Background
How did we arrive at this point in the CPRS debate?
The Australian government intends to introduce the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the flagship of the CPRS, in 2011 as the key domestic policy response to climate change.
The ETS legislation failed to pass the Senate in August 2009, forcing the Government to wait three months before bringing the ETS before the Senate for a second time in November when it was passed with amendments - including the exclusion of agriculture from coverage in the ETS.
The CPRS is complicated and still being developed and a look back over key events during the last 20 years puts the policy framework in context.
In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. The IPCC was involved with the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 as an international environmental treaty aimed at stabilising greenhouse gases .
The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, is an international agreement created under the UNFCCC. Prime Minister Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol in 2007, with Australia’s ratification coming into effect on March 11, 2008.
(The Australian Government, under the previous coalition, started investigation an emissions trading framework in 2006, but agriculture was not represented on the panel.)
The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the collective greenhouse gas emissions of developed country parties by at least five percent below 1990 levels during the first commitment period of 2008-2012.
The UNFCCC conference in Bali in 2007 culminated in the adoption of the ‘Bali road map’ which charts the course for a new negotiating process designed to tackle climate change and deals with the reporting period of 2008-12.
Looking ahead, the next UNFCCC conference is in Copenhagen on December 7-18, 2009.
The Australian government intends to introduce the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the flagship of the CPRS, in 2011 as the key domestic policy response to climate change.
The ETS legislation failed to pass the Senate in August 2009, forcing the Government to wait three months before bringing the ETS before the Senate for a second time in November when it was passed with amendments - including the exclusion of agriculture from coverage in the ETS.
The CPRS is complicated and still being developed and a look back over key events during the last 20 years puts the policy framework in context.
In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. The IPCC was involved with the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 as an international environmental treaty aimed at stabilising greenhouse gases .
The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, is an international agreement created under the UNFCCC. Prime Minister Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol in 2007, with Australia’s ratification coming into effect on March 11, 2008.
(The Australian Government, under the previous coalition, started investigation an emissions trading framework in 2006, but agriculture was not represented on the panel.)
The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the collective greenhouse gas emissions of developed country parties by at least five percent below 1990 levels during the first commitment period of 2008-2012.
The UNFCCC conference in Bali in 2007 culminated in the adoption of the ‘Bali road map’ which charts the course for a new negotiating process designed to tackle climate change and deals with the reporting period of 2008-12.
Looking ahead, the next UNFCCC conference is in Copenhagen on December 7-18, 2009.