Wong sets emissions timetable

By the end of this year, business should have a clear idea about the extra costs they will face under a carbon emissions trading scheme after a timetable was released by the Government yesterday.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said she will release a green paper setting out what a carbon trading system will look like by July 2008, to be followed by draft legislation in December.

That will be followed in 2009 by a round of intensive consultation with business and community groups, Wong says, before the legislation is passed – although it will require independent support in the Senate – in mid-2009, wuth the carbon trading scheme commencing early in 2010.

“The introduction of emissions trading will constitute the most significant economic and structural reform undertaken in Australia since the trade liberalisation of the 1980s,” Wong said.