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AUSTRALIA 
Families 'to be assisted when carbon trading comes in'
Friday, 27 June, 2008
Nuclear energy is not being considered as a response to climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. (Getty Images)
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The cost of petrol and energy won't be insulated from the operation of an emissions trading scheme even if they are excluded, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.
The government is refusing to say whether petrol and energy will be included in the scheme, planned for 2010, saying it wants to wait for a draft report from the Garnaut review due for release next month.
"What we've said, as (former prime minister) Mr (John) Howard said last year, is if you act on climate change and the emissions trading system then obviously there's a flow-through consequence on the cost of petrol and the cost of energy," Mr Rudd told ABC Radio.
"We understand that.
"What we'll be doing is also supplying support for working families, working Australians, pensioners and carers to deal with any additional cost to them and also through the system we'll also be providing support for business to adjust."
The exact detail of how people would be compensated would be worked out in the second half of this year, he said.
It won't be any surprise if electricity costs rose when a trading scheme operated, Mr Rudd said.
But it was too early to determine by how much prices would increase.
"That all goes down to the target that we've set for ourselves for an environmental and economic purpose which is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
"It depends then on the trajectory that you have between now and then in terms of the emissions you bring down each year.
"That, in turn, determines the carbon ceiling, for the economy and that in turn then determines what will be the framework within which a carbon market would operate, and these are the matters which are yet to be determined."
The government was optimistic about the future of the coal industry which would be tied up with the development of clean coal.
"Coal has to be part of the long-term solution," Mr Rudd said.
"The future for the coal industry lies in large part in the development and perfection and commercial application of clean coal technologies.
"There are four stamp technologies, we're working our way through those methodically."
Clean-coal research was already being undertaken in the Latrobe Valley, but it needed to be developed in a reasonable time frame, Mr Rudd said.
"We're already investing ... I believe, in one or two projects in the Latrobe Valley to look at the application of this technology to them."
Source: AAP
The government is refusing to say whether petrol and energy will be included in the scheme, planned for 2010, saying it wants to wait for a draft report from the Garnaut review due for release next month.
"What we've said, as (former prime minister) Mr (John) Howard said last year, is if you act on climate change and the emissions trading system then obviously there's a flow-through consequence on the cost of petrol and the cost of energy," Mr Rudd told ABC Radio.
"We understand that.
"What we'll be doing is also supplying support for working families, working Australians, pensioners and carers to deal with any additional cost to them and also through the system we'll also be providing support for business to adjust."
The exact detail of how people would be compensated would be worked out in the second half of this year, he said.
It won't be any surprise if electricity costs rose when a trading scheme operated, Mr Rudd said.
But it was too early to determine by how much prices would increase.
"That all goes down to the target that we've set for ourselves for an environmental and economic purpose which is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
"It depends then on the trajectory that you have between now and then in terms of the emissions you bring down each year.
"That, in turn, determines the carbon ceiling, for the economy and that in turn then determines what will be the framework within which a carbon market would operate, and these are the matters which are yet to be determined."
The government was optimistic about the future of the coal industry which would be tied up with the development of clean coal.
"Coal has to be part of the long-term solution," Mr Rudd said.
"The future for the coal industry lies in large part in the development and perfection and commercial application of clean coal technologies.
"There are four stamp technologies, we're working our way through those methodically."
Clean-coal research was already being undertaken in the Latrobe Valley, but it needed to be developed in a reasonable time frame, Mr Rudd said.
"We're already investing ... I believe, in one or two projects in the Latrobe Valley to look at the application of this technology to them."
Source: AAP
