Simon Watts Not Learning From ETS Failures Of Previous Government

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Government to remove all price controls from the auction of carbon credits under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) following the most recent auction failure.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Simon Watts either has no idea what’s going on or he simply doesn’t care enough to ensure that we have a well functioning carbon market that enables the country to lower its emissions at the lowest possible cost.

“The price controls on carbon credits at auction do absolutely nothing except make it more expensive to reduce emissions and bring instability into the carbon market. The Government already sets the quantity of credits available, it does not need to set the price too. Why does the Climate Change Minister think he is Robert Muldoon?

“Removing the floor price for carbon will restore confidence to the market by ensuring credits are able to be traded at the market price. When that price is lower than the current floor price, consumers will benefit from lower prices, rather than the government arbitrarily propping up prices for no environmental gain.”

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