Sydney, 23 July (Argus) — Australian prime minister Julia Gillard pledged today to set up a citizens assembly, as part of her plan to introduce an emissions trading scheme (ETS) at an unspecified time in the future.
The Labor party leader also plans to impose rules that forbid any new coal-fired power station that cannot be retrofitted with carbon capture and storage technology when it becomes commercially available.
Gillard also promised to provide A$1bn ($890mn) in funding over the next 10 years to finance the expansion of Australia's transmission network, so that the country's power generation grids are connected to renewable power sources.
Her pledges came during an election campaign that has largely avoided the issue of climate change. It underlines a tactic by the Labor party about taking action on reducing emissions in one of the developed world's most emission-intensive economies, without actually specifying how it intends to achieve that in the absence of a carbon price.
The citizens assembly will comprise of people that Gillard called “ordinary Australians” with “decency and common sense” to provide a community consensus on climate change. The move is unusual in Australia politics, as rarely are important issues handed over to a non-elected assembly to determine government policy.
Gillard also promised to continue with the failed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) as its main emissions reduction policy, but did not promise to reintroduce the scheme if re-elected at the 21 August federal election. At the November 2007 election, her Labor predecessor Kevin Rudd promised to introduce an ETS if elected. The CPRS was knocked back twice by the upper house of parliament and was delayed until 2013, a timeframe that is still Labor policy.
Tony Abbott, the leader of the Liberal party, the senior party in the conservative coalition it has with the National party, has vowed that there will be no carbon price if he was elected prime minister unless there was further international action.
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