Page 2798 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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As members would know, Australia has one of the highest levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. In 2013, these carbon emissions totalled 538.4 million tonnes. This makes Australia the 15th largest emitter in the world. Australia also has the 12th highest per capita CO2 emission, of 16.9 tonnes, almost 50 per cent higher than the OECD average and 3.5 times the global average.
Responsible governments across the world have accepted the science of climate change, and are increasing their efforts to reduce emissions. We in the ACT also accept the expert advice that there will be deep and lasting negative impacts on our climate, as well as on how we live, if these emissions are not significantly reduced.
As this motion calls for, the ACT government wants to see the commonwealth reconsider its stance on renewable energy and climate change. With the introduction of carbon pricing having finally begun to correct a monumental market failure, its repeal is a clear instance of policy failure propping up the polluting industries of yesterday against the technologies of tomorrow.
We all know that pricing carbon is the most economically efficient way of reducing emissions across an economy. A price on carbon internalises the cost of pollution into business decisions and drives innovative solutions to reduce emissions. By promoting sustainable investment decisions, such as in renewable energy generation and energy efficiency, carbon pricing promotes innovation through the people who do it best, the entrepreneurs. For this reason, the ACT government continues to support a national carbon pricing scheme. With the repeal of carbon pricing by the commonwealth, Australia’s big polluters are once again free to emit carbon and pass on the cost of doing so to the community and to future generations.
The scepticism underpinning the direct action approach to emissions reduction is also apparent in the review of the commonwealth RET scheme. The renewable energy target is a policy that has significantly contributed to reducing the carbon intensity of one of the largest sources of emissions in Australia, fossil-fuelled electricity generation driven by coal-fired generators.
If the carbon price had not been repealed, the importance of the renewable energy target in reducing our emissions over time would have diminished. Electricity market pricing would have gradually internalised the social and economic costs of carbon pollution; and combined with continuing reductions in the cost of renewable energy supply, carbon pricing would have delivered the required emissions cuts at the lowest cost to the community.
Given the dominant role played by the electricity generation sector in Australia’s high level of emissions and the repeal of a carbon price, the ACT government believes it is critical that the current target of the RET scheme is maintained and strengthened over time. After a long history of increasing, Australia’s electricity emissions have recently started trending downwards, in large part because of the RET. It is important that this momentum is sustained through maintenance of the current RET. I was pleased to hear Mark Butler on the radio today looking for continued bipartisan support for the RET, and discussions are underway between the two major parties.
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