Friday, April 12, 2013

Australia's Carbon Tax is Working

The latest data shows emissions from Australia's power sector have dropped to a 10-year low:
Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation have fallen to a 10-year low as coal-fired power slumped to its lowest level in a decade, a new report says.

At the same time, the share of renewable energy in the National Electricity Market (NEM) has soared beyond 12 per cent and looks set to continue rising.

In its latest quarterly emissions outlook, energy and carbon research firm RepuTex found coal power made up 74.8 per cent of the NEM in the three months ended in March - its lowest point in 10 years.

Coal was at more than 85 per cent of the NEM four years ago, when wind made up just half a per cent of the overall mix.

Today, wind generation is at 3.8 per cent, hydro 8.7 per cent and gas at 12.7 per cent of the NEM.

"Renewables are basically cancelling out coal," RepuTex executive director Hugh Grossman told AAP on Thursday.

As a result, Australia's CO2 emissions were driven down to a ten-year low, he said.
The country's (and the world's) largest mining company says its effective tax rate in Australia is 45%....

3 comments:

Steve said...

Hi David,

I am an Australian and this is an interesting state of affairs. The opposition conservative party (bizarrely calling itself the Liberal Party) demonized the Carbon Price before it was introduced claiming that it would be ineffective and tank the economy. The fact that these two claims have proven to be radically incorrect has not effected the chances of our conservatives being elected at the next election, in September.

The "Liberals" are campaigning on a platform of repealing the Carbon Price. If they succeed in doing this it will be interesting to see the international reaction.

They are claiming that they will replace the market based Carbon Price (Cap and Trade) with "Direct Action" a strange mixture of tree planting, soil carbon and paying industry to reduce emissions.

I am interested in your expectation of the international reaction if Australia becomes the only country to repeal Climate legislation.

gallopingcamel said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
David Appell said...

Peter (Galloping Camel): You are no longer permitted to comment on this site, since I caught you telling lies at your own blog.