by Reuters20th May 2010
The architect of Australia’s stalled carbon-emissions trading scheme has called for an interim carbon tax to be imposed, arguing that a tax would be preferable to further inaction and debate over emissions trading.
The idea of a carbon tax has resurfaced as a policy option after the government, facing stiff parliamentary opposition, shelved its plan to cut greenhouse gases. The plan would have forced polluters to buy emission permits through an open market.
“I still think that (a carbon tax) is the best way forward, far better than having the policy vacuum that we’ve got,” Garnaut said in an ABC radio interview, when asked whether he supported calls for tax of A$20 ($17) a ton of carbon emissions.
Garnaut, who led an official inquiry into policy options on climate change, had recommended a trading scheme because other countries were moving in that direction and because open markets would ensure that carbon prices were consistent world-wide.
Europe already has a mature trading system, where emissions are valued at about 15 euros ($18,60) a ton.
Last month, the government shelved its emissions-trading plan until at least 2013 after it was defeated twice in the Senate.
Under the constitution, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd could have called a snap election to resolve the issue but he baulked, citing the failure of climate-change talks in Copenhagen in December and arguing that Australia should not go it alone.
The Greens party, which opposed Rudd’s scheme because they judged it too feeble to halt climate change, are now calling for him to at least impose a tax until such time as there is global agreement on a new climate-change treaty.
Article courtesy of Times Live
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