Antinuclear

One good reason why business should back the carbon price CHRISTINE MILNE ABC Environment11 JUL 2014  Certainty is offered to business by the current climate policy. The best opportunity Australian business has of policy certainty as the world moves to address global warming is to actively support emissions trading now.

AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS SHOULD tell Tony Abbott that he is killing certainty in Australia and that it is bad for business.

The golden rule of business is certainty. Not just in the short term but for decades to come, because unlike government, business deals in long term strategy and investment not just three year electoral cycles………

The choice for business is the certainty of the current law against the risks associated with chaos and dislocation of erratic policy and inevitable steep adjustment as emission reduction targets are increased.

Business groups have warned against yet another policy vacuum, like the one that followed the Rudd Labor government’s 2009 decision to dump any significant response to the greatest moral challenge of our time. And so they should.

In the south we have had Hydro Tasmania saying they will have to let 100 staff, or 10 per cent of its workforce go in the absence of a carbon price that would continue to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. They pass this revenue on to the state government to spend on concession payments, schools and hospitals.

In the north, we have the Kimberly Land Council also set to lose millions from working on country. They won’t have a market to sell their carbon credits into anymore. The government’s so-called Direct Action is not a substitute market.

The fact is, there already exists a legislative framework for bringing down carbon pollution that businesses know they can work within, and in which investors can have confidence. Following the chaos of the last few days in the Senate, the alternatives are a gamble that Australian businesses shouldn’t take.

I am calling on Australian business to lead by calling on the Abbott government to end the nonsense of ‘axing the tax’, and instead embrace the certainty provided by the existing emissions trading scheme. It is the best chance we have of getting certainty on global warming policy in Australia at the lowest possible cost to business and the economy.

With an 18 per cent emissions reduction target in place since 31 May 2014, we can move immediately to flexible pricing to risk-proof Australian business and give ourselves a head start and competitive advantage as the rest of the world moves to conclude a treaty in 2015. Australia stands exposed to retaliatory non trade tariff barriers if we fail to commit to our fair share of emissions reduction. Already we are being left behind as China, the UK and USA negotiate economic agreements on green finance and technology………

As the Committee for Economic Development of Australia has noted, our economy will be seriously exposed in two ways if we don’t take serious action.

“The first area that leaves our economy exposed if we don’t take action relates to the consequences of increasing extreme weather events and the economic and social impact that these events have on Australia’s production capacity,” it said.

The second area was on the availability of finance. “Australia is reliant on foreign capital to fund major projects and new developments in international climate change policy are likely to impact international capital flow and investment decision making.”……..http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/07/11/4044472.htm