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Australia PM says committed to carbon trade schedule
PERTH (Reuters) - Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday he saw no case for delaying the startup of a carbon trading scheme beyond 2010, adding that the Reserve Bank saw no inflationary pressure arising from the scheme.
Australia's left-leaning Labor government has promised to introduce a national carbon trading scheme by 2010 in order to curb Greenhouse gas emissions. But the Opposition has expressed skepticism at the timeframe and has asked for delays. "Our ambitions remains the 2010 timeframe. We don't believe that there is a case for delay," Rudd told ABC television.
"And part of the reason is because time for Australia is running out, and we can't keep putting these things off."
Australia, the world's top per-head greenhouse gas polluter, laid out a blueprint on Friday for slashing its impact, with the government's top climate guru unveiling a draft trading system to fight carbon emissions.
Respected economist Ross Garnaut, appointed by the government to design what will be the world's most extensive emissions regime from 2010, urged inclusion of energy and transport, but said big corporates whose foreign rivals are free to pollute should be mollified with compensation.
The prospect of emissions limits on road transport and electricity generation has raised fears of higher fuel and power prices at a time when polls show rising living costs are already eating into government popularity.
But Rudd said the Reserve Bank has said the carbon emissions scheme would not put inflationary pressures on the economy.
"The governor of the Reserve Bank, when asked about this a few months ago, had dictated then that he did not see an inflationary impact arising from this scheme," Rudd said.
"But we need to ensure that we give proper powers to competition watchdog the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to make sure that there is no opportunistic price gouging during that period as well."
Under Garnaut's proposals, businesses that pump out less greenhouse gas than their allowable limit would receive credits and be able to sell permits bought at competitive auction to pollute to firms exceeding their carbon emissions quota.
(Reporting by Fayen Wong; Editing by Jerry Norton)
