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Greg Combet, Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change, opened the Australasian Carbon Market Expo 2009 on the Gold Coast, using the opportunity to highlight the need for the passing of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
Mr Combet said that a clear direction on climate change policy was an economic, as well as an environmental imperative, and reminded delegates that both major political parties in Australia had gone to the last election committed to an emissions trading scheme.
“The Government is now looking forward to negotiating in good faith with the Opposition,” he said.
Outlining the time frame for CPRS negotiations, Mr Combet said that the legislation is being debated in the House of Representatives the week of the 26 October. Immediately following a successful vote in the lower house, the Government intends to introduce the legislation for debate in the upper house in late November.
He said that the Government has unashamedly campaigned for the passage of the CPRS as soon as possible, and that there is no need to wait, as the Opposition has suggested, until after the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP15).
“There is nothing in the CPRS that is contingent upon COP15 outcomes,” he said, adding that the CPRS is the enabling mechanism for the setting of emissions reduction targets to be negotiated at COP15.
“The passage of the CPRS legislation through Parliament in November will mean that Australia has a plan in place to meet its international commitments and has the capacity to meet those commitments in an economically responsible way.”