Affordable Carbon Scheme Tabled
Australia’s coal-mining industry can afford the cost of carbon reduction proposed by the government’s climate change legislation, Greg Combet, the junior climate change minister told the Carbon Market Expo and by the end of the week, Government’s emissions trading scheme legislation was re-introduced after being voted down in August.
Reported The Age (27 October 2009):
Australia’s coal-mining industry can afford the cost of carbon reduction proposed by the government’s climate change legislation, said Greg Combet, the junior climate change minister.
The cost may amount to about 80 Australian cents per metric ton of coal produced, assuming a carbon permit cost of $25 per ton, Mr Combet told a conference on the Gold Coast, Australia.
”At around a $25 a ton carbon price, the median level of liability per ton of saleable coal in the industry is around 80 (Australian) cents per ton,” Mr Combet said. ”That is a carbon liability that the industry can bear.” State government royalties are currently around $12 a ton, he added.
Coal mining companies in Australia are lobbying to have greater assistance provided to them by the government under the proposed carbon reduction legislation, which expected to be voted on by both houses of parliament by the end of November.
The ruling Labor Party has committed to provide assistance to coal mines on a case-by-case basis related to the amount of greenhouse gases each pit produces, Mr Combet said.
”Coal is five per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions, that means that if we were to exclude the emissions from coal, other sectors of the economy have to work harder to achieve our emissions reduction targets,” said Mr Combet, a former coal-mining engineer and union leader.
The industry ”can’t pull the wool over my eyes,” Mr Combet said, adding that he believed the government’s proposals would still ensure the viability of coal mining in Australia, the world’s largest exporter of the fuel.
Coal mining in Australia often leads to the release of methane, a gas 26 times worse than carbon dioxide in global warming terms, Mr Combet said, adding that some mines would have ”significant carbon liability” in terms of the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation.
”I believe the best response is to look at the profile of methane emissions across the coal industry and target the government’s assistance accordingly to alleviate where that liability is the most significant,” he said.
Mr Combet said businesses that embrace clean technologies will prosper while those shunning climate change will fall behind, carbon market experts have been warned.
He made the comments while opening the Carbon Market Expo 2009 on the Gold Coast – a three-day forum for carbon market business experts from across the country.
And with just 40 days until world leaders meet for UN climate talks in Copenhagen, Mr Combet said now is the time to act.
”This is a critical time in the climate change agenda – nationally and internationally,” he told the audience. ”It is squarely in Australia’s national interest to show up at the negotiating table in Copenhagen with a plan to deliver our targets.”
To do so would enable Australia to play a constructive role in negotiations, he said.
The Government’s emissions trading scheme legislation was re-introduced into the House of Representatives last Friday after being voted down in August.
The Opposition would prefer a vote on the legislation after the December 7 talks in Copenhagen.
Mr Combet stressed that Australian businesses were calling for more details about the framework that would govern future carbon pollution reduction.
”The business community in Australia is calling for investment certainty so that they can commit the necessary investment to start to transition the Australian economy to a low carbon future,” he told the audience.
The conference delegates were at the forefront of the country’s green sectors, he said.
”Demand for clean technology, low carbon goods and services and adaptive know-how will continue to grow and those businesses which recognise this and respond now will be well placed into the future,” he said.
”This is why it is negligent for those who don’t believe in climate change to use the costs of acting as an excuse to delay action,” he said.
”Whether they believe climate change is real or not, they cannot allow Australia to become irrelevant as the global economy and our competitors move to a low pollution future.”
Source: www.theage.com.au