Australia, EU to link emissions trading system
- KanPeiLaFenShe
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, August 28, 2012
Australia, EU to link emissions trading system
CANBERRA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia and the European Union (EU) will be linking their emissions trading systems from mid-2015, Greg Combet, Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, announced Tuesday.
"This means that from July 1, 2015 Australia's carbon price will effectively be the same as that that operates in our second largest trading bloc," he told reporters at a press conference in the Parliament House.
For the second stage, a full, two-way link by means of mutual recognition of carbon units between the two cap and trade systems is to commence no later than July 1, 2018, Combet added.
The Australian government implemented the so-called "carbon tax " policy in July as its first step to embrace an emissions trading scheme. Under the policy, top 500 polluters in Australia will be charged 23 Australian dollars (23.81 U.S. dollars) in year 2012- 2013 for their carbon dioxide emissions.
From July 2015, the number of units issued by the government each year will be capped by regulators. Most carbon units will be auctioned by the Clean Energy Regulator and the price will be set by the market, starting from a floor price of 15 Australian dollars (15.52 U.S. dollars) per tonne.
The latest decision of linking Australian and EU emissions trading schemes brings two changes to the current policy. The first is that the 15-dollar floor price "will not be implemented".
Combet said business chiefs had said they preferred to move to a fully flexible market price as soon as possible.
The second change is to put a 12.5 percent limit on the use of cheap Kyoto carbon units, which can sell for a third of the cost of European units, which are trading at around 9.80 Australian dollars (10.14 U.S. dollars).
"Linking the Australian and European Union systems reaffirms that carbon markets are the prime vehicle for tackling climate change and the most efficient means of achieving emissions reductions, " Combet said in a statement.
He stressed that Australian liable entities will have access to the largest carbon market in the world.
"There are sophisticated markets that have developed in Europe - - futures markets that will give businesses a great deal of confidence, access to financial organizations' expert in dealing with those matters to allow them to reliably predict what their carbon price liability might be."
Under these measures, affected businesses can start buying EU allowances now to meet their future compliance with Australia's carbon pricing scheme. And finally the carbon price will apply in both Europe and Australia. Enditem
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)