ARTICLE · 16 NOVEMBER 2010

The future of an Australian carbon tax

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With the ongoing focus on climate change globally, it seems inevitable that the Australian government will move to introduce legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The question now is what form that regulation will take.

AustraliaEnvironment

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By Michele Muscillo (Partner), Ben Ricketts (Solicitor) and Julian Wright (Solicitor)

With the ongoing focus on climate change globally, it seems inevitable that the Australian government will move to introduce legislation to regulate greenhous gas emissions. The question now is what form that regulation will take.

The generally-accepted options are an emissions trading scheme (ETS), a carbon tax, or potentially a hybrid of both.

Emissions trading is now old news. It came onto the agenda when Kevin Rudd entered Australia's political consciousness. Now that an ETS has been shelved (at least for now), the new remedy being touted is a carbon tax.

Key points

A carbon tax will put a price on each unit of carbon emitted, rather than restricting the amount of carbon emitted.

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