Carbon Emissions Exchange

The Kyoto Protocol and subsequent international dialogue related to climate change have arisen in response to mounting concerns regarding carbon and green house gas emissions around the globe, and the impact of these emissions on the worlds climate. There is general agreement in the scientific and political arenas that unless carbon and green house gas emissions are contained and reduced, the impact of climate change and global warming on the planet could be disastrous.

 

The Australian Federal Government has committed to the Kyoto Protocol, and will implement a carbon emissions trading scheme based on a cap and trade rational to commence 2011 .Current advice indicates the legislative framework for the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) will be the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act, and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill. The precise formate of this legislation will depend on the outcome of the upcoming Copenhagen round of talks scheduled for later this year. The ETS sets initial emission reduction targets to apply by 2025 currently being -5%-25%, and provides a long term incentive to cut emissions. New policy currently being formulated, in particular the Mandatory Renewable Energy policy, together with the new federal legislation being the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act, and the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill underpin the ETS and create significant challanges for industry generally and the major emitters in particular. 

 The majority of the state governments are already implementing emission reductions strategies and related legislation to deal with the emissions issue. In fact NSW established the first mandatory carbon trading scheme for its power industry in 1998, and was the first government in the world to establish and define carbon rights as a separately trade-able commodity in the same year.