Herald Sun
By: Olga Galacho and Alice Coster
Business and industry give Ross Garnaut's draft proposals a cautious tick but say there are many issues still to be resolved. Olga Galacho and Alice Coster speak to the key players.
BUSINESS
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson
Business supports key aspects in the draft review, such as the broad coverage of greenhouse gases and industries including transport, a soft start before international agreements have been finalised, and prioritising global and sectoral agreements.
ACCI fully supports proceeds from an ETS being fully allocated towards helping Australia adjust to a low-emissions future. However, while ACCI supports the eventual full auctioning of permits, we remain concerned about the timeframe for its implementation.
While the draft Garnaut Review provides guidance and options on addressing climate change, business awaits detailed modelling.
Australian Industry Group chief Eexecutive Heather Ridout
We welcome the Garnaut recommendation for an ETS with a broad coverage that includes fuel.
We also agree with the argument in the report that, until other countries impose equivalent costs on greenhouse gas emissions, Australia should adopt measures to ensure there is no loss of competitiveness on the part of Australia's trade-exposed emissions-intensive businesses.
Any action that simply results in an Australian business closing down its operations here and moving them to another country would be an exercise in futility.
This would cause serious damage to Australian industry and jobs while not in any way assisting in reducing global emissions.
The design of measures to protect trade-exposed emissions-intensive businesses needs to allow for the full complexity of the Australian economy and not simply be limited to a few large and well-publicised cases.
There are in fact numerous other energy intensive businesses that would also be affected.
RENEWABLES
Pacific Hydro chief executive Rob Grant
An emissions trading scheme as the centrepiece for Australia's response to curb carbon emissions is vital.
But the role of the expanded national renewable energy target ... is a critical complimentary measure.
Without the renewable energy target, the price under an ETS will have to be a lot higher to change investment patterns in the stationary energy sector.
Australia's wind energy potential is enormous and while wind energy will be one of many new technologies that will compete under renewable energy targets, it will be an important part of the mix
Australian Geothermal Association chief executive Susan Jeanes
It is extraordinarily useful that Prof Garnaut has recommended 20 per cent of the proceeds of selling emission permits to go towards assisting clean technologies.
He has estimated that $3 billion is needed to commit Australia to a low-carbon economy through the commercialisation of low-emission energy.
This will completely transform the Australian energy market.
We are also pleased that he urged a speeding up of changes to the way the electricity market is conducted in order to make it easier for renewable energy to connect to the grid.
COAL-FIRED ELECTRICITY
Verve Energy chief executive Shirley Int'Veld
In Western Australia we are particularly sensitive to any higher generation costs that may come from an emissions trading scheme. Soon we will be emerging from a 10-year electricity tariff freeze and we are expecting our power prices to go up 60 per cent over five years.
The Garnaut Review still leaves a lot of questions about how power generators will be treated, but if we are not given free permits, electricity will go up even more.
To make matters worse, since a recent pipeline explosion that shut down a third of our gas supplies, we are being asked to bring back into production two old coal-fired generators that were decommissioned 15 months ago and expand the capacity of a third one.