Australian carbon price
who profits and who pays
The Australian carbon trading scheme starts from 1 July 2012. About 500 companies will participate, and have been promised incredibly generous compensation in cash and free permits to pollute. Most firms will receive between 66 and 95% of their emissions rights for free, despite the lack of evidence this carbon price will substantially impact the cost of production in most sectors.
The first three years of the scheme will see a fixed price at $23 per tonne of CO2-e. During this period, firms can 'reduce emissions' by purchasing Carbon Farming Initiative offsets from Australian farms and forests. From July 2015, the scheme will become a fully ‘flexible’ emissions trading scheme. From this point, there will be no limit on the use of Australian-based offsets. Companies can continue polluting by also purchasing international offsets.
Some improvements have been won since the 2009 Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) with regards to what types of offsets will be recognised. For example, industrial gas offsets and offsets created from mega-dams in the global south will not be included in the scheme.
The Australian scheme remains fatally flawed. Importantly, markets are always in the process of being created, and contested. The rules for the carbon price will be constantly negotiated through the parliament and with reference to advisory committees such as the Productivity Commission and the Climate Change Authority. We can reclaim the decisions over how and when Australia will reduce emissions, and hold polluters and decisions makers in the carbon market to account. Start by learning more and taking action with Friends of the Earth.
For further information see: The Clean Energy Future package explained
Australian carbon price, Featured, Headline, Uncategorized »
EU carbon price collapse demonstrates carbon markets are no climate solution The overnight collapse of the European carbon price demonstrates the many problems associated with Australia linking our carbon price to the European scheme according to Friends of the Earth Australia. The EU carbon price collapsed to around AU$3.20 per tonne before rebounding slight to AU$4 per tonne after the EU Parliament last night voted against the ‘backloading proposal’ to postpone the auction of 900 million gigatonnes of the Phase III allowances from 2013-2015 until 2016-2020. ‘Backloading’ was a short-term fix designed to …
Australian carbon price, Headline »
Media Release 29 August 2012 MR – FoE condemns dropping of carbon price floor Yesterday’s announcement by the government to cut the floor price for carbon represents another significant watering down of the environmental and democratic credibility of the scheme according to Friends of the Earth Australia, a leading environmental justice organisation. “Combet’s announcement represents a major cave in to the interests of polluting industries which have been calling for drastic cuts to the carbon tax,” said Gareth Bryant from Friends of the Earth Sydney. “The purpose of dropping the floor price is to …
Australian carbon price, forest offsets »
REDD projects often involve fencing in land for conservation in rainforest nations. There have long been problems with conservation projects across the developing world. With REDD, the focus on counting carbon sequestered in trees and soil overrides complex questions of livelihood, land tenure and rights for local people.
Australian carbon price, forest offsets, Headline, Social movements »
On June 19 2012, Dayak Ngaju peoples in Katunjung, Indonesia held a protest to coincide with the global United Nations Rio+20 conference in Brasil – photos on this page. Local organisation Petak Danum Kalimantan Tengah released the statement below, calling on the Australian Prime Minister to act immediately to stop the REDD KFCP pilot project in Central Kalimantan. The Dayak Ngaju protest targetted the Australian government’s Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership REDD forest offset project in their community. It is intended as a pilot for the Asia-Pacific region to potentially create …
Australian carbon price, Big Polluters, Social movements »
Download this article as a PDF: A Short History of Carbon Trading There have always been various options on the table to solve climate change – regulating oil and coal companies, massive government investment in renewable energy, supporting the re-localisation of community transport and food production, to name just a few. So why has climate change – what economist Nicholas Stern called “the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”[i] – come to be seen as a problem to be solved by free markets? In order to answer this question, we …
Australian carbon price, Carbon Offsets »
At first, eligible carbon offsets will be sourced from projects registered under the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), although the Australian Government plans to expand the eligible offset types to include REDD ‘avoided deforestation’ projects.
Australian carbon price, Carbon Offsets, Headline »
The Gillard government has promised that their carbon trading scheme provides a ‘comprehensive plan for securing a clean energy future’. The problem is – it doesn’t! The scheme contains major loopholes which prevent it from addressing the climate crisis by driving the just transition to an equitable low carbon future. The government claims its scheme will deliver a 5% reduction in greenhouse gases (from 2000 levels) by 2020. Treasury modelling shows that the government plans to achieve this reduction by buying almost 100 MtCO2-e of ‘offsets’ from overseas. The modelling shows …
Australian carbon price, forest offsets, Headline »
Climate policy is in the REDD as Durban climate negotiations conclude. Australia is pushing for decisions to establish forest carbon offsets for trade in the carbon market. However REDD offsets do not address the drivers of deforestation, says Friends of the Earth International. Government negotiators will conclude UN proceedings in Durban today, including decisions on how to finance projects under the mechanism known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). According to a new report released by Friends of the Earth International, Indonesia’s large-scale REDD project is failing to deliver …
Australian carbon price »
Under the Carbon Price Mechanism $5 billion flows to polluting industries every year. Of this, $1.5 billion goes to power stations to help reduce emissions, the rest is industry compensation for lost competitiveness. Only $1 billion will go to renewables.
Australian carbon price »
– We need urgent reductions in emissions, not handouts to big polluters
Today’s announcement of the Multi Party Climate Change Committee (MPCCC) agreed pathway of an interim price ‘hard-wired’ to become an emissions trading scheme takes Australia in the wrong direction, says Friends of the Earth Australia, and away from real solutions to the climate crisis.
Climate justice spokesperson Holly Creenaune said, “We’re concerned this is a resurrection of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), which was rejected in the Senate and failed to win public support because it was worse than doing nothing.
“Carbon trading does not work – across the world cap-and-trade has failed to reduce emissions, harmed local communities and delayed real action; whilst delivering huge profits to polluters and financial speculators.
“The MPCCC framework repeats the mistakes of the CPRS by handing over revenue to big polluters, on top of other loopholes like cheap offsets.”
