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World Bank likes Australia’s Emissions Trading Scheme — the “secret” ETS

According to the World Bank, Australia has implemented an ETS

It’s charades all round. Carbon markets are so dismal that the World Bank marks up the Australian ETS (which most Australians have never heard of) as “implemented”. Which makes it so much better than Canada’s which is “under consideration”. In fact the World Bank says Australia’s ETS covers half our emissions and 381 Megatons of CO2 or equivalent. Sounds “impressive”.

Strangely the Australian government hasn’t run an advertising campaign to brag about our landmark ETS legislation. I can’t think why?  Perhaps it’s because Australian’s gave the largest victory in 20 years to a man who swore a blood oath against a carbon tax? Or maybe it’s the polls that show Australian’s don’t want to pay for renewables, 80% don’t donate to environmental causes, and 60% don’t want or don’t care about the Paris deal if they could get cheaper electricity.

Let’s poll Australians and ask ‘Do we have an ETS?” — maybe 80% would say “No”. Maybe ninety. But we do have one, waiting like a paper troll, ready to spring to life. It’s largely secret hidden legislation, buried under a title called the ERF Safeguard Mechanism — (don’t mention the word carbon). It’s dormant, but the World Bank don’t mention that. Other fool countries might believe it was doing something to our economy, and that serves the World Bank. Meanwhile foolish Australians might think we will get some say in whether we do have an ETS — But not while we vote for the two main parties apparently.

The World Bank just published the State and Trends of Carbon Pricing in 2017 ready for the big Bonn junket this month. They’ve mapped all the Emissions Trading Schemes, and apart from the EU basket-case, there is only Australia, NZ, Korea and Kazakhstan, so they have to brag about Australia’s secret dormant ETS because there isn’t much else to brag about. The orange nations in “spin-language” are listed as under consideration. The  circles are states like California, Alberta, Ontario and Massachusetts. Countries with blue stripes have a carbon tax as well. Lucky them.

The report estimates that an additional US$700 billion a year will be needed annually by 2030 to finance the transition to low-carbon economies. Ambit claim du jour.

 

World Bank, Map, Global, Carbon Pricing, 2017.

An ETS in Europe, Korea, NZ, Australia and Kazakhstan. World Bank Map, 2017.

… Source: World Bank: http://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/

I might get into the World Bank numbers soon. It’s hyped from start to end — the money, the emissions, the costs, and the chances of success.

But for other countries and states waiting to hear if you succeeded in gettting an ETS that you didn’t know about, here are the maps.

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People in the EU probably won’t be surprised to find their multishaded patchwork of ETSs and Taxes but lets not mention those renewables targets…

 

World Bank, Europe, Carbon tax and ETS map, 2017

The report abstract:

State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2017

Reflecting the growing momentum for carbon pricing worldwide, the 2017 edition of the State and Trends of Carbon Pricing targets the wide audience of public and private stakeholders engaged in carbon pricing design and implementation. This report also provides critical input for negotiators involved in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, particularly for the meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP} 23 to be held in Bonn in November 2017. As in the previous editions, the report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing initiatives around the world, including national and subnational initiatives. Furthermore, it gives an overview of current corporate carbon pricing initiatives. Another key focus of the report is on the importance of an integrated approach to climate finance and climate markets, together with domestic policies. The analysis shows how such an integrated approach can be used to mobilize the scale of low-carbon investments needed to achieve the below 2°C temperature target and outlines a transition scenario and the possible role of results-based climate financing to catalyze climate markets.

REFERENCES
“World Bank; Ecofys; Vivid Economics. 2017. State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2017. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank.  License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.” English PDF    4.950MB
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