Australia´s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme: An ETS By Any Other Name

Key Points

• The Federal Government's Green Paper on the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme promises the largest transformation of the Australian economy.

• While in many respects the Green Paper adopts design elements for the Scheme similar to those advocated by Professor Ross Garnaut, there are also some significant departures.

• The economic transformation will come at a price. What that price will be will not be known until later this year when the emissions cap and interim target will be revealed.

On Wednesday 16 July, Senator Penny Wong, the Minister for Climate Change, released the Government's widely anticipated Green Paper on the design of the proposed emissions trading scheme which will come into operation in Australia in 2010, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.