Claims by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and his climate change adviser Ross Garnaut that Australia needs to do more to reduce our emissions because we lag behind the rest of the world simply don’t add up, and the Government’s own analysis proves it, Senator Boswell said today.

A recent report commissioned by the Labor/Independent/Greens Climate Change Committee, carries a litany of examples of major world economies either scaling back their existing commitments or providing limited details on carbon reduction programs they are planning. There is little evidence of programs which have actually been implemented. 

In 2009, the French Parliament passed a carbon tax on oil, gas and coal consumption which equated to $24 per tonne on households and businesses. The bill was subsequently disallowed by the French Constitutional Council.

Japan’s introduction of its Basic Act on Global Warming Countermeasures has been delayed for domestic reasons.

Brazil’s national Plan on Climate Change which outlines a National Policy for energy efficiency to reduce electricity consumption by around 10% in 2030 is not yet legislated.
Canada has no national energy efficiency target.

This evidence adds to recent admissions from several of the worlds largest economies which cast doubt on whether global action for carbon emissions reduction will ever be achieved.

United States President Barack Obama has backed away from a cap and trade emissions system citing it was only one approach to reduce emissions. New Mexico has pulled out of the Western Climate Initiative – a pact involving a number of US States to introduce emissions trading starting in 2012. California’s poor financial state is expected to throw into doubt its previous commitments on an ETS.

China’s emissions are predicted to double in the next ten years however details of its carbon reduction policies are light on detail.

India’s special envoy on Climate Change declared after the failed Copenhagen talks that there is “no legal obligation on the part of India, under existing international instruments, to take on binding emissions reduction obligations, now or in the post 2012 period.”

Julia Gillard’s plan to bring in a carbon tax from 1 July 2012 and move to an ETS in 2015/16 will rely on information contained in the soon to be released report from the 
Productivity Commission comparing carbon price models of other major world economies.

If the findings of the Productivity Commission report fail to mount a strong case for evidence of global action in the reduction of carbon emissions will Tony Windsor support the introduction of carbon tax?

Australian families and businesses cannot afford another tax – this time in the form of a carbon tax. It’s expected the Prime Minister will first introduce a modest carbon price of around $10 per tonne and ratch it up to around $30 per tonne when we move to an ETS. For every $10 per tonne increase of a carbon tax, the price of fuel rises by 2.5c/l.  A carbon price of $40 tonne will see the price of electricity rise by nearly 50%.

ENDS