FURTHER contradictions surrounding climate change and the coal sector have revived debate over Kevin Rudd’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
Industry officials believe that the Rudd Government’s consideration of increased handouts to the coal sector as part of the CPRS scheme is makes a mockery of Rudd’s push for dramatic reform at the United Nations summit of climate change.
Senator Christine Milne is of the opinion that an agreement to fail is far worse than a failure to agree. She believes it would be better to postpone negotiations until next year, after the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, than risk locking in a weak deal that 'would be difficult to unravel'.
Milne claims the entire purpose of an emissions trading scheme is to change the investment environment away from supporting polluters and towards supporting new, zero emissions industries.
The Senator argues that protecting the asset values of polluters directly undermines the signal that the emissions trading scheme is supposed to send. It would be far better to postpone adoption of a scheme than to have one that actively protects polluters at the expense of clean-tech industries.
Add a comment