Will July the 10^th 2011, be a day that lives in infamy? Or will it be seen as the first step along the path to world-wide change when it comes to pollution emissions?

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on that day the Australia will put a price on carbon emissions from July 1^st, 2012.

With economists predicting the price to be between $21-$30 per tonne, the Gillard Labour government set their sights almost smack bang in the middle (do governments set their sights anywhere else?), on $23 per tonne of carbon emitted.

This inauspicious-sounding starting point will reap the government $11.5 billion in the first year alone. Couple that with the predicted 5% rise each year until 2015, when Carbon Trading will be rolled out, it seems the Australian government is set for quite the windfall.

But with the same government also promising $9.2 billion in grants and free permits to trade-exposed industries such as coal and steel, one could safe thinking that the government has shot itself in it’s own carbon footprint.

The Australian Government will also be spending nearly $4.5 billion more than the income the tax will supply in the first 4 years.

Of course the ‘Battlers’ get their cut, with tax cuts promised for middle to low income earners, cash benefits for pensioners and next to nothing for high earners. Almost sounds like a win for the little guy, doesn’t it? Not really. The average weekly costs of a household will increase by $10, but this will be compensated for by the government, which is good. The first tax cut, worth around $300 to households earning under $80,000 a year, will coincide with the introduction of the Carbon price in July, 2012. Just in time for the prices of flat screen televisions to tumble to the $300 mark? Time will tell.

But the carbon price paid by business will most certainly be pushed onto consumers, which may leave both households and government seriously out of pocket. Even with all their benefits, free permits and ultimately the Carbon Trading Scheme, chief polluting industries such as cement, coal, aluminum and steel are simply not going to go without a fight. They won’t stop until every scrap of useable metal or rock is able to be pulled from the earth. Then other planets, then asteroids. Maybe, but at least by then they will be polluting elsewhere, right?

All this is in the hope that Australia can successfully reduce its Carbon output by 5% by the year 2020, and the bigger hope is that other countries will follow suit. Given that Australia contributes barely 2% of global carbon emissions, it leaves many still questioning why we even need to change at all. After all, the rising Dragon that is China, the Crouching Tiger of India and the awakening Bear that is Russia are just starting to flex their muscles, to say nothing of the waiting-to-explode potential of Africa and South America, will what we are doing even make a difference?

Regardless of what anyone says, we have to slow down on the way we are using our finite resources. Welcome to the first step, only 1000 miles to go…

 

By Chard Currie

chard.currie@gmail.com

 

Ref:

The Weekend Australian, July 9-10, 2010

‘Scheme Fails on Three Key Levels’

Judith Sloan

 

The Sydney morning Herald, July 11, 2011

‘A Clean Start’

Lenore Taylor

 

Crikey.com.au, July 10, 2011

‘Carbon Tax: The Politics and Policy’

Bernard Keane