With the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (GPRS) Bill having entered the Senate on November 17 and Opposition hopes for a delay in lieu of an outcome at Copenhagen fading, the politics surrounding the scheme is likely to come to a head. The announcement by the Federal Government that agriculture would be permanently excluded from the GPRS is consistent with ALFA policy and an encouraging step. However, it nevertheless should be placed in context. While it addresses the difficulty of aligning the vagaries of agriculture with a cap and trade scheme, it does not mean that agriculture will escape paying a carbon price for its emissions. In fact, Senator Penny Wong has flagged that other regulatory measurers will be imposed on the sector to reduce its emissions. This is consistent with the Garnaut White Paper from earlier in the year. Such alternatives could be a carbon or consumption tax or other measures such as licencing.
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