Suggestion of emissions trading but no new climate targets

An “intensity-based” emissions trading scheme for the electricity sector, to begin in 2018, is among a “toolkit” of policies recommended by the Climate Change Authority in a report setting out how Australia can meet its obligations under the Paris climate treaty.

The scheme, similar to a plan proposed by Labor at the last federal election, would set “baselines” for greenhouse emissions per unit of electricity generation, awarding credits to generators who emit less. The report recommended that these baselines be steadily reduced to zero “well before 2050”.

But it stopped short of recommending a planned phase-out of the most polluting power sources such as brown coal power stations, concluding that this will not be a cost-effective way to decarbonise the sector.

Read this piece on The Conversation by the Environment and Energy Editor, Michael Hopkin, who interviewed a Research Fellow from the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne, Dylan McConnell, and a Senior Industry Fellow, RMIT University, Alan Pears - “Climate Change Authority suggests emissions trading but no new climate targets.”