Carbon price may not meet its goals

Carbon price may not meet its goals – Features – ABC Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Fifteen years after John Howard's Liberal Coalition government first started talking about emissions trading, Australia finally, divisively, is putting a price on carbon pollution, starting this Sunday.  The promise is twofold: first, that it will cut greenhouse gas emissions.  But will it? Is it possible to price carbon - and for Australia's emissions to continue rising?  Dr Iain MacGill, joint director of the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM), at the University of NSW says it is.  "When you put a price on carbon, that's doesn't necessarily mean emissions go down. If a carbon price is low and you're looking at highly profitable activities that do increase there's certainly plenty of economic sectors in Australia which will say 'Oh well we will pay the price, perhaps I'm even receiving compensation from the government, but I'm expanding operations'".  Australian greenhouse gas emissions hit record levels before the global financial crisis in 2008. They've been rising steadily again since, and currently are tracking again at near record levels.  That's no great surprise.  But what would surprise most Australian's is that greenhouse gas emissions may continue to increase over the next decade - and yet we could still meet our 2020 target to cut emissions by five per cent.