Federal climate change department chief Martin Parkinson has named three candidates for 'complementary measures' in addition to emissions trading.
And, as the Wilkins review of existing climate programs calls for public submissions, Parkinson said he hopes state governments will undertake similar assessments of which programs should stay and go.
Critics of programs such as the federal Energy Efficiency Opportunities program and Victoria's EREP scheme are really just asking to be 'left alone' to pursue their 'own narrow interests', says energy efficiency expert Alan Pears.
Pears also outlined a strategy to enable the government to act more quickly on energy efficient appliances and criticised energy market rules for hampering the deployment of cogeneration.
Submissions from major energy industry players have criticised South Australia's proposed residential energy efficiency scheme for being too different from Victoria's planned scheme and have urged South Australia to put its plans on hold or simply 'piggy-back' on the Victorian program.
The Rudd government should remove tax breaks for personal use of company cars and abolish the Fuel Tax Credits scheme that gives tax breaks worth more than a billion dollars a year to the mining industry, Australian Conservation Foundation chief Don Henry told the National Press Club today. (plus audio)
Henry also urged the government to remove tax concessions for aviation fuel and push for resource companies to boost their 'miserable' levels of spending on R&D into technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
The Victorian state government will, in the next 10 days, sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Clinton Initiative that will focus on carbon capture and storage and low-emission and energy efficiency technologies, Victorian Premier John Brumby has just announced.
The benefits of the federal Energy Efficiency Opportunities scheme are likely to be marginal and large energy users should not have to participate, says new Australian Industry Greenhouse Network chief Michael Hitchens.
In an interview with CE Daily, Hitchens also accepts tough abatement targets might be needed, voices concern about possible delays in Treasury finalising economic modelling of various abatement trajectories, calls for consumers to be exposed to the true price of energy and says Australia will find it difficult to control the way other trading schemes link to ours.
