The Greens have warned that Julia Gillard will have to give ground on industry assistance levels in her carbon pricing regime.
As the Prime Minister stood by her weekend comments that she was not prepared to throw out the “good work” on transitional arrangements for big polluters that was part of Kevin Rudd’s emissions package, Greens deputy leader Christine Milne warned that the agreement of the government’s multi-party climate change committee shouldn’t be assumed.
Senator Milne’s comments came as Ross Garnaut, the government’s climate change adviser, released a new paper in his series of updates, which argues that Australia, the US and Canada have been a drag on global efforts to cut emissions.
Professor Garnaut says effective global mitigation is in Australia’s interests.
Most developed countries, including members of the European Union, Japan, New Zealand and Korea, are reasonably well placed to fully contribute to mitigation targets, the update says.
The paper argues that China’s pledge to cut emissions intensity by 35 per cent from 2005 to 2020 is also in line with global efforts to limit temperature rise by 2C.
The US, despite the failure of emissions trading legislation to pass congress, could also meet its targets of cutting emissions by 17 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020.
But Australia, as a close ally of the US, should look beyond “reciprocity” on climate change policy in setting its own targets, it says.
Professor Garnaut weighed into the debate on industry assistance arguing it needed to be based on clear principles.
“If you don’t have clear principles you get into the sort of rent seeking world that caused Australia’s chronic under-performance as a national economy for the first eight decades of our federation. I’d hate us to get back into that; it was such hard work getting out of it,” Professor Garnaut said.
Senator Milne said the Greens would take note of the Productivity Commission’s report into trade-exposed industries.
And any emissions package should not just be based on a carbon price but include regulations and complementary measures to reduce emissions. Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke said a carbon pricing regime that ignored the competitiveness of Australia’s exports would cost jobs.
