Fed Govt uncertainty over climate-change policy blocking investment in new power gen; combined-cycle gas turbines cheaper than coal for NSW, Owen inquiry finds

The Owen Inquiry was a blunt rebuke for the Federal Government’s 10-year delay in agreeing to a national emissions trading scheme, wrote Marian Wilkinson in The Sydney Morning Herald (12/9/2007, p.4).

Carbon price falls to $6 a tonne: consumers suffer as discounts become uneconomic

Doubts were raised about how a state scheme would merge with any national emissions trading scheme when the Prime Minister, John Howard, released his emissions trading report in May, according to The Sydney Morning Herald (11/9/2007, p.2).

Federal plan: CO2 dumps and nuclear power to dominate future Australia carbon credit market

The project by South Australian company Santos to capture and safely store carbon dioxide deep underground as the Cooper Basin oil and gas reservoirs reached the end of their useful life had the potential to store up to 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum and up to one billion tones over its lifetime, South Australia’s Senator Simon Birmingham said in the Commonwealth Senate on 20 September 2007.

Outraged Greens opt for open ticket as Labor and Coalition support Gunns

Federal Environmental Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was not appropriate for the commonwealth to assess the greenhouse gas emissions from individual projects, such as the proposed pulp mill in Tasmania, as this was better dealt with by a national emissions trading regime, reported The Australian Financial Review (5/10/2007, p. 10).

List of main emissions trading policy schemes and initiatives, per region

The following overview of and commentary on some main policy schemes and initiatives, per region, was published in the European Management Journal, (3/8/2007, p. 1-2).

Government greenhouse scheme distorts market, lacks integrated policy framework, abuses goodwill of states: Senator

The Australian Greenhouse Office in 1998-99 went to great lengths to develop a framework for emissions trading, and it was shelved, noted Tasmania’s Greens Senator Christine Milne in the Commonwealth Senate on 20 September 2007.

Govts’ faith in favourite weapon to fight climate change – the price of carbon – to end in tears, analysts say; carbon price has had “virtually no effect on the market so far and virtually no effect on climate change”

The battle to beat climate change has come down to one weapon – the price of carbon, according to Jeremy Lovell in The Canberra Times (26/9/2007, p.10).

EU-ETS design seems to have satisfied interests of energy producers at the cost of energy consumers: GHG allowances at no cost

The Euro­pean Commission has not been able to align the interests of all affected industries and the design of the EU-ETS particularly seemed to have satisfied the inter­ests of energy producers at the cost of energy con­sumers, wrote J Pinkse and A Kolk in European Management Journal (27/9/2007).

Many large corporations able to escape need to trade emissions due to limited number of installations and over-allocation of allowances

The empirical analysis of 331 Global 500 firms sug­gests that the EU-ETS forms the most prominent scheme and, as a consequence, most firms have their emissions trading activities linked to this scheme, according to Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A., in ‘Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading’ in European Management Journal (2007).

CCX merely involves a few US firms; participants of “political” trading scheme aim to influence development of a federal US emissions trading scheme

Large corporations engage in alternative trading schemes to indirectly prepare for larger schemes expected to emerge in coming years, according to Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A., in ‘Multinational Corporations and Emissions Trading’ in European Management Journal (2007).