Feel free to use this quote in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 7120 8666 or by email.

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Dr Richard Aldous is CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC), which researches and demonstrates carbon capture and storage (CCS).

“The inclusion of CCS in the CDM is another step forward for CCS, providing a value for carbon stored in developing nations.

The developments in Durban last week emphasised that action on climate change is essential and that CCS will be a vital part of any comprehensive approach to limiting global CO2 emissions.

A number of important threads are now coming together around CCS; the science, new demonstrations, global agreement on CDM, carbon pricing and not the least, plans for global agreement on carbon emission reduction.

A number of countries are setting aggressive CO2 reduction targets by 2050. These targets cannot be met without CCS.   It is vital that we continue with large scale demonstrations and scientific evaluations of CCS. We are moving to a world where these demonstrations and new policies will come together to drive large commercial CCS operations. This technology will be vital if we are to limit climate change in a world continuing to expand the use of fossil fuels.

CCS is essential if we are to have a low emission future. The peer reviewed report on the CO2CRC Otway Project in PNAS this week is an important recognition of the sound science behind CCS and of the leadership that Australia has taken in developing the technology.”

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www.treasury.gov.au/carbonpricemodelling/content/default.asp

www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories.  Any further comments will be posted here as they are received.  If you need help with contact details of the experts listed, email us.

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Professor Snow Barlow is a Convener of the Primary Industries Adaptation Research Network and is from the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne

“This is a well constructed government policy addressing climate change through an immediate price on carbon, transitioning into an emissions trading scheme, thereby enabling the government to cap emissions to a level that enables us to meet our agreed five per cent cut in emissions in 2020. The budget-neutral package redistributes the estimated $10 billion pa revenue between potentially disadvantaged communities, export exposed emissions-intensive industries and innovation to enable the transition to a low-carbon economy. This innovation package is comprehensive both in magnitude and coverage.

The specific Creating Opportunities for the Land package provides a welcome $1.9 billion over six years to support emissions reduction and carbon sequestration in the land-based sector. More than $200 million over six years is allocated for research and development to develop strategies, technologies and methodologies to achieve these emissions reductions. The implementation of these measures will be guided by natural resource management (NRM) plans for each of Australia’s 56 NRM regions to ensure that carbon emission reduction measures do not result in perverse outcomes for land use and Australia’s unique biodiversity. Most importantly there is a clear market for the carbon credits developed in these activities either directly into the Tax scheme or through a scheme regulator in the case of activities not currently covered by the Kyoto Protocol.”

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Professor John Quiggin is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in the School of Economics, University of Queensland

“The proposed carbon tax is a substantial improvement on the heavily compromised emissions trading scheme agreed between the Rudd government and the Opposition under Malcolm Turnbull. Although there is substantial compensation for emissions-intensive industry it is temporary and based on historic emissions level, so that the incentive to reduce emissions is not compromised. The design of the compensation package for households is also welcome. The government has avoided the temptation to pretend that everyone will be better off, and has taken the reasonable position that high income households do not need to be compensated for the introduction of necessary reforms. This has permitted the very welcome measure of raising the income tax threshold and thereby taking more than a million low-income workers out of the income tax system.

While the primary focus of the package is, correctly, on the imposition of a price on carbon emissions, there are a range of supporting measures designed to encourage energy efficiency and innovation. On the whole, these seem more carefully designed than the measures introduced under previous governments.”

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Professor Peter Newman is Director of Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute

Prof Newman is presently in Korea at an IPCC meeting on Transport, one of only three Australians in the next phase of IPCC work.

“I think it’s fantastic that we have a climate change package which includes a carbon price for the front end of the economy and a range of end user initiatives to assist with the transition for households and businesses. It’s been a painful process but an historic day now that we have the package.

Well done to the Government, the Greens and the Independents! They have been real leaders for a change. I hope Australians will recognise that this is a necessary step for us, that the world needs us to be responsible and demonstrate hope like this and that the Opposition’s negativity is based on fear – which never makes good public policy.”

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Professor John Cole is Director of the Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development at the University of Southern Queensland

“It has more than a few rough edges and shows all the signs of the political trade-offs needed to secure a carbon price in one of the most carbon-intensive economies on the planet.

In creating a politically defensible platform from which to lead and steer change as well as resurrect its standing with the Australian people, the Government has traded away some economic and environmental efficiency to placate the coal interest, at least in the short to intermediate term.

That said, today’s carbon package is a welcome and significant first step by Australia on the road to decarbonising its economy as the international community slowly but surely comes to grips with the human dimensions of climate change.

There is no shortage of targeted assistance measures to help a range of industries do what they should already be doing, namely achieving savings through energy efficiency, capturing fugitive emissions for co-generation, and planning for competition in a world which will increasingly value low-carbon products and services.

The overall outcome is a politically practical no-frills deal which recognises that there is no silver bullet for dealing with the complexities of climate change, economic reform and decarbonisation.”

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Professor Peter Cook is Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, Canberra

“I am glad to see that clean energy technologies will be supported through the carbon tax, but concerned that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is not included in the remit of the new Clean Energy Finance Corporation. CCS is a clean energy technology that is highly relevant to decreasing emissions from biomass, gas and coal; there are also potential opportunities for combining CCS with geothermal power and algal sequestration. CCS is likely to be a key component of moving to electric cars and the hydrogen economy and the increased uptake of gas.

All the projections of bodies such as the International Energy Agency clearly show that we will need CCS for at least 20 per cent of the global mitigation effort in the coming decades. The proposed arrangements suggest a more polarised approach to lowering our carbon footprint. Without inclusion of CCS, there is no solution to the greenhouse issue.

The clean energy future for Australia has to be greater energy efficiency, increased use of renewable, switching to gas and carbon capture and storage. People have to be realistic about the clean energy mix and what the various technologies can achieve, and whilst they might like renewable energy to be the answer, the reality is that  for decades to come it will only be part of the answer. The steps proposed as part of the carbon tax measures should reflect this reality and include CCS as an important component of future energy mix.”

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Professor Ian Lowe is Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Griffith University. He is also President of the Australian Conservation Foundation

“Today’s announcement is a very important step forward. There will at last be a price on greenhouse pollution. While it does not start high enough to drive a rapid transition to a clean energy future, it is a beginning and a clear signal to the business community. I particularly welcome the establishment of a new Climate Change Authority to advise on pollution caps after 2015, improving the chance they will be based on science rather than political expediency. We need to do much better than a five-per cent reduction by 2020 to meet the urgent challenge of climate change.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency are important mechanisms for driving the transition to low-carbon energy. The National Energy Savings Initiative needs to be rapidly implemented, as energy efficiency is by far the most cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse pollution. We should also welcome the commitment to take account of the voluntary action by millions of Australians in setting future targets. The new Biodiversity Fund is a crucial investment in our capacity to protect Australia’s unique biota from the accelerating impacts of climate change.

There are some disappointments in the package, especially the continuing support of polluting industries like coal-fired power and LNG. While road transport fuels are excluded from the carbon price, rail is not, so the existing huge public subsidy of road freight will be increased further. An urgent priority should be the phasing out of subsidies for fossil fuel production and use.

Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in 2007 was the first step to joining the international effort to slow climate change. Today’s announcement is the second step. The new package deserves support.”

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Professor Graham Farquhar is from Australian National University Climate Change Institute

“The aim of the carbon tax is to reduce Australian emissions by five per cent. In turn the aim of that reduction is to put political or economic pressure to encourage or shame other countries to reduce their emissions by five per cent. If we are successful and all the countries of the world reduce their emissions to five per cent below what they would have been, then the anthropogenic climate that we would otherwise have seen in 2031 will be postponed until 2032.”

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories.  Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 7120 8666 or by email.

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Professor Barry Brook is Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of ClimateChange and Director of Climate Science at The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide

“Garnaut has elaborated and updated his report in line with the latest science and lack of effective action nationally and globally. But the bottom line, in my opinion, remains the same. We need to scrap the renewable energy target (RET) and feed-in tariffs (FiTs), set a low initial carbon tax at about $10/t, establish an equivalent of the Board of the Reserve Bank to manage the tax and set future prices, and have some legislated schedules (gateways) such as a floor price of $20/t by 2015, $30/t by 2020, and so on. The rising price – with short-term decisions taken out of Government hands to avoid distortions arising from political expediency – is absolutely key. Finally, and in line with eliminating the RET and FiTs, we need to really level the energy playing field and allow nuclear to compete with renewables and fossil fuels with carbon-capture and storage (CCS).”

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Professor John Quiggin is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the School of Economics, University of Queensland

“The main innovation in the final Garnaut Review is a substantial emphasis on the UK model, in particular the proposal for an Independent Committee similar to the UK Committee on Climate Change. The UK approach has already achieved substantial reductions in emissions, and the recently announced commitment to reduce emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2025 is an indication of what can be achieved. The experience of the UK provides a direct refutation of claims that the achievement of significant reductions in emissions will be economically ruinous. As the Review observes, provided that businesses are not overcompensated, the return of revenue from the carbon tax to households should offset the relatively modest impacts on the cost of living that are likely to arise.”

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Professor Peter Rayner is a carbon cycle scientist, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne

“Garnaut has commissioned a fresh look at the recent data and found that the problem of global warming can’t be wished away. Indeed the case has strengthened from “balance of probabilities” to “beyond reasonable doubt”, a view in line with almost all recent research and assessment. What’s new is an optimism motivating his call for stronger rather than weaker action. Copenhagen and Cancun are not a failed possibility to do much but rather an agreed certainty to at least do something. The “contraction and convergence” solution (page 5 of the summary) says that we all have equal right to pollute and that we should stabilise concentrations at safe levels, with 2050 a target date. The world is starting to act on these joint principles meaning Australia can be more rather than less assertive.

A point missing in at least the summary of the report is that the science basis for including the land sector into any trading scheme (how do we measure it, how do we guarantee its stability etc) isn’t really established yet and would need pretty quick action if we were to credibly consider the introduction in 2015.”

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Fiona McKenzie, is a PhD candidate studying innovation in agriculture, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney

“My comment relates in particular to Part III, Chapter 9, on the ‘Innovation Nation’ and the section on biofuels and biosequestration.

The recognition that the land sector can make an important contribution in the transition to a low-emissions economy is welcome. That said, the opportunities required for generating knowledge and innovation on-farm are more than carbon pricing and fiscal incentives. Also needed are flexible and enabling institutional environments and new partnerships that promote not only frontier research and technology, but also incremental problem solving and on-farm experimentation. Farmer driven innovations have the potential to attain sustainability, but only if the institutions put in place are appropriate”.

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If you require a copy (pdf) of the framework, let us know.

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 7120 8666 or by email.

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Professor Warwick McKibbin is Director of the Research School of Economics at the Australian National University’s College of Business and Economics.  He is also a board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia

“The government’s announcement on carbon pricing is welcome news. A carbon price is a critical part of any climate policy. What is now needed is a clear framework for getting longer term carbon prices into the economy rather than just the short term price of carbon. The details on how this policy will be implemented are critical.”

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Professor John Quiggin is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in the School of Economics at the University of Queensland

“This is a sensible way of tackling the problem. A carbon tax can be introduced rapidly, and the public will quickly realise that all the scaremongering about its effects has been overblown. With a price in place, the government can take time to design a workable system of tradable emissions permits, compatible with developments in other countries.”

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Professor Kevin Parton is Professor at the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University, NSW

“The proposed policy of a fixed carbon price, probably to be followed three to five years later by a cap-and-trade, emissions trading scheme (ETS), is probably the only politically feasible way to get an ETS off the ground in Australia. Even so, the legislation will face a tough transition through Parliament. For many economists the timeframe suggested for the introduction of the policy is too slow. They would prefer a move straight to an ETS based on grounds of economic efficiency. Moreover, introducing an ETS policy sooner rather than later will result in lower long-term costs.

As with many such policy announcements, the detail is lacking. This leads to conjectures about the fixed price at the outset probably being much lower than the international carbon price. Again if this was the case it would be disappointing on grounds of economic efficiency.

So, overall this is a compromise policy. It will be slow to provide the economy with the price incentives needed reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.”

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What is the CPRS? How will it work in practice?
How will it affect the average citizen – will my power bills go up?
Will I get rewarded for choosing green power or having solar power?
Will the scheme actually reduce emissions?

ONLINE BACKGROUND BRIEFING – Thu 22 Oct at 10.30am AEDT online

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Thu 22 October 2009
START TIME:10.30am AEDT
DURATION: 40 min
VENUE: Online

A very basic guide to the workings of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) has been prepared by Caroline Bayliss.

Caroline has also prepared a document listing key points about her presentation (pdf)

Alan has prepared a document listing key points about his presentation (pdf)

See a recording of the full presentation by clicking here (Webex)

SPEAKERS:

Caroline Bayliss, Director of Global Sustainability at RMIT University
Listen (mp3) | Caroline’s PowerPoint (pdf)

Adjunct Professor Alan Pears AM , Senior Lecturer, School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning RMIT – Alan is also on the Board and Policy Committee of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Association
Listen (mp3) | Alan’s PowerPoint (pdf)

Listen to the Q and A session (mp3)

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 7120 8666 (note new number) or email us.