Australia’s peak renewable energy body claims that putting a price on carbon would have less of an impact on the economy than the recent surge of the Australian dollar.
The Clean Energy Council (CEC) of Australia points to a recent report by Access Economics, which it says proves that pricing carbon emissions would not wreck the economy.
The report compared the 20 percent upsurge in the value of the Australian dollar to the equivalent amount were it imposed on carbon pollution and found that under that scenario, C02 emissions would be priced at $85 per tonne.
“Exchange rate movements and the introduction of a carbon price are similar to the extent that both have comparable economic impacts and firms are able to adapt to the new environment,” the report says.
According to CEC chief executive Matthew Warren, putting a price on pollution would be the easiest way to satisfy Australians wanting to see action on climate change and to have access to cheaper renewable energy.
“A cap and trade system remains the most efficient way to constrain greenhouse emissions and remove the regulatory uncertainty needed to stimulate new cleaner energy investment,” he said. “The debate should not retreat to ‘if’ we put a price on carbon, but rather ‘how’ we put a price on carbon.”
Max Sylvester, co-founder of solar energy systems provider Energy Matters, says the report showed that fear campaigns about electricity price rises under cap-and-trade systems were just hot air.
“This report shows that the Australian economy is robust enough to absorb these kinds of changes. As I’ve said before, a clever carbon pricing scheme would serve several purposes: It would cut greenhouse gas emissions and force big polluters to innovate, and it would feed money back into the renewable energy industry.”
