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Fiscal responses to climate change in Australia: A comparison with California
Published on 01 Apr 16 by "AUSTRALIAN TAX FORUM" JOURNAL ARTICLE
Global initiatives to reduce emissions can be categorised as either regulatory measures or measures that seek to place a price on carbon. Most jurisdictions employ a combination of the two, with pricing measures generally preferred by economists. Where carbon is priced, this is typically achieved by imposing a carbon tax and/or an emissions trading scheme (ETS).
Australia introduced a nationwide ETS from 1 July 2012, with California (and Quebec) following suit from 1 January 2013. The Australian ETS was set to link with that of the European Union from 1 July 2014 and linkage with New Zealand was also being explored. Meanwhile, California and Quebec linked six months earlier. The first tentative steps towards a global carbon market seemed underway.
However, the Australian Opposition party rallied against the ETS and, with its subsequent election to government, repealed the regime. The prime mechanism to achieve Australia’s emissions reductions commitment is now the emissions reduction fund (ERF). Under this scheme, the government holds “reverse auctions” whereby the cheapest emissions reduction proposals put to it by industry are funded. As a “safeguard” measure, large emitters are to remain subject to emissions caps with default (possibly) leading to fines where offsets cannot be sourced elsewhere. Thus, carbon pricing and (limited) trading will still feature under the revised Australian regime.
Author profile
Justin DABNER
Justin graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1984 with honours in Law and Commerce. In 1990 he took up a position as the National Tax Director for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Melbourne and later Ernst and Young in Sydney. A holiday in Cairns turned into a life changing event when the opportunity arose to move to assist in establishing a Law school at the Cairns campus. Justin’s primary tax law interests are in international comparative work having previously been seconded to the Tax Policy Institute at Kansai University in Osaka and just having returned from projects in Dubai and New Zealand. During the last few years he has also been working on a collaborative project examining emerging issues in the relationship between tax administrators and tax practitioners.Current at 17 May 2008
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