Bronte-+Carbon+Tax+Research

What is the Carbon Tax? At the centre of the government’s policy on climate change is pricing carbon. Many commentators and politicians have referred to this as a “carbon tax”. The idea is that polluters will pay per tonne of carbon they release into the atmosphere. This cost will initially be set at $23, and increase gradually until 2015, when we will shift to a trading scheme that will let the market set the cost. This is widely thought of as the most effective and least costly mechanism to reduce carbon output and reduce the level of climate change that is occurring. [|[-]] Right now, when you purchase a product that relies on carbon-intensive materials or manufacturing processes, the price you pay does not represent the cost incurred by the environment. The iron ore used to create the product could be sourced from the highest polluting mine in the world, the electricity used to power the manufacturing plant could be provided by the dirtiest coal mine in the world, and the trucks used to transport the product to its final destination in a supermarket could run on the dirtiest fuels in the world, and it would make no difference to the price. With a price on carbon, this equation would change. The amount of carbon pollution involved in producing a product would start to be factored into its final price. Products produced through dirty processes will become more expensive, thereby making it possible for other products produced through cleaner processes to compete on price. Yes, that’s right. The price of certain goods that are reliant on carbon pollution for their production will go up. However, the majority of Australians will be compensated for this cost, and this cost will be relatively small for most items. Visit the [|household compensation calculator] if you wish to find out where you stand once the price on carbon is introduced. How will this drive a move towards a cleaner future you might wonder. Well, it’s not hard to see that if pollution-intensive processes make goods more expensive, companies will look to reduce their pollution footprint in order to lower their costs. That’s what businesses do – improve efficiency year on year. It’s one of the key drivers of growth. For this reason, it is actually not necessary for the consuming public to change their practices, although that would help drive you own costs down.

http://www.carbontax.net.au/category/what-is-the-carbon-tax/

What is the Cost from Not Acting? Aside from a swathe of [|overwhelmingly negative effects to our way of life and the environment] if we do not make a global effort to fight climate change, there are significant risks to the Australian economy if we do not take steps towards pricing carbon. John Birmingham of the Sydney Morning Herald published an illuminating article detailing how we will end up paying whether or not a price on carbon is introduced. The difference is to who that money will go – to Australian taxpayers in the form of compensation, or to overseas jurisdictions in the form of penalty payments. [|[-]] To illustrate the risks facing us if we do not act, let’s consider the case of Qantas, who now faces an initialcarbon tax penalty of 15% on its carbon emissions for any flights it makes into or out of Europe. This penalty will increase over time, and is payed directly into the coffers of the European Union. The reason for its imposition is specifically because Australian does not have carbon price in place. Over the next few years, the European Union will expand its penalty regime to impose general sanctions on countries that do not meet its standards on carbon reduction mechanisms. Economic powerhouses like China and the US will likely be able to negotiate their way around them, by threatening retaliatory sanctions or similar. Australia, on the other hand, does not have that sort of negotiating power, and will be forced to pay the price. There is precedent for this. John Birmingham points to Howard’s capitulation on privacy legislation – he was forced to introduce wide-ranging protections at the behest of our European trading partners, or see Australian businesses face penalties when trading in Europe. There are further economic reasons behind acting to implement a price on carbon, aside from the risk of foreign sanctions. The fact is that renewable energy technology will be the next huge growth industry. The Chinese have been quick to recognise this and have the highest level of investment in this sector, accounting for almost 25% of worldwide investment in renewables last year for a total of $50 billion USD. If we do not incentivise investment in the sector, we will simply be left behind.

http://www.carbontax.net.au/category/what-is-the-carbon-tax/

But giving back what your captor took away in the first place, is not kindness, or competence in the case of our government. Reversing the ban on exporting uranium to India, after they banned it for irrational ideological and anti-Howard reasons in the first place, is not a triumph of foreign policy. Attacking the Greens for living in fairyland is not strength after you got in bed with them and implemented their fairyland carbon policies. Getting tough on unions and getting Qantas back in the air by our PM is not competence, after your own FWA laws let the unions off the leash in the first place. And even in the unlikely case that they fix the illegal boat problem, that is no triumph if they were the ones that opened the flood gates in the first place in 2007. No, all is not well in Australia, even should Labor mend a few of their disasters. As you go to work each day to secure your and your children’s future, every reform not undertaken by this government (and I don’t mean carbon tax), every billion dollars wantonly wasted, is not something we can simply do later, or just someone else’s money, so who cares. It is an investment not invested in our country, a lost opportunity taken away from your children’s future. While you struggle to gain control over your future, this government is taking it away from you and is working hard to take away your very ability to know it from a free media or speak out against it. But it is subtly done and we won;t care until we lose it. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, but not while Masterchef is on. I can only hope, come election time, we gain insight and courage enough to escape these our captors.

http://www.nocarbontax.com.au/

** What is a carbon tax and why is it being proposed? **

The government plans to tax the carbon pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels, including coal and petroleum. A carbon tax puts a price on the carbon released when fossil fuels are burned. It is designed to include in the price of fossil fuel use the cost of the environmental damage it causes.

By increasing the price of using fossil fuels, supporters of a carbon tax argue it will create incentives to develop and use technologies that reduce carbon emissions, including fuel-efficient cars and renewable energy sources. Supporters say that taxing carbon will make individuals take into account the price of using fossil fuels in their personal decisions, including the cars they buy and the appliances they use.

For emitters, using carbon-based fuels would eventually cost more than reducing their use of fossil fuels.

** How does a carbon tax work? **

With a carbon price, the government taxes each tonne of carbon pollution released when fossil fuels are burned. The carbon price is a tax rate set by the government.

The Gillard government has not announced the price it will set on carbon pollution. However it has said the price will be fixed for a period of three to five years.

The tax will include the stationary energy sector, the transport sector, and the industrial processes sector. Agriculture will not be included in the scheme.

** How is it different to an emissions trading system? **

The federal government plans to move to an emissions trading system three to five years after a carbon tax is introduced.

Emissions trading is different to a carbon tax. In an emissions trading system, a central authority sets a cap on how much a pollutant such as CO2 may be emitted. The cap is allocated to companies in the form of emissions permits, which give them the right to emit a certain amount of the pollutant. Firms are required to hold a number of permits equivalent to their emissions.

The total number of permits issued to all companies cannot exceed the emissions cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Firms that need to increase their emission permits must buy them from companies that require fewer permits. This means permit buyers are paying a charge for polluting more, while sellers are being rewarded for reducing emissions.

** Which other countries have a carbon tax? ** In 2010 Finland’s price on carbon was €20 per tonne of CO2. Natural gas has a reduced tax rate, while peat was exempted between 2005-2010. Taxation of liquid fuels and coal takes account of both their energy content and carbon dioxide emissions, and also emissions into the local environment that have adverse health effects. With Sweden raising prices on fossil fuels since enacting the carbon tax, it cut its carbon pollution by 9 per cent between 1990 and 2006. Denmark’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions were nearly 15% lower in 2005 than in 1990. Overall, greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland remained stable between 1990 and 2007. ** Quebec, Boulder ** ** - **The Canadian province of Quebec, and the US city of Boulder have also implemented carbon taxes.
 * Finland: ** introduced the world’s first carbon tax in 1990. Initially the tax exempted few industries and fuels.
 * The Netherlands: ** the Netherlands levies a general fuel tax on all fossil fuels. Fuels used as raw materials are not subject to the tax. Tax rates are based on both the energy and carbon contents of fuels.
 * Sweden: ** in 1991 Sweden enacted a carbon tax.
 * India: **a levy on coal producers was introduced in 2010. India expected to raise $535 million from the tax, the first measure used by the subcontinent to reduce companies’ use of fossil fuels.
 * Norway: ** in 1991 Norway introduced a tax on carbon. However its carbon emissions increased by 43m per cent per capita between 1991 and 2008.
 * Denmark: **enacted in 1992, Denmark’s carbon tax applies to all energy users, which includes the industrial sector. But industrial companies are taxed differently depending on the process the energy is used for, and whether or not the company has entered into a voluntary agreement to apply energy efficiency measures.
 * Switzerland: ** a carbon incentive tax was introduced in Switzerland in 2008. It includes all fossil fuels, unless they are used for energy. Swiss companies can be exempt from the tax if they participate in the country’s emissions trading system.
 * Ireland: **a tax on oil and gas came into effect in 2010. It was estimated to add around €43 to filling a 1000 litre oil tank and €41 to the average annual gas bill.
 * Costa Rica: **in 1997 Costa Rica enacted a tax on carbon pollution, set at 3.5 per cent of the market value of fossil fuels. The revenue raised from this goes into a national forest fund which pays indigenous communities for protecting the forests around them.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1492651/factbox-carbon-taxes-around-the-world

Recently, the Government released details about the new Clean Energy Agreement that aims to reduce the country's emissions by 5% of 2000 levels by 2020.

This will be achieved by introducing a fixed price on carbon pollution on the 1st of July, 2012. The price will be AU$23 per tonne CO2e (rising at 2.5% per annum).

Preceding this, on 1st July 2015, an emissions trading scheme will be introduced meaning the price of carbon will be flexible and will be dertermined by the market.

There will be a price ceiling and floor that will apply for the first three years of the flexible price period. The price ceiling will be set at $20 above the expected international price and will rise by 5% each year. The price floor will be $15 rising annually by 4%.

Initially the carbon pollution tax will cover approximately 60% of Australia's emissions (360M t per annum) in the stationary energy sector, transport, industrial processes, non-legacy waste and fugitive emissions.

The Carbon Farming Initiative will play a major role in efforts to reduce Asutralia's emissions within a limited time. Companies are able to use Kyoto-compliant Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) created under the CFI to meet their obligations under the new plan.

http://rubyconnection.com.au/articles/so-how-does-a-carbon-tax-work