Roundup: Australia's peak scientific body backs gov't review into carbon trading scheme

Australia's peak science body has called for an implementation of an emissions trading scheme just a day after the government announced a feasibility review into reintroducing a stripped back version of the nation's controversial "carbon tax."

Australia's carbon tax, brought in by the Gillard Labor government in 2011, required all businesses which emitted more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon per year to pay for "emissions permits," but the plan was scrapped by Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2014, shortly after coming to power.

Energy Minister and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg on Monday announced the Department of Environment and Energy would be conducting an internal review into a potential new carbon tax for electricity generators, considering they are responsible for up to a third of the nation's total carbon emissions.

On Tuesday, Australia's peak scientific body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), backed the government's call, and said the average Australian household would save up to 180 U.S dollars if a new carbon emissions trading scheme, similar to the one being probed by government, was brought into effect.

In addition, Energy Networks Australia's (ENA) John Bradley confirmed to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday that it would also be the cheapest way for Australia to reach its carbon reduction targets.

"We think the emission intensity scheme is the clearest area where there is potential for consensus among the various policy-makers in state and federal governments beyond the election cycle," Bradley said.

"We focus on the outcome - which is the emission reduction - and we allow the market to produce the solutions.

"Customers could save (up to 180 U.S dollars) per year through technology-neutral approaches like an emission intensity scheme compared to current business-as-usual policies."

Frydenberg said the government review into a low-level carbon "emissions intensity" scheme would determine the feasibility of penalizing energy generators which produce the most carbon and reward those that produce less carbon.

He added that while the government was exploring a "carbon tax" of sorts, it would not be an "economy-wide" tax, rather a "sector-by-sector" tax - ruling out a return to Labor's all-encompassing carbon trading scheme.

"We reject an economy-wide approach," Frydenberg told the ABC. "What this review has indicated is we will look at a sector-by-sector approach.

"The electricity sector is the one which produces the most emissions - around a third of Australia's emissions come from that sector.

"We know that there have been a number of bodies that have recommended an emissions intensity scheme."

However Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will need to quash the growing discontent brewing within the government's ranks and convince colleagues of the plan's merits; outspoken conservative Senator Cory Bernardi described the plan as "one of the dumbest things" he has heard, while deputy PM and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said the "carbon tax" ship had well and truly sailed.

"I can only tell you what the position of the Coalition is now, and I can tell you what the position of the National Party is now, we don't support a carbon tax," Joyce told the ABC overnight.

"We're (already) going to meet our commitments to the Paris protocol - in fact we're going to outdo it."

According to Fairfax Media, there are at least 10 government MPs "scathing" at the prospect of re-introducing a Labor-style carbon pricing scheme, while Opposition Leader Bill Shortens said he believes any carbon trading scheme needs to be holistic and not a "sector-by-sector" based plan. Endit