ETS delay, an opportunity or opportunity missed?

The Energy Supply Associaion of Australia (esaa) believes the government has a chance to finalise bipartisan agreement on a greenhouse policy that will enable a smooth transition to a low carbon future.
“Ideally this would be an efficient and equitable emissions trading scheme, something the CPRS is not,” said esaa CEO Brad Page.
But the Total Environment Centre has warned the Rudd Government to beware the credibility vacuum it has created by dropping the Emissions Trading Scheme.
“Leadership on climate change was a key election promise which has now been sacrificed to political expediency,” said TEC director Jeff Angel.
Angel said the Prime Minister must act fast to embrace a nation wide drive for energy efficiency as the only viable alternative to an ETS for greenhouse gas savings, in the next three years.
esaa says Australia’s two major political parties must use the interim period until the end of 2012 to constructively engage industry and agree an appropriate greenhouse policy.
“Investor confidence in the energy supply sector is critical to support new investment of around $50 billion in the next five years, and more in the long term,” Page said.
The results of a recent Auspoll indicate that the electorate’s trust in Rudd’s ability to manage climate change has dropped to 36 per cent.
“Clearly Australians want to see climate change addressed immediately, not at some nebulous point in the future,” said Angel.
“Each year a billion dollars in savings could be received by Australia’s 8.3 million households and business if concrete action on energy efficiency is adopted. This would also help offset the energy price rises being driven by the massive and inefficient network infrastructure expansion that governments have approved.”
The Energy Efficiency Roundtable launched by TEC in March has gained increasing support from energy advocates in the business world, with the numbers signing on for its recent ‘communiqué’ tripling in just two weeks.