The Government has already set challenging targets for reducing Australia’s national emissions. The ambitious target range of 5–15 per cent on 2000 levels, which was announced in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme White Paper, involves reducing the carbon emissions of every Australian by at least a third over the next decade.
The Government has committed to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution to 25 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 if the world agrees to an ambitious global deal to stabilise levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450 parts per million CO2-equivalent or lower by mid century. This will maximise Australia’s contribution to an ambitious outcome in international negotiations at Copenhagen, December 2009.
The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was outlined in December 2008. Under the scheme high-polluting companies will be forced to buy permits for carbon emissions for up to $40 a tonne. In turn, these companies will be forced to drive up their own prices, passing on the costs to virtually everything you can buy.