How Australia should act on climate change?

Comments on Graham Lloyd “There's good news and bad news”, 4/02/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/theres-good-news-and-bad-news/story-e6frg6zo-1225999813436


There are a number of things that are fairly clear.

1. Australia needs to take actions.

2. Carbon tax is the most efficient means to do it.

3. It should start with a low price and needs to be responsive to international actions.

4. It needs to be both revenue neutral and trade neutral. The government should never use the carbon tax as a means of revenue grab, bribe businesses and for income distribution purpose.

5. People, as opposed to businesses should be share the revenue from the carbon tax, since they own the environment and they can't pass on costs of higher energies to others while businesses can, at least partially.

6. There should be a carbon tariff and refund mechanism for trade with no carbon action countries.

PS: While Australia is used to very lengthy reports running hundreds or even possibly thousands pages, many issues are not that complex to tackle. What is needed is a bit of sanity and common sense.