The climate around “Climate Change” is changing in Australia. In the election year, John Howard has changed from a climate skeptic to ‘China, India, US and then Australia’ idea to suggesting a carbon trading scheme in three years in Australia.

John Howard suggests carbon pricing mechanisms in Australia.

The Climate Change debate is moving forward in Australia. Kevin Rudd, the opposition leader, in a bid to take up Howard on his weak point is hosting a climate conference in Mar 2007. The Australian Financial Review last week discussed the costs of carbon to various businesses around Australia. This was based on a citigroup report on the Top 100 companies on the Australian Stock Exchange.

This Inside Business video (10 min, streaming) in Dec 2006 has more information on the report.

Clearly there is a great incentive to work towards cutting down the carbon exposure of business now that a price of carbon is evident. The best part of this development is the increased incentives for carbon friendly companies working in the solar, wind power or co2 sequestration technologies as they can sell credits and make more money from doing their normal business.

Extra:

• Background Briefing on Emissions Trading from ClimateBiz.com
• For a brief on why Carbon pricing is a better way to go forward than a carbon tax, listen to the following discussion by Warwick McKibbin, Professor at the ANU’s Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis and at the Lowy Institute for International Policy