Isra-Mart srl: Carbon tax will spell end of coal: Abbot

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Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says a new report shows Australia is the only coal exporting country looking to introduce a carbon tax.

The Productivity Commission report says an emissions trading scheme (ETS) is the most efficient way for Australia to cut carbon and tackle climate change.

It compared Australia with the UK, US, Germany, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand and found Australia was currently ranked in the middle in terms of the cost of cutting carbon.

"The Productivity Commission has made it very clear that no competitor to the country, no coal exporter for instance, is going to have an economy-wide carbon tax or economy-wide emissions trading scheme," Mr Abbott said on the Nine Network on Friday.

Mr Abbott said the tax would reduce the competitiveness of Australia's export industry and that was why other coal exporting countries were staying away from a carbon tax.

"In the end you can't do without coal and the carbon tax ultimately spells death for the coal industry, which is why other coal countries aren't having a carbon tax," he said.