The Forum > Article Comments > ALP climate change policy failure > Comments
ALP climate change policy failure : Comments
By John Le Mesurier, published 31/8/2010If government wants to see appropriate climate change legislation passed by Parliament it should start again from scratch.
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You state "Cap and Trade is undoubtedly the most cost effective way of reducing CO2-e emissions "
Unfortunately, much as I would like to believe it, the evidence does not support that statement.
Please view http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2010/2977448.htm for the European experience of putting a price on carbon. This approach ONLY works and even then it is limited in its impact if the money raised from the price increase is invested directly into ways of reducing ghg.
Putting a price on carbon and spending it on renewables is politic suicide as it would be seen as "A great big tax".
Fortunately there is an alternative to encouraging investment in renewables and that is to reduce the cost of investment in renewables. This can be easily done by Rewarding those who consume the least amount of energy with interest free credit. This interest free credit can only be used on new investments to reduce greenhouse gases.
This does not cost the government anything, leaves the price of energy the same or lower and the only disadvantage is that it may cause an opportunity cost loss because we have invested in producing clean energy when we could have directed investment to some other area with greater benefit.