UN carbon cut to cost Australia $870m

AUSTRALIA faces the prospect of paying an extra $870 million for greenhouse gas emissions after Kevin Rudd's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and a new UN target for carbon pollution.

After a year-long review by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change committee, Australia has been given a tougher target to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN has reduced the amount of greenhouse gas emissions Australia is allowed to produce by 6.6 million tonnes ayear.

If Australia is above the carbon emissions target at the end of 2012, it will be required tomake up any shortfall by buying carbon credits from other nations.

Continuing growth in Australia and the new target have led leading global carbon market analyst Point Carbon to estimate a potential extra cost to taxpayers of $870 million in carbon credits in 2012. [but that's just the delta... snip]

The Rudd Government's updated forecasts estimate Australian industry will have to pay $23.5 billion for carbon emission permits in the first two years of the ETS.

[Well what did you expect - you're growing - can't have that. Are we really foolish enough to allow ourselves to be regulated by the UN - on anything?]

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