Power Meter

This week I am running a 90 minute training session on ICT sustainability for a government organization, using a modified version of "How Green is My Computer". When run as a face-to-face session, I get some of the students to come out the front and measure the power use of some computer equipment using a meter. One student handles the meter, one sets up the equipment and another writes up the figures. The other students shout out suggestions and help with the calculations.

My old meter was not working and I noticed Aldi had a "Bauhn Power Meter" for $14.95. This works reasonably well, with a large LCD display. One curiosity is that it has a readout of kgCO2, but I can't find how to set the conversion factor for converting from kWh. The Model 39085 Power Meter Manual shows how to set the cost of electricity, but not the kg/kWh.

ps: The main use of such meters is education. In practice an appliance's manual is just as useful for estimating energy use, or just the class of device (desktop computers all use about the same amount of power, as do LCD monitors).

Climate Negotiations 101

Greetings from the ANU Centre for European Studies which is hosting European Climate Diplomacy Day. International Climate Negotiations 101. The Italian Ambassador called on nations to follow Europe's lead. There was then a screening of the film "The Climate Blueprint". This documentary is about one hour long and in my view is a self indulgent counter productive waste of resources. What the documentary said to me was that the world have no effective process for combating climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process has proved unworkable and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ineffective. The message from decades of the UNFCC and IPCC processes is that they did not work. It is pointless to apply the same process and expect any better outcome. I suggest that these 19th century processes be discontinued and an Internet approach suitable for the 21st century be applied. This would see solutions worked out on-line without massive meetings which are subject to manipulation. I suggest that climate scientists and other experts should stop lending their credibility to the current UN processes as they are thereby holding up progress and placing the population of the planet at further risk. For my part I am teaching how to reduce carbon emissions by using ICT.

Carbon emissions trading in China

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Professor Zhong Xiang Zhang (张中祥), School of Economics, Fudan University is speaking on "Carbon emissions trading in China". His paper "Carbon Emissions Trading in China: The Evolution from Pilots to a Nationwide Scheme" is also available.

China currently has seven regional pilot carbon trading schemes running (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hubei, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing). Professor Zhong Xiang Zhang indicated that the government would not have a national scheme before 2017. The Chinese schemes are targeted at enterprises and include indirect emissions from electricity from outside the region. No forward or futures trading is allowed (it would be interesting to see, I suggest, if it is happening anyway, informally).

Professor Zhong Xiang Zhang notd with some amusement, that some government entities and well known companies had failed to comply with the requirements of the Beijing scheme, most notably Microsoft.

The previous Australian government was planning to link its trading scheme to that of Europe. But this was abandoned by the incoming government. government. This may have been fortunate as the European scheme has had problems. Perhaps Australia should instead join the Chinese scheme. Given the level of trade between the countries this could be workable and could be done without contradicting the Australian government anti-carbon tax rhetoric.

The Chinese central government has approved the seven pilot carbon trading schemes. These seven pilot regions are deliberately selected to be at varying stages of development and are given considerable leeway to design their own schemes. These pilot trading schemes have features in common, but vary considerably in their approach to issues such as the coverage of sectors, allocation of allowances, price uncertainty and market stabilization, potential market power of dominated players, use of offsets, and enforcement and compliance. This article explains why China opts for emissions trading, rather than carbon or environmental taxes at least initially, discusses the key common and varying features of these carbon trading pilots and their first-year performance, draws the lessons learned, discusses the potential pathways for evolution of regional pilot carbon trading schemes into a nationwide carbon trading scheme, and raises fundamental issues that must be addressed in order to make such an emissions trading scheme to work reliably and effectively and with an increasingly expanded coverage and scope.

From: Zhang, ZhongXiang (2015), Carbon Emissions Trading in China: The Evolution from Pilots to a Nationwide Scheme, CCEP Working Paper 1503, April 2015. School of Economics, Fudan University

Building Australia's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data System

Greetings from QT Hotel at the souther end of Canberra's Business Boomerang where DAMA and ACS are holding a meeting on the databases used for running Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reporting system. Olga Lysenko,  Head of the Office of the CIO at the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and Jeremy O Keefe, Business Intelligence Section of CER are speaking of the challenges of building and maintaining a system for a high profile and frequently chnaging area of government policy.

While the government policy on how to reduce emissions has changed every few years, the need for a system to track emissions has remained. There were problems with different contractors writing different systems for different aspects of emissions tracking systems, but the systems were workable and passed the political test (they did not appear in newspaper headlines).

One of the difficulties of such a system is that it has to track emissions from facilities, not just businesses. If a business sells a facility, such as smelter, its emissions need to continue to be tracked over time. In financial accounting terms the smelter would disappear from one firm's records and pop into existence on another, which is no use for tracking emissions. The CER system uses XML.

All of this is of close interest to me as I have a class of ANU students learning how to do the calculations needed for emissions monitoring, so they can build such systems.

Australia's Climate Change Targets and Progress

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where the ANU Climate Change Institute is holding its "First Climate Change Colloquium to Discuss Australia's Targets and Progress". The first speaker is Anthea Harris, CEO of the Australian Government's Climate Change Authority (CCA).

Since the Climate Change Authority was established, the Australian Government has changed. The Australian Department of Environment issued a "Emissions Reduction Fund White Paper",  which expresses the new government's "direct action" approach, which differs from the previous cap-and-trade system. Under the new approach the government will pay organizations to reduce emissions, with a price set through a limited auction, rather than organizations trading permits on a market.

Ms. Harris pointed out that reductions beyond the Government's -5% target for 2020 would be relatively inexpensive. Some measures which could be carried out are to purchase international carbon permits. However, I doubt this would be welcomed in the current political climate with an emphasis on budget savings. Sending money off shore, boosting other countries economies, is unlikely to be adopted by government.

In my view the academic community in Australia is not serving the public interest well on the issue of climate change. There is a prevailing attitude that if scientists simply present the evidence governments will act. The evidence shows this is not the case. Presenting more climate science  evidence is unlikely to help and may well lower the credibility of the scientific community with government and the general public. This is a matter which needs to be addressed by economists, social and political science, it is not a problem of hard science, but of perception.

The current discussion of climate change reminds me of a conversation between a patient and doctor I overheard while in hospital. The doctor explained to the patient that they were seriously ill with liver failure due to excess alcohol consumption. The patent asked when they would be able to have a drink. The doctor explained that if the patient gave up alcoholic completely immediately they may live long enough to get a liver transplant. The patent again asked when they would be able to have a drink. No matter how many times the doctor explained the seriousness of the situation, the patient could not accept they must give up alcohol. Similarly the world needs to give up its addiction to fossil fuel to reduce the extreme harm resulting. However patiently scientists explain this, the addict will not understand and not act. This situation can be changed, but will take the sort of measures used to treat addiction.

I am a member of the ANU Energy Change Institute and teach ICT Sustainability to masters students. They spend some time estimating energy and emissions from ICT, which is relatively easy, them more time on the harder problem of reducing them and then the really hard task of convincing their boss to actually make the required changes.

At the beginning of the year I had to revise my course notes to take into account the new government's approach. This proved to be much easier than I expected. As my students focus on how to estimate energy and emissions, then how to reduce them, the government policy dictating that this should be done does not much matter. While the pricing mechanism will change, it does not appear how emissions are estimated will not.

What a Ton of Carbon Dioxide Looks Like

Ken Dean asks "What does a ton of Carbon Dioxide look like? (Naracoorte Herald, 1 August 2013). He points out CO₂ is a colorless gas and asks how it can cost $23 per ton under the carbon pollution scheme. CO₂ is an everyday commodity, used to put the bubbles in fizzy drinks. If you have seen a truck loaded with gas cylinders delivering to a pub, then you have seen a ton of CO₂. Thirty of these large steel cylinders used in pubs for beer, hold about one ton of CO₂. The cylinders are very heavy and if you dropped on on your foot you would realize how real CO₂ is. Smaller CO₂ cylinders are used in home soda-water makers. These hold about half a kilogram of CO₂ and the last time I got a refill it was $14.00, making the CO₂ of the carbon pollution scheme a bargain.

Renewable Energy Technologies for Economic Development

Greetings from the ANU Energy Change Institute, where Richard Adams, Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC),  US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is speaking on "Innovation and Commercialisation of Renewable Energy Technologies". He commented that the NREL wasted time talking about environmental benefits of renewable energy technology, when economic benefits and jobs would better get attention. Richard said he was "stunned" that electricity demand had dropped in Australia, whereas it is still increasing in the USA. I found that comment surprising, as he should be aware that Australia has a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and had implemented this party through an increase in electricity prices, which has reduced demand. In contrast the USA doesn't have an effective greenhouse gas emissions policy.

Richard commented that much of the solar panel industry had moved to China and NREL needed to consider how new technologies could be implemented by industries in the USA for local jobs. This seemed to me a short sighted and infeasible goal. If the aim is to create wealth and provide energy in the USA, this might be better done by licensing the technology to where it can be best manufactured.

Richard gave Tesla Motors as a model of low investment US manufacturing start-up. However, Tesla's first electric car was the Tesla Roadster, which is largely built in the UK as a modified version of the the Lotus Elise, with components from throughout Europe. The car is assembled in the UK and USA with imported batteries. This is a valid form of international manufacturing, but does not provide many US jobs.

Richard is the Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as well as the Director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Economic Development (CREED). NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. It is a global leader in developing creative answers to today's energy challenges. From fundamental science and energy analysis to validating new products for the commercial market, NREL researchers are dedicated to transforming the way the world uses energy. Drawing on his deep expertise and experience in supporting innovation and commercialisation of renewable energy technologies as well as his understanding of the Australian and US renewable energy sectors, Richard will introduce NREL and discuss, among others, possible areas of Australia - US collaboration, NREL’s experience in commercialisation of energy technologies, US policies encouraging innovation in renewable energy as well as major obstacles to broader uptake of renewables in US.

Innovation and Commercialisation of Renewable Energy Technologies

Richard Adams, Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC),  US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will speak on "Innovation and Commercialisation of Renewable Energy Technologies", at the ANU Energy Change Institute, Australian National University, Canberra, 2:30pm 18 July 2013

Richard is the Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as well as the Director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Economic Development (CREED). NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. It is a global leader in developing creative answers to today's energy challenges. From fundamental science and energy analysis to validating new products for the commercial market, NREL researchers are dedicated to transforming the way the world uses energy. Drawing on his deep expertise and experience in supporting innovation and commercialisation of renewable energy technologies as well as his understanding of the Australian and US renewable energy sectors, Richard will introduce NREL and discuss, among others, possible areas of Australia - US collaboration, NREL’s experience in commercialisation of energy technologies, US policies encouraging innovation in renewable energy as well as major obstacles to broader uptake of renewables in US.

Planting Trees Will Not Offset Fossil Fuel Emissions

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Professor Brendan Mackey, Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program, is asking "Does planting trees offset fossil fuel emissions?".  Appropriately the talk is being held in the timber paneled forestry lecture theater. The talk is based on the paper “Untangling the confusion around land carbon science and climate change mitigation policy” (by Mackey, Prentice, Steffen, House, Lindenmayer, Keith and Berry in Nature Climate Change, 2013). To cut to the chase, they find that planting trees will not 'offset' emissions from burning fossil fuels. It is not that trees don't store carbon, it is just that the amount to be stored is too large. However, avoiding cutting down more trees would be useful for not further increasing emissions.

Professor Mackey commented this was his first presentation using Prezi. He apologized if this made us seasick, but it was a very clear and interesting visual presentation (much better than another dull Powerpoint slide show).

The issue of carbon emissions is not just an academic one for ANU.  The ANU student newspaper has a lead article criticizing thee university for increasing its investment in coal seam gas mining (ANU Turns Up The Gas, Woroni", Ben Latham, No 7, Vol 65, Thu 16). Research by Southern Cross University suggests that far more methane is leaking from coal seam gas mining than previously expected (Fugitive Emissions from Coal Seam Gas, Santos and Maher, 2012). So it appears possible that coal seam gas increases global warming, not reduce it.

University Green IT Guidelines

The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) has issued an "ICT Guideline for Green IT" (30 October 2012). This aims to reduce the USQ’s ICT carbon footprint. Measure include consolidating applications and selection of energy efficient equipment. Recycling to avoid eWaste is also discussed.

No figures on existing emissions or ewaste are given and no targets are set, so the USQ's commitment to ICT Sustainability is questionable. The document is the equivalent of 2 A4 pages and at 159 kbytes is not efficiently formatted, thus wasting ICT resources.

Strategic areas of focus for ICT Services include:

• Optimise resource usage and reduce waste and inefficient resource application by ensuring that appropriate technologies are chosen to support business requirements.
• Manage resource consumption and demand through consolidation and virtualisation. Specific initiatives include:
  • Consolidate servers and manage optimised shared virtual infrastructure;
  • Consolidate applications and infrastructure by promoting the use of shared services including cloud computing where appropriate;
  • Build and manage more efficient data centers with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) rating of less than 2.0 and approaching 1.0;
  • Consolidate and reduce the number of computer laboratories to ensure optimal utilisation;
  • Consolidate the number of printers in use and replace these with more efficient larger capacity multi-function printing devices;
  • Improve the ratio of desktop computers to printer ratio.
• Encourage electronic collaboration through the use of the learning management system, Microsoft
• SharePoint technologies and other collaboration tools which can improve the collaborative effort and effectiveness of all staff and students;
• Implement new computing infrastructures including increased use of mobile devices or thin clients, as replacements for more intensive, less flexible computing devices.
• Safe and responsible disposal and recycling of ICT equipment and eWaste (Refer also to ICT Procurement Guidelines);
• Consider energy efficiency in technology selection and acquisition. Improvements in sustainable procurement including procurement of green equipment such as Electronic Product Environmental
• Assessment Tool (EPEATTM)1 registered desktop computers, laptops and monitors or purchasing products with a high ENERGY STAR® 2 and EPEATTM rating;
• Centralisation of ICT procurement, deployment and disposal assists with improving asset management, reuse and recycling across the University;
• Provide alternatives to travel by using remote communication technologies.

What can you do as an individual?

• Minimise energy consumption of idle devices, specifically desktop computers and mobile devices (ie turn off computer equipment when not in use).
• Safe disposal and recycling of ICT equipment and eWaste (Refer also to ICT Procurement Guidelines).
• Reduce unnecessary travel by using remote communication technologies. Reduce unnecessary printing.

Green Printing

The University continues to investigate a number of specific strategies to reduce the amount of unnecessary printing including:

• All networked printers and multi-function devices are configured (by default) to print duplex.
• Multi-function devices enable greater use of scanning features rather than printing.
• Meeting agendas and associated material are published online to reduce the requirement to print meeting material. ...

From:  ICT Guideline for Green IT, Executive Director, ICT Services, University of Southern Queensland, 30 October 2012

Microsoft Introducing Corporate Carbon Tax

Microsoft has announced that they will introduce an internal "carbon fee" on all business divisions, with the aim to be carbon neutral from 1 July 2013 ("Making Carbon Neutrality Everyone’s Responsibility at Microsoft, 8 May 2012 12:01 am). Microsoft's approach is very similar to the carbon pricing scheme which the Australian Government is introducing.

Microsoft also have:

1. Smarter buildings pilot at the Microsoft Redmond campus
2. CarbonSystems to monitor and report environmental metrics.
3. IT Energy Whitepaper
   
4. Software Enabled Earth Blog.

Cleaning-up Energy Economics

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Dr Adele Morris, Policy Director, Climate and Energy Economics Project, Brookings Institution, USA is speaking on "Clean energy technology policy: The economics of why and how". Dr. Morris commented this was her first talk in Australia. She asked "What is Clean Energy?" and pointed out there could be trade-offs between different pollutants and benefits at different points in the life-cycle of products. She pointed out that the only way to have completely clean energy would be not to produce energy at all (I teach my "ICT Sustainability" students at ANU how to reduce energy use). It seems to me that for this reason the term "clean energy" should not be used at all, as it will be at best confusing, if not be used deliberately deceptively.

Dr. Morris went on to discuss policy tools to promote clean energy. The most direct of these are direct subsidies, but she pointed out there are also less direct tax subsidies and assistance such as government accepting risk. There are also programs for government to purchase clean energy products. There are also labeling laws, such as for appliances.

For the USA in 2010 government clean energy subsidies were about $37B, but this was artificially boosted due to financial crisis measures. The subsidies for renewable energy are about 49 time higher than for fossil fuel. While it may seem obvious that "clean" energy requires windmills and the like, but reducing the pollution from fossil fuels could have a larger effect, at least in the short term, as they are a major part of energy use.

Dr. Morris pointed out that the large spike in funding in 2010 due to the GFC was not a good way to infest in long term development. She then when on to ask why the government should intervene in the market for energy. This seems to assume that energy industry investment is based on market forces. However, the nuclear, coal, natural gas and other energy industries have direct engorgement subsidies and policies. Dr. Morris did not discuss how clean energy policy intervention compared in size or scope to previous government policies to promote energy industries.

Dr. Morris presented the standard economics price demand curve and explained how a carbon tax can cause less carbon emissions. She pointed out that the size of a carbon tax has no relationship to the size of the R&D which might be needed to reduce emissions. She pointed out that an energy efficiency tax credit has much less effect than a carbon tax. I was not entirely clear on the argument, but it appeared to be that the tax credit would be targeted at very specific activities (such as buying a new hot water system) and would not effect other behavior. A general carbon tax will effect any behavior which involves carbon emissions.

Dr. Morris pointed out that energy security for electricity generation in the USA has little to do with renewable energy use. US electricity is generated using domestic fossil fuel sources (mostly coal), not from imported oil. The replacement of fossil fuel with renewable sources is very high cost and much imported oil is from secure sources (not unstable middle eastern countries).

The last issue Dr. Morris raised was if clean energy is an economic growth sector. She questioned if this industry needed special government subsidies over other industries. If China wants to mass produce cheap solar panels, then why not let them? Does clean energy produce more and better jobs than other industries? This has been an issue in Australia with insulation retrofitting being seen as a way to employ people (but the Australian government has had some problems with this).

I asked Dr. Morris was how much of a role conventional economics play in decision making on energy and if it does not, do we need a new form of economics which explains the apparently irrational way people behaved. She answered by first distinguishing between the behavior of executives in companies and governments. She asserted that executives should make investments to benefit the company. She pointed out that while economists are not always listened to by government, she claimed they has some success at stopping patently bad policies.

In answer to another question Dr. Morris said that it was easier for China to put a price on carbon than the USA, due to political differences.

Dr. Morris will be taking part in "International Climate Policy for the Long Term: Workshop" at the ANU, tomorrow, Wednesday 14 March 2012.

Economics of Clean Energy

Dr Adele Morris, Policy Director, Climate and Energy Economics Project, Brookings Institution, USA will speak on "Clean energy technology policy: The economics of why and how" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 5:30pm 13 March 2012.

Clean energy technology policy: The economics of why and how

flyer (PDF)

Tuesday 13 March 2012
5.30 – 6.30pm, followed by light refreshments

Weston Theatre
JG Crawford Building #132, Lennox Crossing, ANU

Dr Adele Morris
Policy Director, Climate and Energy Economics Project, Brookings Institution, USA

This lecture is free and open to the public
Registration (required):
http://morrispl.eventbrite.com.au
Enquiries:
T: (02) 6125 7067 E: events.coombs.forum@anu.edu.au W: http://www.crawford.anu.edu.au/media/more.php?id=5341

One rationale for large public investments in clean energy technology points to concerns that have not been addressed by other policies, most notably greenhouse gas emissions and energy security. Another inspiration for clean energy policy suggests that strategic government investments would increase domestic firms’ market share of a growing industry and thus help domestic firms and workers. This lecture examines the economic case for clean energy policy in the United States and outlines the strategies most likely to produce long run net benefits.

Adele Morris is a fellow and policy director for Climate and Energy Economics at the Brookings Institution. Her expertise and interests include the economics of policies related to climate change, energy, natural resources, and public finance.

She joined Brookings in July 2008 from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the US Congress, where she spent a year as a Senior Economist covering energy and climate issues.

Before the JEC, Adele served nine years with the US Treasury Department as its chief natural resource economist, working on climate, energy, agriculture, and radio spectrum issues. On assignment to the US Department of State in 2000, she was the lead US negotiator on land use and forestry issues in the international climate change treaty process. Prior to joining the Treasury, she served as the senior economist for environmental affairs at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the development of the Kyoto Protocol. She began her career at the Office of Management and Budget, where she conducted regulatory oversight of agriculture and natural resource agencies. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University, an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Utah, and a B.A. from Rice University.

This public lecture is presented by the Research School of Economics in partnership with the HC Coombs Policy Forum at the Crawford School at ANU.

This event is supported by the Australian National Institute of Public Policy with funding from the Australian Government under the 'Enhancing Public Policy Initiative'.

Australian Government $1B Energy Reduction Fund

The Minister for Industry and Innovation, Greg Combet, launched the $800M Clean Technology Investment Program and $200M Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program on 16 February 2012. These will be funded from the carbon tax as part of the Clean Energy Future package. These are to subsidize industry purchase of more energy efficient equipment, or other ways to reduce carbon pollution.

As the size of the grants rise, companies have to invest more of their own money to receive funding: Investments under $0.5M for small companies will be matched dollar for dollar, under $10M $2 for every $1 pf grant, over $10M $3 for each $1.

Information sessions will be held around Australia in March: 5th Sydney, 7th Adelaide, 8th Perth, 15th Brisbane, 16th Melbourne, 19th Canberra and 22nd Hobart.

One difficult issue is companies which are no longer viable in Australia due to their high levels of carbon emissions. As an example, aluminum smelting takes very large amounts of energy which, in Australia, come from burning coal. The best option is to move the smelters to countries having renewable energy, such as New Zealand. However, even though these industries employ few workers (who could be easily compensated), it would be politically unacceptable to fund moving an industry offshore.

Audit of Australian Greenhouse Reporting

The Australian National Audit Office has released a report on the effectiveness of the "Administration of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme" (7 February 2012). The report is positive overall, suggesting some measures to improve integrity, compliance and streamline reporting. This report should be of interest to my ICT Sustainability students. Available are a brochure and the full
audit report.

Overall conclusion

14. The passing of the NGER Act in September 2007 created a new regulatory regime for Australia, with 775 constitutional corporations required to self assess and report their greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and production. This assessment and reporting was a critical prerequisite to underpin the proposed emissions trading scheme. It was also fundamental to the transparent reporting of Australia’s national and global commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. Accurate and complete datasets are also integral to the integrity of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory¹⁴ and other international reporting obligations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

15. The establishment of NGERS was a substantial and complex undertaking for DCCEE given the scale and broad coverage of the legislation across the Australian economy. The changing operating environment, particularly in relation to the proposed introduction of an emissions trading scheme in 2015 and the more recent carbon pricing mechanism, presented additional challenges for DCCEE that have impacted on the department’s implementation of NGERS. Nevertheless, DCCEE has established a workable greenhouse gas and energy reporting scheme that provides a more accurate measurement of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use within Australia when compared to the voluntary industry surveys and programs that were previously in place. DCCEE has established a positive relationship with the majority of registered corporations. In addition, over 50 per cent of corporations have indicated in their response to the ANAO’s survey that tangible benefits have been obtained from measuring their greenhouse gases and energy use.

16. Notwithstanding these positive findings and progress to date, key aspects of DCCEE’s administration require strengthening to improve the operation of NGERS. These include enhancing the integrity of reported greenhouse gas emission and energy use data; better managing compliance with the regulatory requirements; and streamlining reporting obligations as intended by COAG.

Data integrity

17. The quality and accuracy of reports submitted by corporations is critical for the overall integrity of the NGERS dataset. As the scheme relies on the self assessment and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and energy data by corporations, a sound quality assurance process supported by a risk-based compliance program are key elements for effective administration. Currently, DCCEE does not verify¹⁵ the data reported by corporations. Rather the department’s quality assurance relies on a desk top review of submitted data.¹⁶ It is intended that verification will be a major component of DCCEE’s compliance and audit program in 2012. In 2009–10, DCCEE identified that nearly three quarters of submitted reports contained errors, with 17 per cent of reports containing significant errors. The importance of accurate greenhouse gas emission and energy use data will increase significantly with the introduction of a carbon price in 2012. DCCEE has taken steps to improve data quality, including initiating a report re-submission process and the introduction of the recent Data Quality Improvement Strategy, to better position the department to monitor the integrity of data provided by registered corporations.

18. The integrity of the data collected under NGERS also relies on the functionality and security of the IT system (OSCAR) used by entities with NGERS obligations, to report and store data. The IT security testing undertaken as part of this audit, identified significant security vulnerabilities within the system that increased the risk of an unauthorised person gaining access to, and threatening the integrity of NGERS data. The subsequent report made forty specific recommendations to improve security. Eight of these recommendations were classified as high priority. The results of this security testing highlight the importance of managing risks through sound change and release management controls for the update and enhancement of IT systems. The ANAO’s recommendations are being progressed by DCCEE.

Compliance management

19. As the regulator, DCCEE is responsible for ensuring that regulated entities have met legislative requirements. DCCEE has put in place a number of strategies designed to educate and train representatives from corporations and to encourage compliance with NGERS registration and reporting requirements. However, the implementation of the NGERS compliance and audit program has been slower than planned. Implementation was constrained by the redistribution of resources following the deferral of the emissions trading scheme, and the lower priority afforded to this work within the first three years of NGERS. Consequently, a systematic, risk-based audit and compliance program is still in the process of being implemented. There remains substantial work to be undertaken to establish a program that is capable of providing an appropriate level of assurance that corporations are complying with their obligations. The cost of compliance for corporations is also significantly higher than the estimates in the NGERS regulatory impact statement. Striking the appropriate balance between meeting compliance obligations and the associated cost for regulated entities will be an important consideration for DCCEE in implementing the NGERS compliance and audit program.

Streamlined reporting

20. NGERS was intended to reduce the duplication of reporting requirements across related programs and create a single national reporting framework. This legislated objective was reinforced by a Protocol agreed by Australian, state and territory governments in July 2009. There was initial progress under the Protocol to streamline reporting obligations, with DCCEE ceasing a number of national programs as well as voluntary company surveys. Despite this initial streamlining activity, progress effectively stalled from April 2010 when the Government deferred the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. As a consequence, multiple reporting obligations remain.¹⁷ Reporting obligations and the associated inefficient use of resources were frequently cited as a significant problem by respondents to the ANAO survey and during discussions with stakeholders. Of the corporations surveyed, 63 out of 108 respondents (58.3 per cent) stated there had been no reduction in reporting requirements. If the objectives of the agreed Protocol are to be realised, DCCEE will need to give priority to working with jurisdictions to streamline current reporting requirements.

21. The ANAO has made three recommendations designed to: better target departmental compliance efforts; improve data sharing with Australian Government and authorised state or territory agencies; and advance efforts to further streamline greenhouse gas emission and energy use reporting requirements. ...

From: Administration of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme: Audit brochure, Australian National Audit Office, 7 February 2012

China Carbon Tax Proposed

The Chinese Ministry of Finance has proposed a carbon tax for China, starting at 10 yuan ($US1.59) per tonne, starting in 2016. This is much lower than the Australian and European carbon prices and there appear to be no proposals to move to a market mechanism, as the case with Australia and Europe. However, like Australia, the proposal is to gradually increase the price, to lessen concerns over its effect on economic development. As with Australia, the tax is proposed to be revenue neutral, with other forms of taxes being reduced. Many of the students in my course "ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future" are from China and the carbon price is likely to see an increase in interest in how to reduce energy use and therefore cost and carbon emissions.

... The main targets of the tax will be large users of coal, crude oil and natural gas, and tax cuts will be given to companies that take steps to reduce their emissions, Su said.

Jiang Kejun, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission's Energy Research Institute, who helped draft the tax proposal, said the tax is likely to be collected only from producers and wholesalers of fossil-fuel based energy. This will make it easier to collect the tax. ...

Source: China Daily 2012-1-6

From: "Officials weighing green benefits of carbon taxation", Climate Change Info-Net, Department of Climate Change, National Development and Reform Commission, China, 5 January 2012

财政部财政科学研究所副所长苏明21日在中国绿色经济展望论坛上表示，明年在积极的财政政策下，对战略性新兴产业尤其是低碳产业“实施更加积极的财政政策”，包括投资补助、财政贴息、股份投资、财政支持担保、政府采购、税收等六大手段。 ... Deputy Director, Institute of Fiscal Science, 21 Su Green Economic Outlook Forum in China, said that next year in a proactive fiscal policy, strategic and emerging industries, especially for low-carbon industry "to implement a more active fiscal policy", including investment subsidy, interest subsidy, equity investments, financial support guarantees, government procurement, taxation and other means of six.

苏明称，投资补助要从生产环节转移到消费环节，但生产环节的投资补助不会取消。 Su said the investment subsidies from production areas to consumption areas, but the production processes of investment grants will not be canceled.

所谓“投资补助”，是指由中央预算内(含国债项目资金)安排的，专项给予符合条件的固定资产投资项目的资金。 The so-called "investment grants" refers to the central budget (including the bond project funds) arrangements, given the special conditions of investment in fixed assets in line with project funds.

在财政贴息方面，此举将引导金融机构推动低碳产业发展。 Discount in financial terms, which will guide financial institutions to promote low-carbon industries.

所谓“财政贴息”，是指政府代企业支付部分或全部贷款利息，间接向企业成本价格提供补贴。 The so-called "financial discount" refers to the government on behalf of the company to pay part or all of the interest on loans, indirect subsidies to businesses to provide cost price.

在财政支持担保方面，财政可与社会资本合资设立担保公司，或建立担保风险补偿金。 Security aspects of the financial support, financial and social capital can be guaranteed a joint venture company, or create a security risk compensation.

在税收手段方面，从2012年起，针对战略性新兴产业尤其是低碳产业，有望启动企业所得税的优惠政策，既包括税收减免等直接手段，又包括投资抵免等间接手段。 Means of taxation, from 2012, the strategic emerging industries, especially for low-carbon industries, is expected to start the enterprise income tax incentives, both tax relief and other direct means, but also including investment credits and other indirect means.

所谓“投资抵免”，是指政府对纳税人在境内的鼓励性投资项目，允许按投资额的多少，抵免部分或全部应纳所得税额。 The so-called "investment credits" refers to the taxpayer in the territory of the government to encourage investment projects that allow for the amount of investment, some or all of the income tax credit amount.

“可以根据购置设备的投资额进行抵免”。 "According to the amount of investment for the purchase of equipment credits."

苏明解释道，战略性新兴产业大多也属于“低碳产业”的范畴。 Su explained that most of the strategic emerging industries also are "low-carbon industry" category.

为确保高碳产业向低碳产业的经济结构调整，苏明说道，碳税有望在“十二五”后期开征，征税对象包括煤炭、原油、天然气等温室气体排放大户，从每吨二氧化碳10元的较低税率起步，税率逐步提高。 To ensure high-carbon industries to low-carbon industry's economic structure adjustment, Su said, the carbon tax is expected in the "five" post-levy, tax base, including coal, crude oil, natural gas and other greenhouse gas emitters, from 10 per tonne of carbon dioxide lower rate of $ start, the rate gradually increased.

但苏明认为，明年经济增长速度放缓，再加上力推中小企业的结构性减税，并不是开征碳税的好时机。 However, Su believes that next year's economic growth is slowing down, coupled with the structural pushing tax cuts for SMEs, the introduction of a carbon tax is not a good time.

对 于低碳产业融资现状，中央财经大学气候与能源金融研究中心主任王瑶向记者表示，我国低碳融资主要集中在以联合国清洁发展机制(CDM )机制下的资金流入、多边开发机构的资金流入、国外私人部门的资金流入为主，但国内融资才开始启动，仍以中央财政拨款和补贴为主，主权财富基金、政府引导 基金、绿色金融服务等仍处在初级运作阶段。 Financing for low-carbon industry status quo, Central University of Finance Climate and Energy Center for Financial Research Renwang Yao told reporters that China's low carbon financing mainly in the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) mechanism inflows, inflows of multilateral development institutions foreign-based private sector capital inflows, but domestic financing was started, still dominated central government grants and subsidies, sovereign wealth funds, government guidance funds, green financial services is still in the initial operational phase.

北京中创碳投科技有限公司战略总监钱国强向记者总结道，财政政策只能“紧急输血”，起到拉动社会资本的杠杆作用。 Beijing Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in creating carbon investment money Guoqiang, director of strategy to reporters concluded that fiscal policy can only "emergency blood transfusion", play a stimulating social capital leverage.

但要建立解决低碳产业融资的长效机制，有两个前提：一是碳资产要有价格，让风电、水电等新能源企业以及碳捕捉等高新技术企业能把碳卖得出去；二是要实行强制性的碳减排，让排放量超过配额的高碳企业花钱买碳。 But to establish a long-term financing to solve the mechanism of low-carbon industries, based on two premises: First, have a carbon asset prices, wind power, hydropower and other new energy companies and carbon capture carbon and other high-tech enterprises can sell out; two to implement mandatory carbon emissions, so that the quota of carbon emissions than spend money on corporate carbon.

此外，还可探索针对低碳企业碳资产的抵押贷款。 In addition, companies can also explore carbon for carbon asset mortgages.

参与国家发改委应对气候变化相关工作的中创碳投有限公司副总经理郑喜鹏表示，大量低碳技术在研发后只能变成论文发表，无法实现市场化；许多地方政府推行的示范工程、示范园区难以向全国推广。 National Development and Reform Commission in response to climate change-related work in the record, Deputy General Manager Zheng Xipeng carbon investment, said a large number of low-carbon technologies into the research and development only after the paper published, the market can not be achieved; many local governments to implement the demonstration project, demonstration zone is difficult to promote the country.

“这是因为缺乏一座桥梁——商业模式。否则，光靠政策、资金、技术的堆砌，是堆不出一个成熟市场的”，郑喜鹏表示。 "This is because the lack of a bridge - the business model, otherwise, rely on policy, funding, technology, pile, heap is not a mature market," Zhengxi Peng said.

From: "Idea of ​​financial support for low carbon industries emerge" (translation of 低碳产业财政扶持思路浮出水面), Economic Information Daily, Ministry of Commerce, China, 15 December 2011

Green IT eBook

Version 2 of the Green IT eBook by Scott Evans, has been released by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA). The document is intended to help small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with 10 to 100 staff, to shrink the environmental footprint of computers and telecommunications and use ICT to make other sectors more environmentally efficient.

The book (really a booklet at an easy-to-read 64 pages) is a free 1.3 Mbyte PDF download (but you have to register for it). While described by AIIA in publicity as version 2, the document is marked "Version 1.2 – September 2011".

Unfortunately the well reference text and complex descriptions of Life Cycle emissions are likely to put off the average SME, trying to make a profit. But this material would be of use to my ICT Sustainability students at ANU and ACS.

Generalist staff, even ICT professionals, at an SME are unlikely to have time to worry about the details of green ICT. A better approach would be to provide an overview of what green ICT is and its benefits and then advise the SME to engage specialists to help implement it. The ACS sponsored a certification course on green ICT, which is now also offered by ANU.

Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Executive Summary 2
GreenIT Capability from an Industry Perspective 3
GreenIT Roadmap from an Organisation Perspective 4

Phase 1: Get Started – Reducing the IT Footprint 6
Overview of the Opportunities
Case Studies

Phase 2: Identify Hot Spots – Enterprise Profiling 8
Overview of the Opportunities 23
Case Studies 25

Phase 3: Tackling Hot Spots – Reducing the Enterprise Footprint 29
Overview of the Opportunities 30
Case Studies 32

Phase 4: Stewardship – Reducing the Value Chain Footprint 36
Overview of the Opportunities 37
Case Studies 40

Phase 5: Transformation – Operating in a Low Carbon Economy 48
Overview of the Opportunities 49
Case Studies 51
Case Study Acknowledgements 57
Glossary 58
Endnotes 59

Include ICT Sustainability in ACT Climate Change Plan

The ACT Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell MLA, released "Weathering the Change Draft Action Plan 2" for comment on 5 December 2011. There is a media release "Government proposes five pathways to reach carbon neutrality" and a two page "Draft Action Plan 2 summary", as well as the 80 page full report. Comments are invited on the ACT Government "Time to Talk" discussion forum and face-to-face forums will be held in in February 2012.

The "five pathways" in the draft plan are:

1. Renewable energy, with some carbon offsets.
2. Building energy efficiency, sustainable transport and waste recovery, plus renewable energy.
3. Gas fired electricity generation, plus building energy efficiency, sustainable transport and waste recovery.
4. Carbon offsets, plus building energy efficiency, sustainable transport and waste recovery.
5. Carbon offsets

In my view, energy efficiency should be the first option and offsets the last, with gas fired electricity and renewable energy in between. The advantage of energy efficiency is that, as well as reducing carbon emissions, it also lower costs, in the long term. The disadvantage of offsets is that they cost more and are of questionable environmental value: essentially you are paying someone else to do something which you should have done yourself. Renewable energy, such as wind and solar, are good in the long term, but are currently expensive. Gas fired electricity is reasonably low carbon, particularly when combined with building heating and cooling in a "tri-generation" plant.

Reduce building emissions 25% using ICT

The obvious first step is for the ACT Government to make its own operations energy efficient. One way is to reduce the energy use of office buildings. Currently about 25% of the carbon emissions of these buildings are caused by computer and telecommunications equipment (ICT). By using the techniques I teach in the course "ICT Sustainability" (including to ACT Government staff), the carbon emissions of these buildings could be reduced by 25%, along with a reduction in the electricity bill. The ACT Government could also encourage private companies to make their offices more efficient (the federal government already has a program for this).

Build inconspicuous gas fired electricity generators

The ACT Government can also avoid the problems they had with the previous proposed gas fired power station, by not proposing something which is called a "power station" and looks like one. The "Canberra Technolofy City" data center proposal incorporated a gas fired plant. This only took up a small part of the proposed data centre, but the artists rendering did not make this clear. The complex had tall towers which made it look like a coal fired power station. Small gas generating plants in office buildings have not met with the opposition this large scale proposal had. These plants are called "tri-generation plants" and have inconspicuous exhaust stacks.

Open Access to Reduce Carbon Emissions

The ACT Government has applied a restrictive copyright to its report, limiting distribution and use of the information. I suggest the ACT Government adopt an open access policy, making information freely available. This will allow information about how to reduce carbon emissions to be more readily available.

Small Cost of Living Increase from Australian Carbon Pricing

CSIRO have released the report "The Carbon Price and the Cost of Living: Assessing the impacts on consumer prices and households" (November 2011). Commissioned by the Climate Institute, the report by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) estimates that the $23 per tonne carbon price in the Clean Energy Legislative Package, passed last week, will increase consumer prices by 0.6% in 2012/13, and 0.1% in 2015/16. This is 0.1% lower than the government economists estimated. This assumes the cost of carbon will be proved on and that sellers will not take the opportunity to increase prices further.

CSIRO released:

1. Summary: The Carbon Price and the Cost of Living – Summary Report: Assessing the impacts on consumer prices and households (13 pages, 600 Kbytes PDF),
   
2. Full report: The Carbon Price and the Cost of Living: Assessing the impacts on consumer prices and households (122 Pages, 2 Mbytes PDF).

Key findings: The Carbon Price and the Cost of Living

• The proposed carbon price, starting at $23 per tonne, could result in an increase in consumer prices of 0.6% in 2012/13, and a second impact of up to 0.1% in 2015/16, assuming full cost pass through of the carbon price liability. These results are slightly lower than the impacts of 0.7% and 0.2% estimated by Treasury (2011a).
  • These results are considered ‘upper bound’ estimates, implying actual impacts on prices could be smaller than 0.6‐0.7%, with actual impacts depending on the degree to which costs are passed through to prices over time.
• The impact of the carbon price on consumer prices is around one quarter of the 2.5% impact on consumer prices of introducing the GST, and smaller than the impact of drivers of other major events that led to an increase of consumer prices over the last two decades, such as the trade and exchange rate impacts of the mining boom (2007/08) which had a 1.6% impact on consumer prices.
  • Unlike most major recent consumer price impacts, other than the GST, the introduction of a carbon price will be accompanied by assistance to households through tax cuts and increases in government benefit payments.
• Estimated impacts on electricity prices are similar to other studies. While the carbon price impact on electricity prices is smaller than the impact of recent increases network costs, the carbon price adds to these, continuing recent trend price increases. This highlights the importance of household energy efficiency, and of minimising increases in network costs.
  • The impacts on food prices are likely to be small (around 0.5% on average), and less than historical variability in food prices over time.
• We estimate that the carbon price will result in an overall increase in expenditure of $9.10 per week in 2012‐13, less than the Treasury estimate of $9.90 per week. This estimate is based on applying the price changes to the latest household expenditure data. Price impacts are made up of increases of $3.20 in electricity and gas costs, $1.20 in food costs, and $4.70 in other costs (such as clothing, recreation costs).
• Households with higher incomes and expenditure are estimated to face higher dollar increases in costs, but lower impacts as a share of expenditure. This is because low income households spend a larger share of their income on electricity and gas, which have larger price impacts from the carbon price.
  • The carbon price impact on low income households is equivalent to 0.8% to 0.9% of expenditure across all low income households, ranging from $4.30 per week for a single adult to $8.60 per week for couples with dependent children (reflecting different expenditure levels).
  • For high income households the carbon price impact is typically equivalent to 0.6% to 0.8% of expenditure, ranging from $6.60 per week for a high income single adult to $17.90 per week for a high income couple with dependents.
• Household assistance is focused on low and moderate income households, with middle income households typically receiving assistance that offsets most but not all of the impact of the carbon price.
  • Low and moderate income households receive significant assistance, generally outweighing the average price impact for these households by a significant margin.
  • The balance between impacts and assistance for middle income households is sensitive to the specific circumstances of households. In most of the cases examined, middle income households receive assistance that is larger than the average impact for that household type. However, in some cases, middle income households examined are eligible to receive assistance equivalent to 60‐95 percent of the carbon price impact.
  • High income households typically receive only limited assistance under the government’s policy.
• Overall, the analysis finds that the projected impacts of the carbon price fall well within the range of recent historical experience of changes in consumer prices and household cost of living, and that most households will receive assistance that offsets all or a significant portion of the impact of the carbon price.

From: Hatfield‐Dodds, S, Feeney, K., Shepherd, L., Stephens, J., Garcia, C., and Proctor, W., 2011, The Carbon Price and the Cost of Living – Summary Report: Assessing the impacts on consumer prices and households, A report to The Climate Institute prepared by CSIRO and AECOM, CSIRO/AECOM, Sydney.

Carbon Pricing Legislation for Comment

The Australian Government has released a "Clean Energy Legislative Package" for comment. This is intended to implement the "Clean Energy Future" carbon pricing policy, previously announced. Comments on the proposed legislation can be made until 22 August 2011.

Two overview documents are provided:

1. Clean Energy Legislative Package - Summary of legislation (PDF 181 KB)
2. Securing a clean energy future: Making it law (PDF 413 KB)

Provided are drafts of thirteen bills:

1. Clean Energy Bill 2011
2. Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011
3. Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011
4. Climate Change Authority Bill 2011
5. Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall charge—General) Bill 2011
6. Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge—General) Bill 2011
7. Clean Energy (Charges—Excise) Bill 2011
8. Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011
9. Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011
10. Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011
11. Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011
12. Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011
13. Customs Tariff Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011

One omission from the list of draft legislation is the household assistance to be provided.

Here is an extract of Clean Energy Legislative Package - Summary of legislation:

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2. Clean Energy Bill 2011: Carbon Pricing Mechanism

Establishes a carbon price which is expected to apply to around 500 of the nation’s biggest polluters with:

• rules for who is covered and what sources of carbon pollution are included;
• liable entities’ obligation to surrender emissions units corresponding to their carbon pollution;
• caps on the amount of carbon pollution from 1 July 2015;
• carbon units issued as personal property;
• allocation of carbon units, including by auction and the issue of free units;
• mechanisms to contain costs, including the fixed charge period and price floors and ceilings;
• links to the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), by making carbon credits eligible for surrender;
• linking to other credible emissions trading schemes;
• assistance for emissions-intensive trade-exposed activities and coal-fired electricity generators; and
• monitoring, enforcement, appeal and review provisions.

3. Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011: Establishes Regulator

Sets up the Clean Energy Regulator as a statutory authority that will administer the mechanism and enforce the law.

The responsibilities of the Regulator include:

• providing education on the mechanism and how it works;
• assessing emissions data to determine each entity’s liability;
• operating the Registry;
• monitoring, facilitating and enforcing compliance with the mechanism;
• allocating units including freely allocated units, fixed price units and auctioned units;
• administering the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System (NGERS), the Renewable Energy Target and the CFI;
• accrediting auditors for the CFI and NGERS; and
• working with other national law enforcement and regulatory bodies, including ASIC, the ACCC, AUSTRAC, the Federal Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

4. Climate Change Authority Bill 2011: Establishes Independent Review Body

Sets up the Climate Change Authority, which will be an independent body that provides the Government expert advice on key aspects of the mechanism and the Government’s climate change mitigation initiatives.

Establishes the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Advisory Board.

5. Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011: Links mechanism, regulator and other functions

Makes consequential amendments to ensure :

• NGERS supports the mechanism;
• the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units covers the mechanism and the CFI;
• the Regulator covers the mechanism, CFI, the Renewable Energy Target and NGERS;
• public accountability and financial management rules for the Regulator and Authority;
• that emissions units and their trading are covered by laws on financial services and regulated by ASIC;
• that activities related to emissions trading are covered by laws on money laundering and fraud;
• synthetic greenhouse gases are subject to an effective carbon price through existing synthetic greenhouse gas regulation of those substances;
• a refundable tax offset is provided for eligible conservation tillage equipment; and
• the taxation treatment of emissions units for the purposes of GST and income tax is clear.

6. Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge—General) Bill 2011: Procedural Bills

7. Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge—General) Bill 2011

8. Clean Energy (Charges—Excise) Bill 2011

9. Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011.

10. Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011

11. Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011

The elements of the mechanism which oblige a person to pay money are implemented through separate bills that comply with the requirements of section 55 of the Constitution.

12. Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011: Fuel Tax Arrangements

13. Customs Tariff Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011

Impose an effective carbon price on aviation and non-transport gaseous fuels through excise and customs tariffs.

14. Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011

Reduce the business fuel tax credit entitlement of non-exempted industries for their use of liquid and gaseous transport fuels, in order to provide an effective carbon price on business through the fuel tax system.

15. Clean Energy Amendment (Household Assistance) Bill 2011: Household Assistance

Implements the household assistance measures announced by the Government on 10 July 2011. This bill will amend relevant legislation to increase pensions and allowances, income support allowances and family payments and provide income tax cuts for lower and middle income households. There is no exposure draft of this bill.

16. Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC): Clean Energy Institutions

17. Australian Renewable Energy Agency

Legislation to establish these agencies will be introduced in 2012 following the consideration of advice from the Chair of the CEFC as to governance and investment mandate of the CEFC.

18. Steel Transformation Plan: Steel Assistance

Legislation to establish the Government’s Steel Transformation Plan will be introduced at the same time as the Clean Energy Legislation Package.

19. Other funding measures: Programs

Other funding measures, including the Clean Technology Programs, coal sector assistance, household and community sector energy efficiency programs and land sector programs, will be implemented through the budget process.

20. Implementing Regulations: Legislative instruments

Subordinate rules for the implementation of the plan and decision making by the Regulator. These include :

• Pollution caps

  Jobs and Competitiveness Program details

  Application requirements for generator assistance

  Procedural details

  Auction rules

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Here is the text of "Securing a clean energy future: Making it law":

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On 10 July 2011, the Australian Government announced the details of a carbon pricing mechanism to reduce our carbon pollution and move Australia to a clean energy future.

The mechanism will be made law by the Clean Energy Legislative Package (the Package). The Government released drafts of the key bills in the Package on Thursday 28 July 2011.

The Government will receive submissions and meet key stakeholders and legal experts about the Package.

The carbon pricing mechanism is one part of the Government’s overall Clean Energy Plan. Other key aspects include support for renewables, support for energy efficiency and support for our land sector.

The Clean Energy Legislative Package

The Package:

• implements the carbon pricing mechanism, as outlined in Securing a clean energy future: The Australian Government’s climate change plan, for Australia to reduce carbon pollution and move to a clean energy future;

• sets out how the carbon price will be run, and what businesses will have to do;

• links the carbon price to the Carbon Farming Initiative and to credible schemes overseas;

• provides for assistance to emissions intensive and trade exposed industries through the Jobs and Competitiveness Program and to electricity generators to ensure energy security;

• excludes agriculture from the mechanism;

• sets up a Clean Energy Regulator to run the mechanism;

• sets up an independent Climate Change Authority to advise on key aspects of the carbon price mechanism and the Government’s climate change mitigation initiatives;

• applies an effective carbon price to transport fuels (except for fuel used by households and in light commercial vehicles) through excise and customs tariffs;

• provides a refundable tax offset for conservation tillage equipment; and

• gives assistance to Australian households that need it most, including pensioners and low and middle income earners.

The bill incorporating these household assistance measures will be part of the package of clean energy bills that will be introduced into Parliament later this year.

More information about the Package and related climate change initiatives is in the attached tables.

The development of the Package

The Package will set out in law the way that Australia will introduce a carbon price to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution and move to a clean energy future.

It takes into account a wide range of public discussion, debate and consultation over the past decade on how Australia should tackle the challenge of reducing carbon pollution.

The Government will introduce the Package into the Parliament, which must pass both Houses for it to become law. Before introducing the Package, the Government is seeking comments from stakeholders and other interested parties on the drafting of the Bills.

Links to other climate change initiatives

The carbon pricing mechanism will be linked through the legislation to the Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative.

The Carbon Farming Initiative will cut carbon pollution in the agricultural sector through reducing or avoiding emissions or by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soil or trees. For example, carbon can be stored by growing a forest or reducing tillage on a farm in a way that increases soil carbon and emissions can be avoided through capture and destruction of methane emissions from landfill or livestock manure.Bills to set up the Carbon Farming Initiative and the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units were introduced into Parliament in March 2011, and are expected to be passed in 2011.

Public engagement on the Package

The Government published drafts of key bills in the Package on Thursday, 28 July 2011, along with commentaries to explain them. These bills implement the detailed policy announced on 10 July 2011.

Submissions on the Package can be sent to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency until 5pm on Monday, 22 August 2011. Before then, the Department will meet with stakeholders and legal experts to discuss the draft bills.

The Government will consider the views it receives on the drafting of the bills before they are introduced into the Parliament.

The Parliamentary Process

The Government intends to introduce the Package in the Spring 2011 sittings of the Parliament. It will then work to have the Parliament pass the Package by the end of 2011.

The Government announced that the carbon price mechanism will start on 1 July 2012. By working to have the Package passed before the end of 2011, the Government wants to ensure that arrangements required for the carbon price are in place before 1 July 2012, and to ensure that liable businesses have as much time as possible to prepare for carbon pricing.

What happens after the Package is passed?

Once the Package is passed, the Government will prioritise the setting up of the Clean Energy Regulator so that it can ensure the smooth implementation of the mechanism.

The Government will also complete the regulations that are needed to ensure that the mechanism can start on 1 July 2012.

Regulations and legislative instruments

Some practical aspects of the carbon pricing mechanism will be implemented through legislative instruments, including regulations.

Regulations are made by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Government, and provide flexibility in applying laws to businesses and individuals. Regulations can be necessary to give effect to a law or allow for future changes in circumstances to be taken into account, without the need to go back to Parliament and amend the law every time a change needs to be made.

The Parliament has the power to disallow regulations after they are made. This way, regulations remain subject to Parliamentary scrutiny over time.

The Package includes different regulation-making powers:

• regulations about the Jobs and Competitiveness Program and the Energy Security Fund: the detailed design of the Program and the Fund require engagement with affected industries and, later, expert advice from the Climate Change Authority.

• regulations setting pollution caps, price ceilings and floors: before the commencement of the flexible price period, regulations will need to be made to set pollution caps, price ceilings and price floors, taking account of circumstances at the time these decisions are made.

• regulations that clarify issues covered by the law: while the law may apply generally, it may also allow the Government to specifically define concepts or identify situations covered to make it more certain. This means the law can factor in economic changes and changes to business activity over time.

• regulations spelling out what the Regulator may take into account when making routine decisions: the Government may want to ensure that regulatory bodies consider specific issues when making routine decisions. The relevance of particular things may change over time.

• regulations dealing with administrative issues: these typically cover things like the way in which a Regulator may undertake its work, the information a person has to give the Regulator and the way in which they do so. These things will change over time with changes to administrative and business practices and technology.

Roadmap for making the carbon price mechanism law

	Note: this timeline is based on a 1 July 2012 start for the carbon pricing mechanism
10 July 2011	Securing a clean energy future: The Australian Government’s climate change plan
28 July – 22 August 2011	Public submissions invited on the Clean Energy Legislation Package and discussions with key stakeholders and legal experts
August – September 2011	The Government considers stakeholder views and decides the final form of the Clean Energy Legislation Package
September – November 2011	Clean Energy Legislation Package is considered by the Parliament and the Government works to have it passed. Drafts of key regulations will be available at that time.
Before 1 July 2012	The Government prepares, seeks views on and finalises regulations to be made under the Clean Energy Legislation Package which are needed for it to start on 1 July 2012 The Government puts the draft regulations before the Federal Executive Council for consideration by the Governor-General The Government sets up the Clean Energy Regulator and the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board The Clean Energy Regulator and the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board start work before the start of the carbon pricing mechanism
1 July 2012	Start of the carbon pricing mechanism Start of the first fixed charge year (the charge is set at $23.00) Start of the Jobs and Competitiveness Program (which requires regulations to be made by 1 March 2011) The Climate Change Authority is established Commencement of the Energy Security Fund
From 1 July 2012 onwards	Ongoing implementation, awareness raising and education about the carbon price mechanism and the Carbon Farming Initiative
1 July 2013	Start of the second fixed charge year (the charge is set at $24.15)
By 31 May 2014	The Government must table in Parliament regulations specifying the pollution cap numbers for the first five flexible charge years of the carbon pricing mechanism (eligible financial years beginning on 1 July 2015, 1 July 2016, 1 July 2017, 1 July 2018 and 1 July 2019)
1 July 2014	Start of the third fixed charge year (the charge is set at $25.40)
By 1 July 2015	Start of the flexible price period The Government must table regulations specifying the pollution cap numbers for eligible financial years beginning on 1 July 2020; if these do not take effect a default cap will apply
By 1 July each year thereafter	The Government must table regulations specifying the pollution cap numbers for the eligible financial year beginning five years later; if these do not take effect a default cap will apply

The Clean Energy Legislative Package and related legislation

Which Bill?	What does it cover?	When will it be law?
	The bills marked with * have been released in draft
Clean Energy Bill 2011*	This is the central bill of the Package. It sets up the carbon pricing mechanism and deals with assistance for emissions intensive trade exposed industries (the Jobs and Competitiveness Program) and the coal-fired electricity generation sector. It contains rules for who is covered and what sources of carbon pollution are included, the obligation to surrender emissions units, caps on the amount of carbon pollution from 1 July 2015, international linking, monitoring, enforcement, appeal and review provisions.	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 with commencement before 1 July 2012
Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011*	This bill sets up the Clean Energy Regulator, which will administer and enforce the mechanism	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 with commencement before 1 July 2012
Climate Change Authority Bill 2011*	This bill sets up the Climate Change Authority, which will advise the Government on key aspects of the carbon price mechanism and the Government’s climate change mitigation initiatives, and the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board, which will advise on the implementation of land sector measures.	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 The Board will be set up before 1 July 2012 The Authority will be set up on 1 July 2012
Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011*	This bill makes amendments to other laws to ensure that the mechanism is integrated with existing laws, regulatory schemes and processes. It includes changes that ensure: the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System (NGERS) supports the mechanism; the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units covers the mechanism, as well as the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI); the Regulator covers the mechanism, CFI, the Renewable Energy Target and NGERS; the Regulator and Authority are set up as statutory agencies and regulated by public accountability and financial management rules; that carbon units and their trading are covered by laws on financial services and regulated by ASIC; that activities related to emissions trading are covered by laws on money laundering and fraud; synthetic greenhouse gases are covered by the carbon price through extending existing regulation of those substances; the taxation treatment of emissions units for the purposes of GST and income tax is clear; and the Regulator can work with other regulatory bodies, including ASIC, the ACCC and Austrac.	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 Different parts of this bill will start at different times, depending on the element of the mechanism to which they relate
Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge—General) Bill 2011* Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge—General) Bill 2011* Clean Energy (Charges—Excise) Bill 2011* Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011* Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011* Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011*	These are procedural bills, which deal with the way in which charges are paid under the mechanism. They comply with the requirements of section 55 of the Constitution.	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 with commencement before 1 July 2012
Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011* Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011* Customs Tariff Amendment (Clean Energy) Bill 2011*	Separate bills will implement other reforms linked to the introduction of the mechanism. These cover: imposing an effective carbon price on aviation and non-transport gaseous fuels through excise and customs tariffs reducing the business fuel tax credit entitlement of non-exempted industries for their use of liquid and gaseous transport fuels, in order to provide an effective carbon price on business through the fuel tax system.	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 with commencement before 1 July 2012
Clean Energy Amendment (Household Assistance) Bill	The Government will introduce a bill to deliver household assistance measures to help Australians adjust to a low emissions economy. The Government announced the detail of these changes on 10 July 2011. This bill will make law the household assistance measures, including: higher payments to pensioners, veterans, self-funded retirees and families and assistance to aged-care residents, Essential Medical Equipment Payments recipients; tax cuts to assist low and middle income families, by tripling the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200 in 2012-13 and adjusting the first two marginal tax rates; and a further increase in the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $19,400 in 2015-16.	Passed by Parliament by December 2011 with commencement before 1 July 2012 where assistance commences on 1 July 2012. Most of the funding initiatives will be delivered as part of the 2012 Budget process.

Measures being delivered administratively or through other legislation

What is the initiative?	What does it cover?	When will it be law?
Support for innovation	The Government will introduce legislation to deliver assistance to promote the development and adoption of new low emissions and energy efficient technologies. The Government announced the detail of these changes on 10 July 2011. These bills will make law these measures, including: the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which will invest in the development new renewable energy, energy efficiency and low emissions technologies and the transformation of existing manufacturing businesses to help them meet demand for these new activities; and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which will be a new independent statutory agency responsible for funding new renewable energy projects. It will take over existing national renewable energy initiatives.	The legislation implementing these changes will be passed before 1 July 2012 and take into account the report of the Chair on the investment mandate and detailed governance arrangements for the CEFC. Most of the funding initiatives will be delivered as part of the Budget process.
Industry and business assistance	The Government will deliver assistance to help businesses adjust to a low emissions economy and take advantage of the opportunities that this will create for them. The Government announced the detail of these changes on 10 July 2011. Specific Bills will make law: the Steel Transformation Plan to assist Australia’s steelmakers adjust to a low emissions economy; the small business instant asset write-off threshold will increase from $5,000 to $6,500 for depreciating assets; The Government will also administratively implement: grants to industry associations and non-government organisations to deliver information about energy efficiency to small and medium businesses and community organisations; the Clean Technology Investment Program to deliver grants for manufacturing businesses to investing energy efficiency capital equipment and low emissions technologies, processes and products; the Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program to deliver grants for metal forging, foundry and food businesses to invest in energy efficiency capital equipment and low emissions technologies, processes and products; the Clean Technology Innovation Program to deliver grants for research into innovation in low emissions technologies, processes and products; the Clean Energy Skills Program to deliver funding to education providers on new workplace skills to deliver low emissions technologies, processes and products; and the Clean Technology Focus for Supply Chains Program to deliver funding to promote and assist businesses to reduce the emissions intensity of supply chain logistics; and the Coal Sector Jobs Package to assist the most emissions-intensive coal mines and Coal Mining Abatement Technology Support Package to assist the coal industry implement abatement technologies	The legislation implementing these changes will start before 1 July 2012 where the relevant body or program starts on 1 July 2012. Most of the funding initiatives will be delivered as part of the Budget process.
Household and community assistance	The Government will assist people and communities adjust to a low emissions economy and take advantage of the opportunities that this will create for them. an expansion of the Low Carbon Communities Program to assist low-income households increase energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and support local government and community organisations to assist them; improved advice to households on energy efficiency and clearer information on government assistance; and the Remote Indigenous Energy Program to deliver financial support to build renewable energy generation in around 55 remote indigenous communities.	Funding initiatives will be delivered as part of the Budget process.
Transport measures	Mandatory vehicle emissions standards will be introduced to significantly reduce the average CO2 emissions for light vehicles in Australia.	Regulations to introduce the new standard are being developed
Regional structural adjustment assistance	The Government will set up a Regional Structural Adjustment Assistance program to make funding available to assist regions strongly affected by the introduction of a carbon price.	Funding initiatives will be delivered as part of the Budget process.
Land sector measures	The Government will deliver a wide range of measures to reduce greenhouse gas in the land sector. These measures include: the CFI non-Kyoto Fund to purchase non-Kyoto compliant CFI carbon credits, which cannot be purchased under the mechanism; the Carbon Farming Futures Fund to deliver funding, with the advice of the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board, to help landholders benefit from carbon farming practices by encouraging research, developing better estimation methods, funding on-farm abatement, fostering greater awareness of carbon farming and the conservation tillage tax offset; the Biodiversity Fund to deliver funding, with the advice of the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board, to restore and protect biodiverse carbon stores; the Regional Natural Resources Management Planning and Climate Fund to help regional communities plan for the impacts of climate change and maximise the benefits of carbon farming projects; the Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund to support indigenous communities implement carbon farming projects; the Carbon Farming Skills Initiative to ensure that landholders can access credible, high quality advice and carbon services; the removal by regulation of native forest wood waste from eligible renewable energy sources under the Renewable Energy Target with transitional arrangements for existing accredited power stations.	Most of the funding initiatives will be delivered as part of the Budget process.

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