read more here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-cop-handed-tough-new-powers/story-fn59niix-1226103778785

Much Revealed in Government’s New Carbon Tax TV Advertisements: Thomas Barlow

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ADVERTISING campaigns are not often celebrated for their honesty. But the Gillard government’s media campaign to “illustrate a vision for Australia’s clean energy future” has a refreshing candour. The advertisements parade various beneficiaries of the government’s energy policies. With surprising authenticity, most of these ventures are small, parochial and inconsequential… writes Thomas Barlow in The Weekend Australian.

ONE of the more remarkable examples of the government’s vision for our future, however, is the wind energy company, Infigen. Infigen is an Australian Securities Exchange-listed company. Its assets include the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere and, judging by the government’s advertisements, it has some pretty happy employees.

But it is also a company that recently reported a $34 million loss during the six months to last December and looks likely from its financial statements to report another loss this year. Equally telling, its very name (a conflation of infinite and energy generation) gives the finger to reality.

There is no surprise in any of that; it is a renewable energy company after all. But think about the symbolism. Everybody knows this government’s vision for a clean energy future involves running Australia at a loss. But normally in advertising you put your best foot forward.

[Read more…] about Much Revealed in Government’s New Carbon Tax TV Advertisements: Thomas Barlow

Agroforestry out of Carbon Tax Smells like Snake Oil

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SOMEONE needs to tell the Prime Minister that global warming and agroforestry are yesterdays failed fads.

According to an ongoing media study by Max Boykoff and Maria Mansfield interest in anthropogenic global warming is on the wane.[1] It is difficult to see the situation turning around unless there is a climate catastrophe of some sort that can be blamed on carbon dioxide emissions.

Indeed issues come and go, and anthropogenic climate change is likely to be one of those issues that are eventually forgotten; a fad that passes with the passing of time.

In Europe and the US, legislative initiatives are being shelves, yet the Australian government seems determined to push on with its carbon tax.

As part of a package of sweeteners to accompany the new carbon tax to be announced tomorrow by the Australian Prime Minister, farmers are likely to be encouraged to invest in carbon sequestration schemes in particular to plant trees and store carbon in the soil. [2]

Investing in soil carbon makes good sense, but investing in agroforestry… Such schemes were pushed hard a decade or so ago with lots of promise and lots of subsidises but many have already ended with financial ruin.

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[1] http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/media_coverage/

[2] http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/riverland-unearths-carbon-pilot-plan/story-e6fredel-1226070406388

Carbon Tax as a Failed European Policy

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IF a new federal tax of $11.6 billion represents economic reform, then the Australian political culture has changed fundamentally, and economic reform means roughly the opposite of what it meant under Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard.

“First, rectify the names,” as Confucius said. The complete inversion of the language of economic reform under the Gillard government, especially in relation to the proposed carbon tax, is a clue to the much more fundamental question at hand.

Australia faces a profound and defining strategic choice. The carbon tax is part of that choice…

Read the entire article by Greg Sheridan here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/labors-euro-vision-provides-the-smoke-and-mirrors-for-a-carbon-tax/story-e6frgd0x-1226077328365

[Labor’s Euro vision provides the smoke and mirrors for a carbon tax, Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor
From:The Australian, June 18, 20111, 2:00AM ]

How Others Price Carbon

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The Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a research study into effective carbon prices that result from emissions-reduction policies in Australia and other key economies.

Key findings include:

1. More than 1000 carbon policy measures were identified in the nine countries studied, ranging from (limited) emissions trading schemes to policies that support particular types of abatement technology. ◦As policies have been particularly targeted at electricity generation and road transport emissions, the Commission analysed major measures in these sectors.

2. While these disparate measures cannot be expressed as an equivalent single price on greenhouse gas emissions, all policies impose costs that someone must pay. The Commission has interpreted ‘effective’ carbon prices broadly to mean the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions – the ‘price’ of abatement achieved by particular policies.

3. The Commission’s estimates essentially provide a snapshot of the current cost and cost effectiveness of major carbon policies. ◦The subsidy equivalent, abatement achieved and implicit abatement subsidy have been calculated for policies and aggregated by sector in each country.

4. As a proportion of GDP, Germany was found to have allocated more resources than other countries to abatement policies in the electricity generation sector, followed by the UK, with Australia, China and the US mid-range.

5. Estimates of abatement relative to counterfactual emissions in the electricity generation sector followed a similar ordering, with Germany significantly ahead, followed by the UK, then Australia, the US and China.

6. The estimated cost per unit of abatement achieved varied widely, both across programs within each country and in aggregate across countries. ◦Emissions trading schemes were found to be relatively cost effective, while policies encouraging small-scale renewable generation and biofuels have generated little abatement for substantially higher cost.

7. The relative cost effectiveness of price-based approaches is illustrated for Australia by stylised modelling that suggests that the abatement from existing policies for electricity could have been achieved at a fraction of the cost. ◦However, the estimates cannot be used to determine the appropriate starting price of a broadly-based carbon pricing scheme.

8. The estimated price effects of supply-side policies have generally been modest, other than for electricity in Germany and the UK. ◦Such price uplifts are of some relevance to assessing carbon leakage and competitiveness impacts, but are very preliminary and substantially more information would be required.

More here: http://pc.gov.au/projects/study/carbon-prices/report