In a letter to major political parties dated Friday, the Clean Energy Council said Australians have been looking for a measure that addresses climate change and provides cheaper clean energy.
They also said the political standoff between rural independents and the major parties after the federal election left a good note for the environment and the renewable energy campaign in the country.
“Australia has the opportunity now to reset the political agenda on climate change and return to the implementation of a carbon price in the next political term. We should seize that opportunity,” said Matthew Warren, the council’s chief executive.
The open letter’s signatories include General Electric, Vestas Wind Systems, Suzlon and RePower Australia.
“An emissions trading scheme is widely recognized as being the most efficient way of reducing emissions across the economy,” Mr. Warren said.
Carbon pricing, which could operate by way of cap-and-trade, is a concept of imposing a cost on the emission of greenhouse gases, which not only makes polluting more expensive for companies but also provides incentives to the application of renewable energy technologies.
This pricing mechanism encourages electric distributors to build more of their power portfolio from clean energy sources instead of emission-intensive units such as coal, gas and oil-fired stations.
Such a mechanism, in the form of the emissions trading scheme, has existed in Europe and New Zealand. A proposal to establish a carbon market in the United States is slated for review in the Senate. Meanwhile, Japan and China are also said to be mulling over imposing a price on greenhouse gas emissions.
“It is a policy that has been supported by former Prime Minister John Howard, former Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull, the Greens and the Labor Party,” Mr. Warren said.
The council is urging the government of Australia to adopt carbon trading to help the country achieve its emissions reduction target of 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020.
