The Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2009 on the Gold Coast offered many clues to the future and ideas that will drive investment in low-carbon solutions. Clearly, reducing carbon emissions offers an opportunity not just to help stop damaging climate change, but to develop commercial solutions and competitive advantages that will benefit Australia.
What quickly became obvious at the Expo is that the rest of the world has a head start on us. Australia has sat on the sidelines for too long. We need to wake-up to the prospects of reducing carbon emissions.
Carbon Market Expo Exposed
The Carbon Market Expo is billed as a edge intelligence forum, for improving the education and increasing the awareness of climate change, as well as providing a good platform for networking. Lots of ideas filled the speeches of some of the world’s most knowledgeable and experienced people from science, business and government.
Attending were 700 delegates from 20 different countries, 90 speakers, and 100 exhibitors over three days. The exhibitors covered all aspects of carbon markets: emission assessment, emission reduction providers, carbon market expertise, business services, and government. For the more adventurous there was the opportunity to experience low-carbon transport first-hand – on a segway!
The science of climate change was well represented and concisely explained by Professor Will Steffen, Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute – I highly recommend watching his five-minute summary. Most impressive was the effort to combine the science of climate change with the economics of climate change by Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr Pachauri focused on the opportunities of acting now to reduce carbon emissions, which include:
- Greater energy security
- Decrease in pollution at the local level
- Increase in agriculture
- Greater job generation
The Hon Greg Combet AM MP added clarity for the Australian employment outlook, and noted that Australia can create 1.7 million jobs over the next decade while reducing our carbon emissions. And Richard Gibbs, Head of Economics Research at Macquarie, made it very clear climate change is the most fundamental economic issue we face.
Clean Development Mechanism – An Opportunity
One opportunity that is waiting at our doorstep is the market for Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs). Basically, these are projects in developing nations that reduce carbon emissions. They help developing nations have the same opportunities for growth that developed nations have had but with lower carbon emissions. So far 300 million tonnes of carbon emissions have been offset by CDMs globally.
However, once started, the US emissions trading scheme is expected to create demand for 1,000 million tonnes of CDMs per year – more than three times the amount that exists today. That presents a huge opportunity for Australia to commercialise our research and export low-carbon technology solutions. The Austrade representatives at the expo were very keen to help promote Australian solutions. These low-carbon solutions will form part of the $US10 trillion that the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported will be needed to be invested over the next 20 years in order to stabilise global greenhouse gases.
Emissions Reduction Framework
Australia is taking up the challenge. We are on the way to taking the first step in setting up the framework. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) will be presented in parliament for the second time in November 2009. Maybe the CPRS is the wake-up call we need.
Agreeing on the framework will provide certainty and allow businesses to better plan for the future. The CPRS provides flexibility and minimises costs. It is an incentive based model that allows efficient and effective pricing of carbon. The determines where and at what cost carbon reduction will occur. In the end it provides a tool, maybe not the perfect tool, but if there are to be deep cuts in emissions then we need to make a start.
The overarching goal of carbon markets is to reduce carbon emissions and avoid damaging climate change. There are many opportunities but we need to act now. My hope is that as the day draws closer to Australia committing to emissions reduction the bells will ring even louder and we will be forced to wake-up!
All the sessions from Carbon Market Expo Australasia are available online at CarbonExpo TV.
More information about this topic into our carbon section.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of the three flexible mechanisms contained in the Kyoto Protocol. It allows entities from Annex I (developed) Parties to develop emission-reducing projects in non-Annex I (developing) countries, and generate tradeable credits corresponding to the volume of emission reductions achieved by that project.
http://cdmrulebook.org/home.
Photo credit : Suze Chalmers
Written by Michael Salvatico
