Isra-Mart srl:US retreat on carbon price has no influence on us, says PM

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Isra-Mart srl news:

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has flagged she won’t be deterred from pursuing a carbon price by President Barack Obama’s decision to formally abandon his efforts to implement an emissions trading scheme.

The President admitted after the rebuff to the Democrats in the US mid-term elections that the legislation, which has been stalled, could not get through Congress.

Ms Gillard said: ”President Obama is defining a strategy to tackle climate change in the political circumstances that America finds itself in.
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”We are great friends and allies of America, but we are not an American state. We are our own country – we will determine our own strategy,” she said.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said it was a ”game changer” that the United States had unambiguously signalled that it was not prepared to introduce an emissions trading scheme.

”The implications are that whatever we do has to start very slowly because we have to be very careful not to damage trade-exposed industries,” she said.

Asked on Channel Nine whether it was worth Australia going ahead with a carbon price now that America had dumped the idea of a cap-and-trade scheme, Ms Gillard said many countries had gone down the path of pricing carbon and, in America, California had had a way of pricing carbon for quite a long time.

”We will determine our own national strategy in our own national interest. I believe it is in Australia’s interest to tackle climate change, and it is in Australia’s interest to make sure we transform our economy to a low-pollution, low-carbon economy.

”The world is moving in that direction, it will require it of other economies, it will impact [on] competition, how people trade, what they buy. We can’t afford to have our economy fall behind.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the President had stated ”the reality” and American decision-makers would have to ‘’start over”.

The President was still very committed to the US addressing climate change and making investments in clean energy, Mrs Clinton told a joint news conference with Ms Gillard.

”We will be looking at a range of options to take, including … the regulatory route, which we’ve already been doing …”

”I do not think that President Obama’s statement is meant to describe anything other than what is happening inside the United States. Obviously decisions in Australia are up to the government of Australia and the people of Australia.”