Author: Phillip Coorey link source at foot of article.
THE government will push its case for a price on carbon further today with a report that finds ambitious cuts in energy use will be more easily achieved if done in conjunction with an emissions trading scheme or carbon tax.
The report by the prime minister's taskforce was handed to the cabinet in July and recommends Australia adopt a target of a 30 per cent increase in energy efficiency by 2020.
It contains such recommendations as cleaner vehicles, greener building codes, greater energy efficiency standards and disclosure requirements, and encouraging power generators to help their customers use less energy
It claims that through reduced energy and lower energy costs, a household could shave $296 a year off its energy bill in 2020.
While the 30 per cent reduction target could be achieved if the many recommendations were adopted, the report states that a price on carbon would facilitate the process.
''By far, the most important element in a vision of a step change in Australia's energy efficiency improvement is the presence of an explicit price on carbon,'' it says. ''An explicit carbon price will underpin and catalyse energy efficiency throughout the economy, greatly enhancing the effectiveness of proposals in this report.''
The report's release follows yesterday's inaugural meeting of the multi-party climate change committee, which the government put together to develop a policy for putting a price on carbon. As previously flagged, the much-derided citizens' assembly, a Labor election promise designed to build a community consensus for a carbon price, was put to the sword.
Its role will be supplanted by a Climate Change Commission, which will conduct forums across the nation ''to promote greater understanding of climate change''.
Julia Gillard also announced that the committee will release a communique after each meeting, as well as periodic information, after being criticised for the secrecy of its hearings. It will meet monthly for at least a year.
The energy efficiency report's recommendations on transport include supporting a global goal to make cars 50 per cent more fuel efficient by 2050, introducing mandatory carbon dioxide emissions for light vehicles, and changing the fringe benefit tax treatment of leased vehicles.
It supports adopting the Henry tax review recommendation to replace the FBT formula, which provides an incentive to drive, with a flat tax rate of 20 per cent independent of distance driven.
The Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, said the energy efficiency measures would be considered as part of the government's overall approach to climate change, but its priority remained a carbon price.
The energy efficiency report says efficiency measures alone will not enable Australia to reach its target of reducing carbon emissions by 5 per cent by 2020.
''Energy efficiency policy is an important part of a suite of responses to climate change but it cannot realistically be expected to do the heavy lifting needed to deliver Australia's greenhouse gas reduction targets,'' it says.
''The introduction of a broad-based carbon price is the only practical way that Australia can guarantee that its greenhouse gas emissions will stop growing and begin to decrease.''
The Prime Minister returned from overseas to chair the committee, comprised of government members, Greens and independents. The Coalition has refused to join because the prerequisite is advocacy of a price on carbon.
The opposition climate action spokesman, Greg Hunt, dismissed the exercise yesterday as the ''electricity tax committee''.
He said the dumping of the citizens' assembly was a humiliation for Ms Gillard and rivalled her broken promise not to introduce a carbon tax, which is one mechanism for putting a price on carbon, along with an ETS, and which is back on the table.
The former prime minister Kevin Rudd commissioned a taskforce to undertake the report in November last year as a consequence of negotiations with Malcolm Turnbull over the emissions trading scheme.
After the government panicked in April and shelved the ETS, Mr Rudd elevated the as-yet uncompleted report's status as the government's key response to greenhouse gas reduction.
Source:
Author: Phillip Coorey CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
October 8, 2010
Credit Link: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/energy-smart/carbon-price-is-back-on-the-table-20101007-169vy.html
