A bid to guard Australian heavy industries from cheaper, dirtier imports is a vital transfer, main business teams say.
Europe already has a inexperienced tariff, often called a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which places a worth on the carbon content material of products.
Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable stated on Wednesday the sources business supported the federal government trying into whether or not a CBAM is correct for Australia.
“CBAM is about dealing with the risk of carbon leakage, which is very real as different countries have different climate policy programs,” she informed AAP.
Steelmakers specifically have been vocal about so-called carbon leakage, the place jobs are misplaced to nations with much less onerous local weather regimes.
Climate Minister Chris Bowen is contemplating tariffs on metal and cement imports, which might make it much less worthwhile for corporations to easily transfer operations offshore as a solution to cut back carbon emissions.
But there are calls to increase the concept to different industries to additional stage the taking part in area for Australian companies.
Consultancy EY Oceania chief sustainability officer Mat Nelson stated the federal authorities’s transfer was additional proof border adjustment mechanisms have been gaining traction around the globe.
“As countries ramp up domestic action, these types of instruments are likely to be considered as a way to support a proxy global ‘carbon price’ without the need for globally consistent regulation – which we know is very difficult to achieve,” he informed AAP.
The proposal introduced is to maintain the preliminary CBAM comparatively slim.
“It is also likely to stay relatively narrow as they are more relevant for managing competition against ‘imports’ rather than competition on global markets for ‘exports’,” Mr Nelson stated.
“However, the more that other countries introduce them, the more it levels the playing field for global commodities.”
Carbon Market Institute CEO John Connor stated border tariffs can be an “important complement” to Australia’s revamped safeguard mechanism that lately took impact.
Carbon leakage was a risk to the worldwide effort to mitigate the impacts of local weather change, if companies search to keep away from the inevitable shift towards efficient carbon pricing and local weather regulation, he stated.
Instead of avoidance, Australia may be taught from markets such because the European Union to drive financial and industrial transformation.
Mr Connor stated a phased strategy to assist these most uncovered industries – cement, iron, metal, aluminium and fertilisers – adopted by different excessive polluting sectors equivalent to agriculture.
The proposed border tariffs add to steps being taken to maintain main industries aggressive and areas in work whereas decarbonising the financial system.
An preliminary $600 million from the $1.9 billion Powering the Regions Fund will go to trade-exposed amenities coated by the safeguard mechanism to compensate them for the price of change.
The safeguard mechanism requires Australia’s high 215 industrial crops to chop emissions by 5 per cent yearly for the remainder of this decade for the nation to get to net-zero by 2050.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
