In submissions yet to be posted on the Garnaut website, the Australian Conservation Foundation urges Australia to unilaterally commit to cutting emissions to at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020, and to make a 40% cut by 2020 if other developed countries make equivalent commitments.
It says all permits should be auctioned, with any support for trade-exposed, energy-intensive industry made through border tax adjustments. It calls for a trading scheme with strong penalties of at least US$85/tonne, proposes a 2015 deadline for including agriculture, and says annual caps should be set out to 2050, with potential to tighten them with three years notice.
The ACF also warns that climate risk is 'routinely underestimated', as is the potential to reduce it.
Australia is on track to meet its Kyoto target and it should take advantage of that breathing space when setting its initial emissions trajectory, says Alcoa of Australia in a submission made this week to the Garnaut review, which the company has also sent to CE Daily.
Meanwhile, the Minerals Council of Australia has rejected Garnaut's view that an effective international climate change agreement should gradually move towards national targets based on equal per capita entitlements to emissions.
Schemes such as the federal Energy Efficiency Opportunities scheme and Victoria's EREP scheme should be scrapped because they mostly only duplicate or 'crudely intervene' in existing business processes, ExxonMobil has told the Garnaut review.
CE Daily talks to 2020 summit participants about the outcomes.
Coalminers union chief Tony Maher didn't favour a late push at the summit for a ban on new coal plants until CCS is commercially ready. But he says new coal plant proponents must do more than just make them 'CCS ready'.
News Corporation's Tony Wilkins welcomes some big-hitting 'small ideas', plus comments from Nick Rowley, Martijn Wilder, Petrea Bradford and other summit participants.
Saturday's draft proposal at the 2020 summit for an independent sustainability commission evolved by Sunday afternoon into a call for national sustainability agenda, coupled with audits.
Other 'top ideas' from the climate and sustainability stream include the possibility of requiring new buildings to be carbon neutral from 2020 onwards. And – at the suggestion of Climate Change Minister Penny Wong – giving all Australians the tools to manage their 'personal carbon footprint'.
Which organisations and individuals want to influence Australia's climate policy but don't want you to know what they are saying? After a request by CE Daily, the Garnaut Review has released the names of those that have made confidential submissions.
Environment ministers today failed to reach agreement on a national ban or levy for plastic bags, prompting South Australia to vow to go ahead with a state ban.
But they committed to an investigation into the merits of a national container deposit scheme and flagged that e-waste would be high on the agenda at its November meeting.
The head of the federal government's review of climate programs late this morning revealed his criteria for deciding which climate programs should stay and which should go once emissions trading is in place.
He also argued against Professor Garnaut's view that there is no strong case for giving free permits to generators.
