Saturday, July 9, 2011

An Environmental Officers take on Australia's Carbon Tax

The specifications, as given...with my comments in red


- Planned to come into effect on July 1 2012


- $23 per tonne of CO2 emissions


Will increase by 2.5 per cent above inflation until July 1 2015, as reported . I recall Ross Garnaut suggesting $26 per tonne, so Labor didn't adopt the recommendation as given. 


- Targets the "500 highest polluting businesses"


- Projected to cut 159 million tonnes of carbon pollution from the atmosphere by 2020 


(19.875 Million Tonnes per year) - Touted as the equivalent of tasking 45 million cars off the road...or 5.625 million cars per year for 8 years to July 1 2020...based on what factors, I have no idea (i.e. age of vehicle, how many km's, fuel type, etc)


A transition to a market-based emissions trading scheme in 2015


- Average households will pay an extra $9.90 per week while average assistance will be $10.10 per week


$1.41 per day (rounded down). For an interest bearing account with an interest rate of 4.75% p.a, one would need in the range of $11,000 just to cover this new, additional expense imposed. LOL @ giving people 20c per week...that's $10.44 a year, that might cover the cost of running a light bulb for an hour or two.


All taxpayers with incomes below $80,000 will get tax cuts - most about $300 a year 


At the rate of $9.90 per week it costs around $515, so even with this "sweetener", working people are still $215 out of pocket every year or 59c per day


- Pension increase to protect them from higher prices


The Government says compensation will be equal to a 1.7 per cent increase in pensions, allowances and family payments - So young, single, working people are discriminated against. If you do the math on the aged pension rate and the 1.7% increase it breaks at about the say $300 figure - same as the tax cut as above.


 Fuel is exempt for individual motorists and small business, however, diesel for heavy vehicles like semi-trailers will be paying the carbon price from 2014


According to http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/transport/fuelguide/environment.html  Diesel emits 2.7kg of CO2 per Litre of fuel used, so it takes around 370L to produce 1 tonne of CO2 ($23). According to Western Australia's Government 'Fuel Watch' website (as of 1:45pm AEST) the price of diesel for the 'metro average' is 143.9c/L - Remembering of course this is 2011 prices, and the tax is hitting them in 3 years time...who thinks the fuel price will DROP?!? If it was imposed today it would add 6c per L extra, so the average price per Litre would no longer be 143.9c/L, it would be 149.9c/L


- The scheme will be administered by a new Climate Change Authority


$9.2 billion from the revenue stream to help businesses and workers impacted by the plan.


Note the acknowledgement of impacts on workers.


- Australia's most polluting electricity generators will be closed and replaced with gas-fired units by 2020


Are Labor getting kickbacks from the Gas industry or something?


-  A $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation to fund new clean energy technology.


An Australian Renewable Energy Agency to manage a $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation to fund new clean energy technology.


A target of 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020


The N.S.W Government already had this target before this announcement


Agriculture excluded from paying the carbon price


According to 'Environmental Conscious Technologies, Australia' using the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory; Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics as sources "Agriculture created 15.6 percent of emissions, or 90.1 million tonnes"


Well there it is, 



No (clear) mention of the 10% of the funds that go to the U.N Climate Change Fund: See Video:







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