Emissions trading scheme still in balance

The leadership of the Federal Opposition has endorsed a compromise emissions trading scheme unveiled by the Rudd Government this morning but is still facing strong opposition in the party-room.

According to Reuters, the Rudd Government’s revised scheme still remains far from certain while opposition parties remain deeply divided and some conservatives vow to vote against the laws regardless of the deal and some moving to delay the vote until February 2010′.

In a bid to secure the Opposition’s vital support, the Rudd Government put forward a compromise carbon-trading scheme which boosts compensation to big carbon emitters, coal companies and electricity generators while reducing the incentives to households.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the additional expenditure measures would increase the cost by $7.01bn to 2019-20, while the household package will be reduced by $5.76bn.

The Australian Greens will oppose the scheme. During the debate in the Senate this morning, the Greens continued to criticise the Rudd Government and slammed the compromise scheme as a ‘dirty deal with dirty polluters’.

Green senator Christine Milne accused the Rudd Government for selling out. “It is payday for polluters today,” she said. “There is no commitment to 350 parts a million or getting rid of coal…(in fact) there is a determination to lock in coal till 2020.”

Australian Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown said in the lead-up to the Senate debate: “The Rudd Government’s targets have failure written all over them. Yet the ETS legislation will lock them in until 2020 since any increase will trigger compensation claims worth billions of dollars.”

Ian Macfarlane, chief Opposition negotiator, said today the amendments to the scheme would help protect Australian jobs.

“We have got a very good package and I think we have an exceptional package. It’s a deal that will protect jobs and the environment in Australia,” he said this morning.

But the opposition’s former climate change spokesman, Andrew Robb, is understood to have told his colleagues the deal should not be supported, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Further reading:

Grass-root action against pollution lobby

Details of proposed CPRS changes

Read the story in The Sydney Morning Herald