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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/14/fossil-fuel-tax-australia-revenue-economists-ross-garnaut-rod-sims>
"A tax on fossil fuel production could help fund Australia’s transition to
becoming a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the
world to cut greenhouse emissions, according to two veteran economists.
Ross Garnaut, a leading economist during the Hawke government, and Rod Sims, a
former head of the competition watchdog, say a so-called carbon solution levy
would raise $100bn in its first year alone if introduced in 2030-31 and set at
Europe’s five-year average price of $90/tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.
This tax combined with other steps – including deploying the levy to subsidise
as much as half the cost of new carbon-free iron, aluminium or fuel production
plants – would allow Australia to exploit its abundant renewable energy
resources to revive an increasingly moribund economy, they will say.
“The global transition to net zero is Australia’s opportunity,” Garnaut, the
founder of the Superpower Institute, will say in a speech to the National Press
Club on Wednesday. “We can use it to raise productivity and living standards
after the decade of stagnation.”
Taking a cue from the Albanese government’s reworking of the legislated
stage-three tax cuts, Garnaut will say shifting politics could prompt
politicians to alter course and rework policies such as reintroducing a carbon
price scrapped a decade ago by the Abbott government.
“We know that the constraints from the climate wars make the implementation of
the [carbon levy] impossible,” he will say. But it “is not as impossible as
living with our failure to play our full part in the global effort to stop the
bushfires and cyclones and denudation of our beaches getting worse. It is not
as impossible as being unable to pay for our ageing population, and unable to
pay for our submarines.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
