AUSTRALIA'S electricity generation industry is demanding massive compensation from the Federal Government in return for its co-operation in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
In a challenge to the Government's climate adviser, Ross Garnaut, the power generators have warned of soaring costs to consumers and disruptions to supplies unless they are compensated for the costs of complying with anti-greenhouse laws.
With most of Australia's electricity coming coal-fired generators, the industry is the nation's largest producer of greenhouse emissions, and the main focus of efforts to curb them. A planned carbon trading system will force the industry to pay to emit greenhouse gas.
The National Generators Forum, in a submission to Professor Garnaut's Climate Change Review, has argued that failure to compensate the biggest polluters could, perversely, hurt the environment by directing industry funding away from clean energy research to maintaining baseload energy supply.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong yesterday unveiled a timetable for drawing up carbon trading legislation. The scheme, to start in 2010, will involve carbon emissions being capped and pollution permits sold at a market-set price.
The push by power companies for a payout is at odds with an interim report from by Professor Garnaut last month, which argued against sweeping compensation.
Climate Institute policy director Erwin Jackson has rejected the suggestion that refusing compensation to power generators would hurt the environment, arguing a strong emissions cap would force the market to invest in cleaner forms of energy.
"We shouldn't be giving (compensation) to industries that have failed to respond to what the market has been telling them was on the way for a long time," he said.
The debate coincides with worsening predictions about the pace of climate change, including a UN report that found glaciers melted nearly twice as fast in 2006 as in 2005.
With growing evidence that Asia-Pacific will be severely affected by climate change "in our lifetime", the Australian Climate Group — a collaboration between scientists, environmentalists and insurers — will today release a report calling on the Government to stabilise greenhouse emissions by 2010.
The National Generators Forum, representing 22 power generators, has estimated that Australia's electricity costs will soar from $78 billion to $150 billion if the Government target of a 60% cut in greenhouse emissions by 2050 is met.
Ms Wong said details of the emissions trading legislation would be released in December, preceded by a public discussion paper in July.
Professor Garnaut will release a report on emissions trading on Thursday. www.garnautreview.org.au
No comments:
Post a Comment