Australia has to catch up to China and Europe on carbon price

Australian Greens The multi-party climate committee has a major challenge ahead to help Australia maintain competitiveness against a world increasingly leaving us behind in the push towards a low carbon economy, the Australian Greens said. A study of comparative effective carbon prices released today by the Climate Institute shows that, far from being at risk of moving ahead of our competitors on climate action, Australia is falling further behind with an effective carbon price of US$1.70 compared to the UK's US$29.30 and China's US$14.20. "This report puts paid to the idea that Australia would be acting ahead of the world by introducing a carbon price," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said. "When China's effective carbon price is eight times Australia's and India has recently introduced a tax on coal, including imports from Australia, it is a pure nonsense to claim that Australia would be moving ahead of the world. "The fact is, we are jeopardising our llong-term international competitiveness by falling so far behind China, Europe and even the USA and locking ourselves into dirty, inefficient power. "Importantly, the report does not include recent signals that the EU, the UK, Japan and South Korea are all lifting their sights to more ambitious action as they are finding that the transformation to a lower carbon economy is creating jobs and investment and making them more competitive. "In Europe, business leaders recently published an open letter calling for emissions targets to be increased, lifting the carbon price, as this would help them build competitiveness. "It's time for Tony Abbott to acknowledge that his policy will make Australia less competitive and for Labor to lift its sights to the kind of ambitious action that can see us catch up to the world. "Unless we move decisively with a strong carbon price lifting year on year, we risk Australia's economy stagnating at a time when our costs will be increasing thanks to climate impacts on our infrastructure, our health, our food supply and more. "The Greens will be using our position on the climate committee, which was established as part of our agreement to support a Gillard government, to drive the transformative action that will both support our economy and protect our environment." < Prev   Next >