Australian Politics

What was important was it was an emissions trading scheme

Sure, but so was the Clean Energy Act 2011. The policy Gillard passed after negotiations with the Greens was a fixed-price period leading in to a cap and trade emissions trading scheme—the very same model being taught even in high school economics classes of the time.

It really cannot be emphasised highly enough, too, that this is policy that had actually been proven to work. The period where the CEA was in effect is the only sustained period of reduction in carbon emissions in our history.

the pricing could be adjusted after becoming law in step with the increasing public appetite to address climate change

The thing is, as Adam Bandt said in this 2020 interview, ratcheting up the price at a later date would have put the Government on the hook for compensating polluters, as a feature written into the Bill itself.

Plus, who's to say that the LNP and the Murdoch press wouldn't have campaigned just as hard against the CPRS as the CEA?

good conversation, thanks 🙂 ❤️

Indeed, it's one of the things I'm really loving about this site so far. There's so much more room for nuance and genuine discussion.