Business to back carbon trading

Matthew Franklin
The Australian
Saturday, July 5, 2008

BIG business will today pledge full support for an emissions trading scheme but it will warn Kevin Rudd against granting exemptions from the scheme for crude political reasons.

The Business Council of Australia will also warn its members against overstating the negative effects of the policy at the risk of alienating the Government, and urge the community to accept that fuel and power prices are too low and must increase.

BCA president Greg Gailey will use a speech in Sydney to outline his organisation’s approach on climate change on the eve of the release of a report on emissions trading by the Prime Minister’s hand-picked adviser on the issue, economist Ross Garnaut.

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According to a copy of Mr Gailey’s speech, obtained by The Australian yesterday, the BCA is “wholly supportive” of the move to put a price on carbon emissions but wants the scheme to be carefully designed to ensure emissions-heavy businesses will be supported against overseas competitors from nations without emissions trading schemes.

“Given the complexity of many of these issues, it seems likely that some will be put in the too-hard basket or that the simplest solutions will be sought,” Mr Gailey says.

“But simplicity at the expense of effectiveness increases the likelihood that we will get the policy wrong at tremendous cost to households, businesses, the economy and environment.”

Full article here.

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