The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia (CCI) welcomes the release of the Federal Government’s Green Paper on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It provides industry and business with guidance on the approach that Government intends to take in reducing greenhouse emissions.
The paper does however raise a number of detailed questions which will only be answered by the release of Treasury modelling and the setting of targets and trajectories.
CCI welcomes Federal Government acknowledgment of the need to support the international competitiveness of trade exposed emissions intensive industries. Continued investment in and expansion of these industries is critical to Western Australia’s economic growth and the nation’s prosperity.
CCI believes the criteria for assessing which industries, and process within industries, receive assistance need to be analysed in order to understand the extent to which WA’s resources, energy and processing industries will be impacted.
CCI notes that coal-fired electricity generation has been identified as likely to be strongly affected by the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and will therefore be eligible for assistance.
In addition, CCI supports the introduction of programs to assist small and medium enterprises with the transition to an emissions reduction scheme.
However, CCI remains concerned that the proposed timeline for the introduction of the scheme is too short.
The Federal Government has set itself a tight timeline in which to develop the new laws and supporting regulations which are planned to commence in 2010. This timeframe might not give business and industry in WA sufficient time to determine if they are captured by the scheme, and if so, what emissions reduction strategies might be available to them.
CCI understands that some of these reduction strategies might require significant investments and long term planning and will carefully respond to the Government’s Green Paper in the next few weeks.
Statement by CCI Chief Executive James Pearson