Australia to introduce carbon price in 2012

Australia’s Labor government is preparing to introduce a fixed carbon price next year, according to domestic press reports.
The government also plans to usher-in an emissions trading scheme in 2015 or 2016 after introducing a carbon price, an Australian newspaper reported.
Reports citing sources close to the government suggest that Australian Prime Minister Gillard is to propose a fixed price for carbon next week that will include compensation for electricity generation industries and energy-intensive sectors that are exposed to trade.
These exceptions are expected to weaken the Labor Party’s support from the Greens, which helped Gillard secure a majority in Parliament.
The country’s opposition Conservative Party previously planned to introduce a carbon price when it was in power, which was mooted when the party left office.
In a recent interview, Julia Gillard said that the country’s Energy Minister Greg Combet is already in talks to decide on the best mechanism for introducing a carbon price.
Gillard said her party would work with the multi-party Climate Change Committee to set the mechanisms for pricing carbon.
‘Through pricing carbon, we’ll change the price signals to businesses and they will get lower pollution ways of manufacturing, of going about their business in all sectors of the economy,’ she said.