Australian shift
The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has finally relented, and is now willing to consider trading of carbon emission rights. To use a common Australian expression, even Blind Freddie could see this was going to happen eventually; all that Howard’s Government has done is delay the inevitable and so make it harder for Australian companies to lead the market. From the Sydney Morning Herald tomorrow:
“The Government has been reluctant to move on setting a price on greenhouse gas pollutants such as carbon, arguing the inevitable increase in the cost of energy will erode Australia’s competitive advantage. Australia generates some of the world’s cheapest - but dirtiest - electricity from its large reserves of black coal.
A price on carbon would make coal-fired power more expensive and renewable energy from wind turbines and solar panels more competitive. It would have the same effect on nuclear power, now one of the most expensive ways of generating electricity.”