Viv Forbes points out that the ALP-Green government is proposing an ETS arrangement which has been discredited world wide.
Compared to an ETS, a carbon tax is simple, with far less compliance costs, more predictable and it more directly achieves what they want. And it is easier to repeal, which is what should happen to it. However the ALP-Green bills, introducing initially only a carbon tax, lead into an ETS.
The Carbon Sense Coalition claims that it is a massive deception for the government to suggest they can cut Australia's real physical carbon dioxide emissions by 5-25% from 2000 levels by 2020 in spite of a rising population.
The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Viv Forbes, said that such cuts cannot be actually achieved without massive economic dislocation and contraction, and the government knows this.
The real plan is to achieve a fake reduction by forcing Australian companies to pay billions of dollars via carbon traders to foreign carbon credit sharks, who promise to cut their production of carbon dioxide.
In most cases, this will not result in any reductions. At best it will produce largely worthless promises to not increase emissions in future. At worst it will be a fraud on Australian taxpayers and consumers.
All over the world, the carbon casinos which trade emission certificates and carbon credits have been riddled with fraud because neither side to the transaction cares about the reality.
The buyer of carbon credits just wants the bit of paper which allows him to keep operating. As long as it satisfies some carbon cop in the government carbon bank, he is happy. The seller of the carbon credit just wants the money for a virtual asset. He too does not care whether or not the cuts are real. He just needs someone to believe his promises. Everyone in his country wants to see the foreign money arriving, so no one wants to look too closely.
The Chicago Carbon Exchange has closed and the carbon price has collapsed in Europe amid widespread trading in fraudulent and stolen certificates. As the founder of Carbon Watch says ‘When “buying” or “selling” a sham commodity, the possibilities for fraud are endless”. Soon only Australia and New Zealand will be left to trade increasingly worthless hot air certificates.
The Gillard government must abandon plans to saddle Australia with an Emissions Trading Scheme which has already failed elsewhere.
Background reading:
Here is a report on fraud and scams in the European scheme which Australia is copying:
http://www.carbontradewatch.org/articles/fraud-and-scams-in-the-eu-emissions-trading-system.html
A Brussels Clean Development Mechanisms Watchdog says ‘millions of claimed reductions are mere phantoms’. Developing country credits are often suspect.
Comments; editor@independentaustralian.com.au