Following a lengthy shadow cabinet meeting on the 30th of July, Federal Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson emerged having agreed to an emissions trading scheme policy not dissimilar to that which the Coalition took into the last election. Prior to the meeting, Nelson had promised to take a harder line on climate change and had not wanted Australia to set an emissions trading start date without further commitment from major emitters such as China, India, Russia and the US.

There is no doubt that the Liberals are committed to emissions trading and Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition environment Minister Greg Hunt were confident going into the meeting that a 2012 start date would remain central to the opposition’s policy. However, in what appeared to be an effort to extinguish speculation over a Liberal party rift they both hinted that this could change, Mr. Turnbull saying “political parties' policies are a living thing. They change from time to time." This indeed did change, the Coalition is no longer set on a 2012 start-date, however Dr Nelson stated that an emissions trading scheme should be implemented whether or not a global agreement, including India, China, Russia and the US, is achieved. Dr Nelson said that “Australia should commence an emissions trading scheme with a very, very low price and a very low trajectory,” regardless of the actions and commitments of other countries. He also expressed concern over the 2010 start date proposed by the Rudd government believing it to be part of a “rushed” timetable.

Criticising Dr Nelson’s approach, Brad Page, CEO of the Energy Supply Association of Australia called for the Liberal Party Leader to demonstrate some certainty on the date at which his scheme would be introduced. Mr. Page believes that the 2012 deadline set by the Howard Government was, “the right thing to do.” In response to Dr. Nelson’s uncertain start date he said, “the biggest single risk that the energy supply faces is policy uncertainty on greenhouse,” and, “we need that policy confidence and policy confidence that comes from saying we are going to have an emissions trading scheme, it's going to have certain targets and it's going to start on a certain date." The energy industry requires certainty to enable planning to protect their investments into the future, "uncertainty is a chiller for investment and we have got huge investment decisions to make," said Page.

References

• Grattan, M. & Morton, A. 'Nelson faces dissent on emissions policy,' The Age, aug 28, 2008
• Taylor, L. 'Brendan Nelson’s new climate shift,' The Australian, aug 30, 2008