By Celsias
Posted on July 13, 2011. Listed in:
When National watered down the previous Labour Government’s ETS , one of the rationale the Government used was that it did not want to get too far ahead of its major trading partners.
Interesting, as China has now adopted a 5 year plan that has the potential to transform China into the world’s first green superpower, and Australia which has been one of the world’s laggards on carbon has just hurdled directly over New Zealand and headed away at a startling rate.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will have the numbers to get her carbon tax outlined on Sunday through the Parliament and the Greens now hold the balance of power in the Australian Senate. So it is likely to get through Parliament, after one of the most prolonged and bitter scraps in Australian political history. I thas taken many political scalps along the way.
Pure Advantage launched last week in New Zealand with business leaders pleading for New Zealand to adopt and use its competitive advantage in renewable industries and in clean technologies and food science , forestry and water services. It was unashamedly business and profit oriented in its appeal to the country to exploit New Zealand’s clean brand and credentials to both make them real This was, they argued,where the world needed expertise and solutions that we could provide. The world green technology was going ahead in leaps and bounds and we were very well placed to exploit that.
The question for the government , whichever one it is after November, is what can we do to catch up to Australia. That’s an embarrassing question.
Sure New Zealand’s ETS is designed so that it is all encompassing , and Australia’s exempts agriculture. But the argument to step back from that is sheer lunacy in a country that has almost 50% of its emissions from agriculture.
But the reality now is that the carbon price in New Zealand will be less than half that of Australia’s . We have a strange 2 for 1 deal that effectively halves what the polluters pa , so our price will be less than half the price per tonne in Australia. Make the 100% Pure Brand a bit tough, don’t you think , when you are outgunned by Australia. Ouch!
The other very real risk that the package has for NewZealand’s smart and savvy clean tech entrepreneurs is that it has a $A10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation established and an Australian Renewable Energy Agency with $A3.2 billion in funds. How attractive is it going to be for our clean tech businesses to go across the Tasman?
