The former United Nations climate change chief has warned Australia not to be ”too radical” in designing its carbon tax but urged the federal government to proceed with the policy.
Yvo de Boer, KPMG’s special global adviser on climate change, also questioned the Opposition Leader’s vow to repeal the tax if he wins the next election. He said businesses across the world are demanding a bipartisan approach to climate policy.
”I think to be able to reverse something you first have to know what it is,” he said. ”I don’t know what [Tony Abbott] would be reversing. What I hear from companies around the world is huge frustration that whenever an election happens somewhere in the world, policy is altered or reversed.
”My sense is that Australian industry recognises that this is a key issue and that they need to act. I get the sense that the willingness to act is out there providing that concerns about international competitiveness can be addressed.”
The calls for a clear direction on climate change were echoed by Coca-Cola Amatil’s chief executive, Terry Davis, who said while Australia should not lead the push to cut emissions, the country needed policy certainty.
”What does business want from government? They want consistent and consistently communicated policies and plenty of time to debate the issues so you don’t get these surprises when you wake up in the morning and all of a sudden there is a whole new tax.”
Mr Davis said he believed it would be difficult for a Coalition government to repeal the carbon tax.
”Once these taxes get in place and even if there is a change in government often it’s very difficult to actually repeal them, because the processes are put in place.”
Mr de Boer admitted the European Union’s emissions trading scheme was ”not terribly” effective in reducing emissions when it began because of the number of free permits handed out to industry and the impact of the global financial crisis.
He said the two lessons for Australia were, first, ”don’t be too radical in the first step that you take” and second, include as many sectors of the economy as possible.
The government’s climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, supported that position yesterday, saying the inclusion of agriculture under the tax would provide ”large advantages for the Australian farm sector”.
Mr de Boer conceded that the public consensus around the science of climate change had eroded following the so-called ”Climategate” affair, in which senior scientists were accused of manipulating data following leaked emails.
”The questions around the science that we had about a year ago did do significant damage to public appreciation of this issue, especially in the United States,” he said. ”What many in the public don’t realise is that subsequently much of the criticism of the science has been unfounded but the damage has been done and we need to restore public confidence in the fact that the science is real.”
