Agriculture, electricity to be focus of ETS amendments
Thu Oct 15 00:48:26 EST 2009
Wed Oct 14 13:48:26 UTC 2009
FED: Agriculture, electricity to be focus of ETS amendments
CANBERRA, Oct 14 AAP - Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt wants agriculture to play a bigger part in the climate change debate.
With the coalition set to nut out its list of amendments to the government's emissions trading scheme, Mr Hunt said his chief concern was to boost the role of agriculture emissions.
"My number one concern is to make sure that agriculture is dealt with so as to provide the incentives for 150 million tonnes to be captured in our trees, in our soil," he told Sky News on Wednesday.
"Overseas, in America, that's what's happening.
"But in Australia, the ALP scheme rules out our single biggest means of capturing carbon in our soils, in our revegetation, there is no incentive on that.
"Instead there is literally going to be a tax on livestock emissions."
Agriculture emissions have been excluded from the ETS until at least 2015, under the government's proposal.
The coalition also wants to rejig demands on the electricity sector, Mr Hunt said.
The country's big power generators faced financial oblivion under the government's carbon pollution reduction scheme.
"If the legislation is passed, they'll have massive liabilities ... and those liabilities will mean that they are in breach of their debt covenants ... trading under insolvency," Mr Hunt said.
He's again urged the government to sit down with the opposition to discuss changes to the scheme.
"What is most troubling is not just that it risks the supply of energy, but it also prevents them from investing in cleaning up their energy supplies, their energy sources."
He conceded it was not possible to leave the power sector out of an ETS, but said the government's plan was not the best way of reducing emissions from the industry.
