`Nothing to fear in emissions trading'

Canberra Times
Wednesday 29/10/2008 Page: 4

Australians have been told they have nothing to fear from emissions trading from one place that knows first-hand: Europe. The European Union has had emissions trading since 2005. A senior EU official on a fact finding visit to Australia, Simon Marr, said the scheme worked well. "There's no reason to be afraid of it, certainly not," Dr Marr said. He gave the thumbs tip to Australia's draft plan for emissions trading, due to start in 2010. "I think you're going along the right path," the senior policy officer with the European Commission's environment division said. Australia's draft plan was "very robust", he said.

Dr Marr dismissed critics who want emissions trading delayed because of the financial crisis, telling them they should look for another planet on which to live. "There is no alternative to tackling climate change ... we don't have time to lose." Dr Marr said the challenge for Australia was to choose a strong target for reducing emissions by 2020, and to avoid those mistakes made by the EU.

Australia should not give out too many free carbon permits, should insist on accurate data on greenhouse emissions, and must ensure operators complied with the scheme. The European scheme was widely criticised in the early years because too many carbon permits were given out for free, causing the price to crash, resulting in a limited impact on greenhouse emissions. The scheme has since been recast.

Dr Marr said in some respects the draft Australian scheme was better than Europe's. He noted Australia planned to give out fewer carbon permits gratis, a move he praised. Dr Marr was also impressed that Australia would use some of the revenue from emissions trading to compensate lower-income households, which Europe does not do. But Australia should spend more of the revenue on tackling climate change and energy efficiency.

Dr Marr said in practice, what emissions trading meant to EU residents was higher electricity bills. He said there had been no backlash because people understood environmental issues and wanted Europe to take the lead on climate change. Since arriving in Australia he had read some "quite embarrassing" comments in the media from people who did not want to take action on climate change.