Managing Carbon Costs: How businesses can prepare for Australia’s carbon pricing scheme

It's still early days since the Federal Government announced its carbon pricing scheme. Although the latest update of the Garnaut Review released on Thursday 17 March 2011, Carbon Pricing and Reducing Australia's Emissions, provides some indication of what the scheme may look like, many of the precise design details are still unknown. The only certainty is that if a carbon pricing scheme is implemented in Australia, those businesses that are well prepared will be in the best position to manage any risk coming from the scheme's introduction.

Although the tight timeframe for the introduction of the scheme mean that some elements might be similar to, or even the same as, the carbon pollution reduction scheme proposed by the Rudd Government, subtle differences could mean that relying on preparations made for the former CPRS is not enough to manage carbon-related costs in the future.