Labor’s policy says the ETS will operate to protect jobs and the overall competitiveness of Australia’s trade-exposed industries like agriculture “because no environmental purpose is served by those industries simply shifting their operations to other countries”.
The first phase will be to establish the architecture for an “enduring” ETS and the second will seek to drive the economy’s long term transition.
Phase one of Labor’s ETS will operate for two years - from July 1, 2018 until June 30, 2020 - to align with the second and final commitment period of the Kyoto protocol.
The document says design of the post-2020 ETS would be finalised during the 2016-2019 parliament, to commence after the 2019 election, if elected.
“Those details will include rules governing the allocation of caps to liable entities, access to international markets - including the possibility of formal linkage to other schemes - the operation of the domestic offsets market and the like,” it said.
“The design process will also take account of the impact of the 2020 ETS on households, industry - especially emissions intensive, trade exposed sectors and Australia’s overall competitiveness.”
Labor says it will exempt certain industries during phase one including; agriculture, road transport and refrigerants which will be reviewed to ensure “appropriate exemptions” for phase two.
“Carbon emissions from agriculture have declined by about 10pc since 2000,” the policy document says.
“The government projects they will return to about 2000 levels by 2030 so, from around 80 million tonnes to 90mt.
“About three quarters of agricultural emissions are from livestock – mainly beef cattle which accounts for almost one half.
“These sectors are expected to expand, given enhanced export opportunities in Asia.
“And while there have been substantial reductions in emissions intensity in those sectors in recent years, research into achieving transformational reductions in emissions from livestock is still at an early stage.”
The policy says the farming sector has made the most substantial contribution to emissions reduction in Australia over the past 20 years, largely through the land clearing restrictions placed on the sector at State level and the successful Carbon Farming Initiative implemented in the party’s last term of government.
“It is in the national interest that the sector be able to exploit the new, enhanced export opportunities in a way that is consistent with responsible land management,” the policy says.
“The land and agricultural sector represent Australia’s largest opportunity in coming years to sequester carbon pollution - through soil carbon methods, re-afforestation, avoided deforestation and more.
“Labor in government will continue to support the sector in these areas.”
Opposition leader Bill Shorten said if elected, Labor would sit down with industry to devise the details of the ETS’s second stage.
But he said the “good news for Australians” was that they now had a clear choice at the next election, on climate change.
“You can have Tony Abbott style policies which pay large polluters to keep polluting, using billions of dollars of taxpayer money to pay for poor environmental outcomes - or you can vote for Labor with its real and sensible policies,” he said.
“Labor will always be guided by the best scientific evidence because we think that if you ignore the science you're ultimately undermining the economics of any proposition.
“We get also the importance of keeping farming land accessible for generations and generations rather than just short-term extraction.”
Shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler said over the last few months he’d engaged in about 50 “very deep” consultations with business, particularly industry and regions at the front line of climate change action transitions.
He said Labor’s carbon policy announcements were “very much a product of those deep consultations to ensure that we can have a strong sensible plan that cuts our pollution and gets us back on the path to a clean energy future”.
Labor’s policy says it will also seek to try and capture carbon on the land by “reinvigorating” the Carbon Farming Initiative.
The Opposition says it will aim to encourage carbon storage on the land and in agriculture while taking “decisive action” to deal with broad scale land clearing.
With a forecast $2.5 trillion to be invested to 2030 in renewables in the Asia Pacific region, the ALP’s policy also aims to ensure at least 50pc of the nation’s electricity is sourced from renewable energy by 2030.
“Climate change will severely impact on those families, farmers and businesses that depend on natural resources, like agriculture and forestry for their livelihoods,” the policy document says.
“That’s because climate change means longer droughts in parts of Australia estimated, from 2020, to cost Australia $7.3 billion annually - reducing GDP by 1 per cent, per annum, broken by more damaging floods, more frequent bushfires and more severe storms.
“Beyond the flashpoints of these events – there are the creeping, incremental consequences: a massive decline in agricultural production; irretrievable damage to the Great Barrier Reef; widespread shortages of urban water supply; spikes in global food prices; increase in heat-related deaths and increased airborne disease; and heightened instability in the coastal megacities of our region.”
WWF Australia said Labor’s plan was an important step towards a clean renewable energy transition and Australia doing its fair share in the effort to limit global warming.
But the National Farmers’ Federation said farmers would bear brunt of Labor’s climate change policy which placed the cost of achieving ambitious climate targets “firmly on the shoulders of Australian farmers”.
NFF President Brent Finlay said full details of the policy were yet to be evaluated but a number of aspects would cause “initial alarm” but the NFF left the door open to working with Labor to improve outcomes for the Australian agriculture industry.
“There is no doubt it is good to see the policy includes some positive sentiments like reinvigorating the carbon farming initiative,” Mr Finlay said.
“However, this is offset by the fact that by allowing the purchase of cheap overseas credits Australian farmers are automatically priced out of the carbon market.”
