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Australia imposes price on carbon emissions

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Australia puts price on carbon emissions

3News NZ

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Australia has today joined New Zealand in imposing a price on carbon emissions across its economy in a bitterly contested reform that may cost the Prime Minister her job.

Australia's biggest polluters, from coal-fired power stations to smelters, will initially pay AUD$23 a tonne of carbon dioxide emitted.

That's more than twice the cost of carbon pollution in the European Union, which currently trades at about AUD$10 a tonne.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the plan is needed to fight climate change and curb greenhouse gas pollution.

But the opposition vowing to repeal it if they win power in elections due by late next year.

RadioLIVE

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Comments

2/07/2012 7:51:53 p.m.

Mike wrote:

The probelm with all the ETS in the world is they dont really target the polluters.

Who has the worst carbon pollution in the world? The EU! Thier carbon rate is $10 tonne vs $23 in Aus even though they are much worse polluters, and they also skewed the system for their benefit.

Eg here in NZ pre-1990 forestry is excluded as having no carbon soak, plus they use EU growth rates which are much slower (almost 4x slower) than NZ growth rates.

The ETS around the world is a PR campaign by the EU to justify restraint of trade which the WTO was starting to hit the EU over. The EU is economically bigger the the USA, and in the UN, the EU gets roughly 30 votes to the USA '1' vote - democracy at work with the USA funding roughly 80% of the UN costs ...

ETS is all about the money, and the EU uses it for restraint of trade worth tillions of dollars. Then again if the EU didn't have the rest of the world adopting ETS then we wouldn't see like 5 EU countries needing bailing out already, it would be about 12 already with another 6 close to needing bailing out. What is the EU doing to fix their problems? Well, its not doing anything to make the EU live within its means nor reduce its pollution!

1/07/2012 1:23:07 p.m.

pete wrote:

"My fellow Australians,under my government,there will be no carbon tax",haha,well everyone here in oz got caught out by that didn't they.The most taxed country in the western world,so why stop now.Has nothing to do with anything,just that they had a very effective propaganda agenda that they mercilessly pursued.Never trust a politician i say.