THE CSIRO has made a submission to the Government’s energy review which claims that price caps in a carbon market may stifle investment in renewable technologies and threaten Australia’s power supply.
The Rudd Government has proposed price caps in its emissions trading scheme before the Senate of a one-year $10-a-tonne start-up price followed by a $40-a-tonne cap for the following four years.
Dr Jim Smitham, leader of the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship says the caps could cause Australia to increase its reliance on high emissions energy, such as coal, as demand for electricity increases.
Similarly, Dr Smitham says all the ‘‘purely economic’’ modelling done by the CSIRO showed the less interference there was in carbon markets the more likely it was that investment would occur in renewable energy and clean coal technologies.
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