Australia urged to review stance on carbon trading
From Reuters: Australia urged to review stance on carbon trading
As one of the globe’s most intensive emitters of greenhouse gases, Australia needs to review its reluctance to establish a national system for trading carbon credits, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.
Technorati Tags: Australia, carbon credits, climate change, politics
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Canberra has so far resisted calls for a national emissions trading scheme similar to that now operating successfully in the European Union, drawing criticism that it prioritises economic growth and a powerful industry lobby over the environment.
Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and supplies 8 percent of world trade in liquefied natural gas. Energy exports are worth over A$24 billion ($18 billion) a year and the sector employs 120,000 people.
The country failed to sign the 2005 Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy minister Ian Macfarlane said at the time to do so would be “crazy”, hiking power prices and costing jobs when other key emitters such as the United States had not signed.
LEFT BEHIND
Countries committed to Kyoto caps can reduce emissions through energy efficiency and a switch to cleaner power sources at home, by investing in emissions-reducing projects overseas, or through buying carbon credits on an emerging traded market which the IEA predicts may be valued at $27.5 billion by 2010.
The European Union has capped emissions for energy intensive industrial sectors and the cost of credits has surged this year as heavy emitters such as the power sector rush to comply with the mandatory limits imposed on them by governments.
Australian business is already feeling the Kyoto effect, with analysts estimating clean-energy companies are receiving a share price boost due to the theoretical value of any future credit scheme. A number of emissions-intensive power and mining projects have been shelved because of potential future liabilities.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Don’t wait for the government to save us all. It’s your consumption that is causing these emissions that are in turn threaten radical climate change. You can do something about it.
-DS
