Carbon pricing in Australia
* per tonne of emitted CO2
A carbon pricing scheme in Australia, commonly dubbed by its critics as a "carbon tax", was introduced by the Gillard Labor Government in 2011 as the Clean Energy Act 2011 which came into effect on 1 July 2012. It was in operation until it was repealed on 17 July 2014, and backdated to 1 July 2014. In its place the Abbott Government set up the Emission Reduction Fund in December 2014. As a result of being in place for such a short time, regulated organisations responded in a rather tepid and informal manner, with very few investments in emissions reductions being made.
The 2011 scheme required entities which emit over 25,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases and which were not in the transport or agriculture sectors to obtain emissions permits, called carbon units. Carbon units were either purchased from the government or issued free as part of industry assistance measures. The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency stated that in June 2013 only 260 entities were subject to the scheme, of which approximately 185 were liable to pay for carbon units under the carbon price scheme.
The carbon price was part of a broad energy reform package called the Clean Energy Futures Plan, which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia by 5% below 2000 levels by 2020 and 80% below 2000 levels by 2050. The plan set out to achieve these targets by encouraging Australia's largest emitters to increase energy efficiency and invest in sustainable energy. The scheme was administered by the Clean Energy Regulator. Compensation to industry and households was funded by the revenue derived from the charge. As part of the scheme, personal income tax was reduced for those earning less than $80,000 per year and the tax-free threshold was increased from $6,000 to $18,200. Initially the price of a permit for one tonne of carbon was fixed at $23 for the 2012–13 financial year, with unlimited permits being available from the government. The fixed price rose to $24.15 for 2013–14. The government had announced that the scheme was part of a transition to an emissions trading scheme in 2014–15, where the available permits will be limited in line with a pollution cap. The scheme primarily applied to electricity generators and industrial sectors. It did not apply to road transport and agriculture. Domestic aviation did not face the carbon price scheme per se, but was subject to an additional fuel excise levy of approximately 6 cents per litre.
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