What carbon price is right to bite into, not bark at, climate change?

Support for obligations contained in the Kyoto Protocol can be found in the Clean Energy Act 2011 that was passed in the Federal Parliament on 18 November 2011. The first object of this statute [at section 3(a)] is "to give effect to Australia's obligations under … the Kyoto Protocol".

A prudent course for government to now take would be to ensure that medium- and long-term decision-making on action for climate change facilitates public trust and confidence in government. People should have an opportunity to effectively participate in the decision-making process, secure in the knowledge that their needs and concerns will be properly taken into account.

All possible alternative actions for reducing carbon dioxide emissions must now be identified and then subject to an independent evaluation using the Kyoto Protocol obligations as the dimensions for the comparison.

This is a priority issue for tackling climate change today as, in all likelihood, future generations will be faced with most of the costs; the needs for inter-generational equity make today's decisions on the action taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and the emissions targets that are set over time, crucial.