Emissions Trading Scheme Rejected in Senate
The Australian Senate has voted to reject the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
It has been an amazing couple of weeks in politics that included a change of Liberal Party leaderhip and the ETS defeat.
I wonder whether the Climategate scandal timing may have had something to do with it.
Regardless of whether climate change is real, I am all for reducing energy consumption. It simply makes sense to use our energy sources wisely. However, I believe that the proposed ETS would have unnecessarily caused job losses and other major economic consequences to the Australian economy.
I believe that there are better ways of reducing energy consumption.
One of my biggest problems with these type of schemes is that they penalise Australia, while our competitors benefit. Countries like China that are taking Australian jobs talk about reductions but do not make any real change. The result: Australia becomes even less competitive against these low labour cost countries.
What real alternatives are there?
Firstly, rather than just create subsidies to offset costs, I believe that any emissions tax should be used directly to improve energy efficiency. Use the money to figure out how to more efficiently mine coal, generate power, etc.
Secondly, make the scheme dependent on other countries also reducing emissions. This way, Australia can commit to emissions reduction while still remaining competitive.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out next year when the government is supposed to tackle the issue again.
Calvin Close
Australian Mining Reference