Isramart : Senator Nick Xenophon says Australia needs carbon scheme

Isramart news:
NEXT month’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen will be difficult but they shouldn’t stop Australia designing an emissions trading scheme that is best suited for the economy, independent senator Nick Xenophon says.

Finance Ministers from the G20 nations met in Scotland on Saturday but failed to agree on how much money would be needed to support schemes that slash carbon emissions.

“I think it will be difficult,” Senator Xenophon told Sky News of the upcoming Copenhagen meeting.
“I think one of the problems has been is that the US during the Bush administration did little or nothing in terms of tackling climate change, so the Obama Administration is in catch-up.

“That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t design a scheme that works for Australia’s economy and obviously Copenhagen is an important meeting but I don’t think it’s a be-all-and-end-all in terms of delay.”

The South Australian senator says the Federal Government should be aiming for a much more ambitious target than its 5 per cent reduction in emissions.

He said that – based on the Frontier Economics modelling that he commissioned with the Opposition – it should be a target of 15 per cent, possibly 20 per cent.

“You need to have a much more ambitious target,” he said. “You need to aim for well below 450 parts per million, the scientific opinion now is that 350 parts per million is a safe course in terms of mitigating as much as possible the risks of climate change,” he said.

He said he had not been in negotiation with the Government, even though its emissions trading legislation is to be debated in just a few weeks’ time.

He said the Government was still locked into discussions with the Coalition because, even if he and the Greens were persuaded to support the scheme, Family First Senator Steve Fielding will not, leaving them one vote short.

“The Government realises that it must come to some agreement, some bipartisan agreement with the Coalition, otherwise there is no deal.”