No Carbon Apology Needed, says PM

JULIA Gillard has declined to apologise for her pre-election declaration that "there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead" and has warned that it may take "months and months and months" to convince voters on the merits of the policy.

Asked yesterday why she didn't just apologise, the Prime Minister said: "I've explained, of course, to the Australian people that I never meant to mislead anybody during the last election campaign about carbon pricing".

She told the ABC that carbon would be priced "through a path I didn't expect during the election campaign".

The Prime Minister's comments came as the multi-party climate change committee prepared to meet again on Tuesday as the government and the Greens continued to try to reach a deal on the carbon pricing package.

The Weekend Australian understands that the government is considering whether to release Treasury modelling with the carbon pricing package.

Ms Gillard moved to play down expectations that the announcement would quickly restore Labor's poor rating with voters. She said it could take many months of explanation.

"This is a big reform. It is not something that people will digest in the first five minutes of seeing the press conference when it is announced," she said.

Asked if there might be a "huge disconnect" between what she said and what she did, Ms Gillard said: "What I'm saying is what I'm doing . . . I understand it's causing anxiety, but to be the kind of country we want to be in the future with the environment we want and the strong economy we want, we have got to get on with the job and price carbon".

But opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt demanded the government release a complete package in announcing the carbon pricing scheme details. "We want the full modelling on the impacts on electricity, gas, petrol and groceries for Australians between now and 2020," he said.

Mr Hunt seized on a report in The Australian on Thursday that the government was negotiating with individual power generators to close or curtail high emissions plants. He said this was a key element of the Coalition's direct-action policy.

"The Coalition has had it right all along. They want to put a tax on electricity but it won't necessarily cause anything to change."

Carbon Trading Scheme

JULIA Gillard has indicated that most families on incomes above $150,000 will miss out on compensation under the proposed carbon tax plan to be unveiled next month.

This comes as Tony Abbott today will promise tax cuts from a Coalition government when it scraps the carbon tax and accompanying compensation measures.

Ms Gillard has strongly defended the $150,000 figure, saying people earning that amount are not rich but ''they're a lot better off than the vast majority of Australian families''. She pointed out that the average household income was $68,000 and only one in 10 households earned more than $150,000.

READ ON:

Carbon tax relief to end at $150,000

Carbon Trading Scheme

Carbon Trading Scheme: Australia Releases Rules for CO2 Credits from Culling Camels

Carbon Trading Scheme: Australia Releases Rules for CO2 Credits from Culling Camels

Carbon Credits Market at Point of Collapse

THE international market in carbon credits has suffered an almost total collapse, with only $US1.5 billion of them traded last year - the lowest since the system opened in 2005, says a report from the World Bank.

A fledgling market in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States also declined, and only the European Union's internal market in carbon remained healthy, worth $US120 billion. However, leaked documents appear to show that even the EU's system is in danger.

The international market in carbon credits was brought about under the Kyoto Protocol, as a way of injecting investment in low-carbon technology in the developing world.

Under the system, known as the clean development mechanism, projects such as wind farms or solar panels in developing countries are awarded credits for every tonne of carbon avoided. These credits are bought by rich countries to count towards their emissions reduction targets.

From 2005, when the Kyoto Protocol came into force, to 2009 the system generated a total of $25 billion for developing countries. But last year's $1.5 billion was even less than the amount paid for credits in the first year of operation.

''This bodes very badly for the countries we are trying to help,'' said the World Bank's envoy for climate change, Andrew Steer. ''The [carbon] market is failing us.''

If the poor performance continued, it would mean increasing greenhouse gas emissions, he said. Part of the problem is uncertainty over the future of the Kyoto Protocol. The provisions of the 1997 treaty, which took years to come into force, are due to expire in 2012 and there is no agreement yet on a continuation.

The US refuses to take part in the treaty, and Russia, Japan and Canada said at the recent Group of Eight meeting they would not continue under the Kyoto Protocol. The United Nations is trying to ensure that the trade in credits continues even if the protocol is not renewed.