We support emissions trading! Whatever that means
July 30th 2008 09:39
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According to two recent polls, most Australians favour an emissions trading scheme, but at the same time most don't know what it means.
In practice, a government or regulatory authority sets a cap on the total carbon, say, that can be emitted in an area such as a state or a country in one year. Based on that total, companies and other producers of pollution are allocated individual annual allowances. Any company which plans to produce less emissions than its allocation can sell the excess. Any company which needs to produce more emissions than its allocation needs to buy more allocations.
The buying and selling is done on an exchange, like the stockmarket.
Such a scheme is thought to have advantages over alternative methods of controlling emissions, such as a direct tax, because, in theory, those that can easily reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest possible cost to society.
So what is to stop Australia pushing ahead with these positive plans?
Firstly, emissions trading has its detractors, with arguments especially about complexity of such schemes and about goals and caps. Secondly, the issue is politically sensitive, with the government wary of a backlash from some voters who are happy to support a good cause until it starts to hit them in the wallet, and from other voters who know nothing about it at all.
That mix can be seen in two Australian polls conducted in July. When asked in general if they supported an emission trading scheme to fight global warming, respondents to a Newspoll replied 61 per cent in favour; when asked if they’d pay to support it, approval dropped to 56 per cent; and when asked if petrol should be exempt, even if it pushed up other prices, opinion was almost evenly divided. Meanwhile, a poll in Melbourne's The Age suggested half the Australian population had either never heard of emissions trading or did not know what it was; and just 7% claimed to know a lot about it.
While action is desperately needed, and while the Australian government has committed to action within two years, this confusion and lack of understanding will make the politicians wary and may compromise the government's stated commitment. One has only to look back to the recent outcry when petrol prices surged. Our elected decision makers, so sensitive to polls of a different kind, will be moving warily.
Which is fair enough, so long as they have the courage to keep moving forward.
Research sources: news.com.au, wikipedia, The Age
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