It is now highly likely that Australia will be the first country in the world to introduce what is designed to be an economy-wide carbon price. One can either go through the detail and debate its contents, or stand back at look at some of the high level policy objectives and judge the package against [...]

If one accepts that we must develop cleaner forms on energy generation, then there is a legitimate debate on how to help encourage and shepherd the changes needed to achieve such a goal. In a previous post I argued that unilateral action by Australia to tax carbon is economically unjustifiable, given Australia’s economy is not big [...]

One of the most commonly cited reasons for imposing a carbon tax on the Australian economy is that “the cost of action” is less than the “cost of inaction.” The second is the related idea that Australian companies would get a competitive advantage in low carbon, “green” industries as a consequence of Australia moving quickly. [...]