Carbon tax passes the House of Reps

Yay! The lower house of parliament has passed the carbon tax legislation. In a month, it will go before the Senate, where the Greens have the balance of power. They’ve said they’ll pass it (maybe with some amendments, I’m not sure), so we should have a way to charge money for carbon dioxide pollution soon.

Some quick points about the tax:

• Australia is the 33rd country to have a carbon tax. We’re joining the UK, Sweden, New Zealand, India and other international friends in making sure that we can pay for cleaning up our atmosphere.
• It’s not a huge amount for corporations to pay, given that all the fossil fuel companies are making billion-dollar profits every year. Business groups are screaming as if the sky were falling, but if you read their annual reports you can see how they’re making plans to include it along with the other costs of doing business. They all carry on like pork chops every time someone suggests that they have community responsibilities, this is just more of the same.
• If you’d like to see how it will affect you as an individual, the ABC has carbon price effect guide.

Personally, Dave and I earn enough money that we’re not getting compensated for the entire expected cost. I’m totally ok with that, and to be honest I’d be happy not to be compensated at all if the money would go towards more renewables or compensating lower-income households instead. But I guess we have to appease the rich whingers if we want anything done in this country!

What other countries are doing with carbon prices

Joseph Tohill over at The 9 Billion has a good round-up of the carbon taxes that other countries have got already: How Australia’s Upcoming Carbon Tax Compares With Other Countries. Take a look if you or your friends are worried that Australia is moving too quickly on this issue – it’s interesting to see the big players already involved.

One country that Joseph didn’t mention is New Zealand and their emissions trading scheme. It began in 2009, and it wasn’t free from controversy but is now an accepted part of the economy there. The linked Wikipedia article has more details than you can poke a stick at!

Earlier this year, the NZ PM John Key was here on a visit and suggested that some time in the future Australia and New Zealand could bring their pricing schemes together. I think this would be great – it’d make it easier for our businesses to work together, and would be a good opportunity to work out any fiddly bits ahead of a true international scheme.

So really, we’re already behind the game when it comes to pricing carbon. Even the Kiwis are ahead of us! But better late than never, I suppose. The quicker we get our pricing sorted out the quicker we can move on with other environmental issues.

Carbon tax: a good start, let’s keep working on it

So this morning I watched PM Gillard’s announcement of a carbon tax for Australia. It’s a moment I’ve been wanting for at least 4 years now, so it was pretty interesting to me.

On the whole, I think that this is the best package that could be put forward the way politics are right now. But it was obviously designed by committee! There are issues that I think need to be fixed, and I hope the arrangements will be improved over time as we get the hang of it. See a summary here.

The tax will be put on 500 large corporations, the worst polluters. Obviously they will pass the increased cost on to their customers, which will flow throughout the economy. But this should be offset by the household compensation that’s been put in place too, which is higher than it was in the CPRS.

On the upside:

• Household compensation has been given by overhauling the tax system. The $18,000 tax-free threshold (up from $6000, which is the same level it’s been for over a decade) will also do more to help our economy than the generous tax breaks already given to high-earners, and hopefully make daily life a bit easier for some people.
• Independent review of the compensation given to businesses, with the Productivity Commission checking if they’ve made any windfall profits and reducing compensation sooner if so.
• Independent review of the ridiculously low target of a 5% reduction in emissions Australia-wide.
• More money for renewables.
• It will count as significant action in the eyes of other world governments, which is important as we try to negotiate a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol.

The downside:

• The coal industry is getting $1.2 billion dollars in handouts, to add to their billion-dollar profits. As Bernard Keane put it, “Compensating the coal industry for a carbon price is like compensating the local drug dealer for a crime crackdown.”
• Steel companies will also be getting lots of cash, which is more about protecting their industry than any particular need for it under a carbon tax.
• More money for carbon capture and storage research, in spite of the billion-dollar profits that coal companies have available to spend on making their industry cleaner.
• Fuel and agriculture aren’t included. No-one’s really figured out how to count emissions from agriculture yet, and it’s not fair to tax them on averages and estimates. It’s a shame about the fuel, but it was given up in exchange for more renewables investment. I see it as the price of getting anything started at all.

If you want more details on how it’ll affect you and your family, check out the Clean Energy Future government website – they have a household calculator which seems pretty decent. If you enjoy hard data, you’ll want to look at the Treasury modelling as well.

Using less oil helps stop terrorism

Photo credit: Rama, via Wikimedia Commons

Last week, Osama Bin Laden was finally captured and killed after 10 years on the run. I didn’t think it’d be something I’d mention on my environmental blog – but it turns out that it’s relevant after all.

Over at Grist, Glen Hurowitz has a post called Now that we’ve killed Osama Bin Laden, let’s kill oil. Bin Laden got his money from working in the oil and construction business in Saudi Arabia, and his financial support came from oil-rich sympathisers in the Gulf region.

The USA relies heavily on oil, the same as we do for all our petrol and plastic. They have an interest in keeping the oil flowing in that region, which leads them to poke their nose into local politics. People who live there don’t want US interference, although their leaders are often happy to co-operate with the US government and military. This means that average citizens there are often both angry and desperate – which creates a breeding ground for terrorist organisations who are only too happy to take advantage of them.

But take a look at countries like Tunisia and Egypt. The government and military there didn’t have tons of oil money, which made it easier for the people to get rid of their corrupt rulers earlier this year. Without the oil companies and US involvement, they were able to sort things out for themselves relatively peacefully. Several different political groups worked together for a common goal, and achieved their independence in a way they can be proud of.

Wars are often about scarce resources: oil, farmland, water. The more oil we use, the more we’re contributing to difficult political situations as well as pollution and greenhouse gases.

If you’re interested in weaning yourself off oil, there’s a few things you can do to help reduce the amount we use for petrol:

• Look into public transport in your area. If it’s not good enough, let your transport service know what you need.
• Get a bike and use it for short trips, like to the deli to pick up milk and bread.
• Support mixed-use development in your suburb – a mix of small shops, parks, post offices, medical centres, small bars and restaurants makes your area more walkable.
• Support tougher fuel-efficiency regulations on cars, and when you next buy a car, make it as fuel-efficient as you can afford.

Oil is also used for plastic, and that plastic is often used just once before it’s thrown away. Here’s a few ideas for how you can use less of it:

• When you’re shopping, choose products with less packaging (cardboard as well as plastic, if you’re concerned about trees as well!).
• Choose durable products that can be repaired or reused, instead of one-time disposable plastic things.
• Remember your re-useable bags, and support shops who are making an effort to stop handing out plastic bags.
• Make sure you recycle any plastic you couldn’t avoid bringing home with you.

The oil and politics issue is a really complicated one. I’m not an expert on it, but I reckon that if people are willing to fight for it, to die for this substance that will run out one day… then we shouldn’t just treat it casually. We need to be more aware of how we contribute to the demand for it, and do our bit to help.

Australia gets a carbon price next year

PM Gillard has announced today that Australia will have a carbon price as of next year. This is fantastic news, and long overdue. I wasn’t able to see the press conference on tv, but was following @annabelcrabb on Twitter to get the up to date news.

The plan is to start with a fixed price in July 2012, keeping it for 3 to 5 years. After that we will transition to a cap and trade setup. A year before the fixed price ends, a review will take place to see if there’s any reason we shouldn’t go ahead with the cap and trade.

The point is to make sure that things that create carbon pollution will be more expensive than things that don’t.

Agriculture will not be included, but there will be incentives for farmers to cut emissions. It also seems that transport will be included somehow, which is an improvement on the Rudd/Wong ETS.

Gillard says that history shows that countries that profit in times of change are the ones who move early instead of lagging behind. Bob Brown pointed out that Germany is doing well from taking early action.

However, things like starting price, industry and household assistance haven’t been figured out yet. I think this leaves room for things to go wrong, but I’m glad to see they’re moving on the issue at all!