Garnaut's climate change agonising

Sydney Morning Herald
Friday 17/4/2009 Page: 3

THE Government climate change adviser Ross Garnaut says judging whether it would be better to pass the emissions trading system as it stands or start again would be a line-ball call. In front of a Senate inquiry yesterday, Professor Garnaut urged senators to make significant changes to the system.

He had previously voiced displeasure at the extent of largesse directed towards industries exposed to a carbon trading system, but yesterday went further and said he had been agonising about whether the Government's plan was preferable to starting again. "If there were no changes at all it would be a line-ball call whether it is better to push ahead or say we still want the [emissions trading scheme] at the centre of our mitigation effort but we'll have another crack at it and do a better one when the time is right," he said.

The Government's proposed strategy for dealing with climate change faces a vexed passage through the Senate. The Greens say it is not robust enough and the Coalition warns that it will destroy jobs. Professor Garnaut proposed changes to the scheme, to start next year. The plan by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, aims to cut emissions by 5% to 15% by 2020.

Professor Garnaut, who said climate change policy amounted to gambling with the lives of future Australians, advocated cutting emissions by 25% by 2020, provided the rest of the world took similar steps. He was relatively optimistic about the chances of big emitters such as China and the US committing to ambitious cuts, and said Australia could be an influential voice in global climate change talks.

Professor Garnaut, whose review of climate change was commissioned by the federal and state governments in 2007, wants more money set aside to help develop cleaner technology. He also opposes the extent to which free permits are issued to industry under the Government's climate change plan. "There are some things that could be done that may reduce the compromise in the ETS to an extent that would make it worthwhile," he told the inquiry, which was initiated by the Opposition.

Professor Garnaut suggested a mechanism to wind back the number of free permits issued to trade-exposed industries when other countries started putting prices on carbon. His evidence came as another Senate inquiry into the carbon trading scheme, this one dominated by Government senators, issued its report on the scheme, declaring it a good strategy.

Dissenting reports were critical. The Coalition called for the Government to dump its scheme and go "back to the drawing board". The Greens said "serious changes" were needed. The independent senator Nick Xenophon said the scheme was "ill-equipped" to bring about reform, and the Family First senator Steve Fielding was concerned it would cost families too much. Mr Rudd stuck to his agenda yesterday when he launched a global institute to work towards clean coal technology.