The federal government admits delaying the introduction of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) will be costly to business and the economy.
Labor’s key climate adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, says putting the ETS on hold, in favour of settling on a price on carbon sometime in 2011, is bad policy.
Fast adjustment was always more expensive than gradual adjustment, he told The Australian Financial Review.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet agrees.
“The point Professor Garnaut (and the government) is making … is that the longer you put this off the more difficult, and more expensive, the adjustment in the economy will be,” he told Sky News.
Mr Combet blamed the delay on the Australian Greens and federal opposition, who voted down Labor’s carbon pollution reduction scheme three times in the Senate.
“The government made every effort to get a carbon price into our economy in the last term of government.
“It’s my job now to try and achieve that economic reform for good purpose and I will be fighting very hard to achieve it in this term of government.”
