Australia Scrapping Pollution Levy Marks First U-Turn on Climate
By Jason Scott and Mike Anderson Jul 17, 2014 1:03 PM ET

Australia’s decision to repeal its levy limiting fossil-fuel pollution makes it the first nation to turn back from a market approach to fighting global warming.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government won final approval from Parliament yesterday to scrap a levy about 300 companies paid for their carbon dioxide emissions. The move leaves Australia, the largest polluter per capita among industrial nations, without a system for reducing greenhouse gases as it prepares to host a meeting of the Group of 20 nations.

“Australia is bereft of a credible climate policy just as the international community focuses on deeper reduction targets,” said John Connor, chief executive officer of The Climate Institute, a Sydney-based environmental group. He called the move an “historic act of irresponsibility and recklessness.”

The about-face sets up Abbott for a clash with Europe and the U.S., which asked for climate policy to be on the G-20 agenda. Australia’s participation in reducing the gases blamed for global warming is crucial for United Nations-led climate talks aimed at establishing a worldwide emissions-limiting pact by next year. China is considering its first absolute cap on carbon and starting a national market for emissions.

“The European Union regrets the repeal of Australia’s carbon pricing mechanism just as new carbon pricing initiatives are emerging all around the world,” EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement yesterday. The EU planned to link its emissions trading system, the largest worldwide, with the one that would have started next year in Australia.

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Abbott won a landslide election victory last year for his Liberal-National coalition that he said gave him a mandate to throw out the “toxic tax” on carbon, which was triple Europe’s carbon price. The government estimates the repeal will save the average family A$550 a year in lower electricity prices and make Australian companies more competitive.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-17...on-climate.html