Australia’s government yesterday revised down forecast revenue from the future sale of carbon permits, and said there was now little room to offer more compensation in order to secure political support for the scheme.
The government wants carbon trading to start in July 2011, but laws for the scheme are deadlocked in parliament, with the government in talks on possible amendments with the opposition, which wants more money for the coal and electricity sectors.
But updated budget and economic forecasts found the scheme would run at a A$1.2 billion (US$1.1 billion) deficit in its first two years, instead of a small surplus, leaving little money to boost compensation for the coal miners or electricity generators.
“They don’t leave a lot of room for any further discretionary decisions,” Treasurer Wayne Swan told reporters yesterday.
The government plans to use the revenue from selling carbon permits to compensate householders and business for higher power and fuel costs, and to help big polluting export firms compete with overseas rivals that don’t face carbon costs at home.
The government’s mid-year budget update blamed the increased value of the Australian dollar, which has risen 24 percent against the US dollar since May, for lowering the assumed Australian dollar price of carbon permits.
Carbon permits will be set at A$10 a tonne in the first year. From July 2012, the market will then set the price, with the government assuming a price around A$26 per tonne, down from a previous estimate of around A$29 per tonne.
Australia’s carbon-trade scheme will allow unlimited imports of UN-backed carbon permits, which will also become more affordable with a stronger currency.
The government has forecast a A$2.5 billion deficit in the cost of the scheme by June 2020.
Environmental group the Australian Conservation Foundation said the updated forecasts proved the government could not give into opposition demands for more money for polluting industries.
“The emissions trading scheme won’t be environmentally or economically effective if it is billions of dollars in the red because of excessive handouts to big polluters,” foundation executive director Don Henry said in a statement.
The Australian scheme will cover 75 percent of Australian emissions from 1,000 of the biggest companies and be the second domestic trading platform outside of Europe.
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS