Cap and slice scheme best - Emissions trading `is propping up polluters'

Adelaide Advertiser
Thursday 9/7/2009 Page: 23

THE Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme is a "disgrace" that will mean anything South Australia does to tackle climate change will simply prop up polluters interstate, says a leading economist at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, which opens this evening.

Dr Richard Denniss, executive director of the Australia Institute, said premiers such as Mike Rann should be going to COAG meetings and thumping the table, saying: "Kevin, this is a disgrace. Fix your scheme, because it is fixable." Rather than a "cap-and-trade" scheme, Dr Denniss would prefer to see a "cap and slice" scheme, where the number of pollution permits are reduced each year in line with the amount of pollution saved.

"If the SA Government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on feed-in tariffs and policies to reduce emissions, all it will be doing is transferring permits to other states," he said. "Now it breaks my heart to say this but unfortunately once the CPRS (carbon pollution reduction scheme) comes in, state governments would be better off not spending their money on reducing emissions and investing that money instead on their health systems and their education systems, because at least that delivers a service. It's a scandal."

A spokesperson for federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said Dr Denniss was "wrong". "Everything Australians do, whether in Adelaide, Perth or Mt Isa, will help us reach our targets for reducing carbon pollution," the spokesperson said. Dr Denniss said that rather than "placing all of our faith in markets to solve the most important problem of the century", the Government should immediately:

• BAN the construction of new coal-fired power stations - "because you can't start going forward until you stop going backwards".
• PUT a price on pollution. A simple tax on carbon emissions to start with and then transition to emissions trading later, "if you want, but you don't have to wait for the complex architecture to start a tax and raise revenue".
• TAKE that revenue and invest it in renewable energy.
• MANDATE fuel efficiency standards for cars and start investing in public transport.

"All of those things you could literally start tomorrow," Dr Denniss said. "You don't need to model them. You don't need complex legislation and anyone who is opposed to any of those things can rightly be described as a climate sceptic." Premier Mike Rann said he had consistently supported a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme.