...A carbon tax is a tax imposed on the carbon content of fuels. It is a form of carbon pricing. Carbon taxes are a possible cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. From an economic outlook, carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax.They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not face the full social costs of their actions. Carbon taxes can be a degenerating tax, in that it may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately. The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favor low-income groups. A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content. But some are taxed on energy products and motor vehicles rather than on carbon dioxide directly. In June 2010, Julia Gillard defeated Rudd in a leadership challenge thus becoming Prime Minister of Australia. Shortly afterwards she called a federal election. During the election campaign Gillard stated that she supported a price on carbon emissions and that she would prosecute the case for action for as long as she needed to win community support. However, she also indicated that she would not introduce carbon pricing until there was a sufficient consensus on the issue, and she specifically ruled out the introduction of a "carbon tax".(Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan, 2010) When it was introduced on July 1, 2012 its primary goal is to reduce the country’s total emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs)...
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...Compare carbon taxes with emission trading schemes as government policy tools. Introduction Why do we need environmental control Over the last century and a bit the world have added 40% more CO2 to the Earth’s atmosphere. Every year the World collectively add more again than we did the year before. The Earth is on an accelerating drive to change our planet’s atmosphere. The main source of this additional CO2 is the burning of fossil fuels. There is a common consensus that global warming is an effect of increased carbon emission and only a few groups still hold on to the belief that there is no connection between emissions of greenhouse gases (Carbon) with the effect of global warming. The leading scientist have predicted Australia has 5 years to reduce its carbon emission to prevent dangerous climate change which may cause average temperate to increase on average by 2 degrees. For the benefit of Australian farmers, grazers and fisherman to enable them to have the best chance to feed the world, and Australian’s primary industry to have the best opportunities for sustainable growth, measures must be undertaken to reduce carbon emission. Government initiatives is required to correct because environmental control, air quality and climate change are all public goods. Public goods are those that everyone can enjoy and no one can be excluded from enjoying the goods. Since it is a public good, everyone can enjoy but no one actually pay for anything to enjoy the good. Public...
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... FINANCE “Review the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) in Australia and critique its impact on financial management decisions” BY Xiao Nie Yang Song Date: 20th April 2010 Introduction In today’s society, all countries in the world will experience climate change in coming decades because of increasing carbon pollution (climate change 2007). In order to reduce the carbon pollution, ETS and CPRS will be proposed in the world wide and Australia. This essay is to focus on revising the proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme and point out its impact on financial management decision. In the first place, there is a brief summary about the CPRS scheme in detail. In the second place, there is an analysis about major and minor financial management decisions. In the final place, the impacts of CPRS on its financial management decision will be raised. All in all, the conclusion is a summary of the aim of the essay and how to achieve this aim. The CPRS scheme The emissions trading scheme (ETS) in Australia is called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Australia is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They recognize that human activity is causing the climate change and also Australia is one of the biggest polluters on a per capita basis. The CPRS will help reduce Australia’s carbon pollution by putting a price on carbon for the first time in Australia’s history. The carbon price means that goods that are emissions...
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...2015's critical global climate talks. By leading on a strong emissions reduction target, the UK is persuading others on the need for member states to have the freedom and flexibility to develop their own energy mix to achieve these ambitious reductions. Rigid technology specific targets set for each country would not be cost effective – and EU members should be free to decarbonise in a way that is right for them, including renewables, nuclear, carbon capture and storage and energy efficiency. Energy policy's central conundrum today is how to go green at the lowest possible cost. The commission's analysis confirms that British households pay some of the lowest prices for gas and electricity in Europe, but that is little comfort to people struggling to pay rising energy bills. So we have to achieve a fine balance. We need to invest in home-grown clean energy that will bring cheaper prices in the long run, shielding consumers from volatile international fossil fuel markets. But we also need to take people with us as we transition to a low carbon economy, and that...
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...Running Head: AUSTRALIA’S CARBON TAX POLICY AND ITS AFFECT ON BUSINESS Australia’s Carbon Tax Policy and its affect on business [Name of Writer] [Name of Institution] Australia’s Carbon Tax Policy and its affect on business Introduction The presentation of the Australian Government’s proposed environmental change arrangement guarantees noteworthy change in the way numerous Australian undertakings continue on ahead. The arrangement looks to move Australia to a ‘clean energy’ economy through a blend of putting a cost on carbon, expanded renewable vitality, enhanced vitality proficiency and area administration. About whether it guarantees to convert Australia’s financial scene, the arrangement’s centre piece is the valuing of carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse gas’ discharges. As we are all mindful, the arrangement is politically argumentative and has been presented and passed by both Houses of the Australian Parliament. However, the potential timetable was aspiring with a proposed implementation date of 1 July 2012. (King A., 2014). Discussion There is little agreement around Australian executives about how to go about cutting carbon discharges. Approximately 40% of respondents accept that the effect of carbon emissions on an unnatural weather change hasn’t been sufficiently settled to warrant wholesale changes in corporate methodology or behaviour. More than one-third of respondents, in the interim, don’t surmise that carbon ought to be estimated, accepting rather...
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...importance of treaties and regulation; the central role of politicians, advocacy groups and non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace; the pervasive moral certainty; and, though this was only in the background, the commitment to renewable energy, especially wind and solar power, as the primary means of cutting carbon emissions. For many people, the great problem of climate change has been a failure of regulation and political will. If only, they say, the obligations of the Kyoto accord had been more comprehensive, the regulations stricter, or if more money had gone into renewables. Then the world might have reined in the temperature rise and the public would not have become so sceptical about climate change. Not so, says Dieter Helm of Oxford University. It is not the failure of the regulations that is the problem but their basic design. They have caused people to focus on the most expensive ways of mitigating climate change, rather than the cheapest, imposing high costs for little gain. Moreover, by concentrating on their own carbon production, and how to reduce it, Europeans have ignored the impact of their continued demand for goods made using carbon- intensive processes. Since Chinese and Indian manufacturing is usually dirtier than Europe’s, the real upshot of Europe’s choices has been an increase in global emissions. The regulatory approach, argues Mr Helm, has got the worst of all worlds. It is expensive, it has not cut emissions and its treaties are unworkable...
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...Australian Dollar page 6 3.6 SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities Cost and Threat) Analysis page7 3.7 CBA for Structural Reform page 8 4. Conclusion page 9 5. Recommendation page 9+10 6. Reference page 11 1. Executive Summary The purpose of this report was to analysis present of Australia’s trade position and prepared a plan for improving Australia’s position. Specific objectives were to identify key economic problems in term of trade and current account. Problems and solutions were found in the trade and current account though Carbon tax with high Australian dollar is likely to force radical structural reform on the economy and the manufacturing. The report recommends using structural reform to improve Australia’s trade position. Furthermore, Carbon tax initially acts against competitive international trade. In the long term, it can offer solutions to the two sector economy. 2. Introduction Since the onset of the East Asian economic and financial crisis in late 1997 the Australian economy has continued to record strong growth, despite many of Australia’s Asian major trading partners (MTPs) experiencing recession and a consequent slowdown in world economic growth. Therefore, this report will prepare a plan for improving Australia’s trade position and will focus on four areas: • Recommendations to improve Australia’s trade position • Identification of issues in...
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...Wisconsin-Green Bay Australia is a unique country full of different species of both land and sea creatures that are a part of its extremely diverse ecosystem. The Australian Marine Conservation Society, formally known as the Queensland Littoral Society, has worked for decades to defend the Great Barrier Reef against things like coral mining, oil drilling, overfishing, etc. It is also the only national charity in Australia that only works toward protecting the ocean wildlife. Without this nonprofit, who knows what would become of the Great Barrier Reef and its surrounding habitats. But before I talk about this extremely amazing nonprofit, a brief history on Australia will be given. Australia’s government is a variety of different governments from other countries such as British and U.S. governments. They have a Liberal Democratic government. Australia has one of the oldest democracies in the world. There are very little nonprofit organizations that are entirely dependent on government funding. All nonprofits are exempt from income tax, and depending on their activity, many nonprofits are exempt from paying other taxes such as fringe benefits tax, sales tax, and rates. Nonprofits play a very important role in the economy, society, and political system. Although they do help the social and political systems, it is far easier to measure the economic contributions. There is still a lot that is not known about the Australian nonprofit organizations. Australia has a very similar culture...
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...4. a. (i) Labour intensive industry refers to industry that requires substantial amount of human labour to produce industrial products. For example, in Australia coal mining is one of the labour intensive industries. According to Australian Coal Association (Coal & the Community), black coal mining is one of Australia’s most important industries that creates employment, low-cost fuel and important source of export revenue. (ii) Coal mining industry is labour intensive because this particular industry requires a large number of human labours to run heavy machinery and work in large factories to produce the goods. (iii) Economies of scale is where the long-run average cost declines as production increases in simple explanation where a manufacturing company saves money as its produce higher quantities of its product. In this case, mining industry are likely to develop economies of scale because it has the ability to mass produce products. (iv) In coal mining industry in Australia there numbers of firms in mining industry, however there are four major companies that dominates coal mining industry – Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Anglo American – together account for well over half of total Australian black-coal production. b. (i) Capital intensive industry refers to industry that requires substantial amount of capital in the production of goods. In Australia one of the capital-intensive industries is automotive industry. (ii) Automotive industry is capital intensive...
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...Issue/Coal Mining in Arkansas Kathleen Hastings November 7, 2013 SCI 275 Clifford Blizard Community Environmental Issue/Coal Mining in Arkansas “Coal Production in Arkansas is not often done, but there are some cases in Arkansas. In 2004, the state produced about seven thousand short tons of coal. Arkansas was twenty sixth in the nation in coal production according to the National Mining Association. Arkansas does have many coal deposits; however, the most accessible coal has already been mixed. There is bituminous coal present in the Arkansas River Valley. There are about 9 billion tons of lignite coal in the eastern and southern parts of Arkansas. We get most of our coal from Wyoming. Arkansas used over fifteen million short tons of coal for electricity in 2004. (SourceWatch) Active Coal Mining sites are inspected each month by personal from the Russellville Field Office. When infractions are noted, notices of violation and cessation orders may be issued by the site’s inspector.” (Coal Program, Wayne Van Buren) “The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) established performance standards for coal mining operations for the express purpose of protecting society and the environment from the adverse effects of surface coal mining operations. The Arkansas Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Code (ASCMRC) was adopted by Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission on July 25, 1980.” (Coal Program, Wayne Van Buren) “The Arkansas Surface Coal Mining Reclamation...
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...Trading ------------------------------------------------- Assignment 2 ------------------------------------------------- Onesteel Prepared by: Wayne Andrews Student number: 41712986 September 2011 Subject Number : ECFS905 Lecturer : Julian Turecek Class : Sydney P. T. Company Selection Select an ASX200 company that is expected to have a carbon exposure equal to or greater than 2% of EBITDA at a $23/t carbon price. Question 1 Determine the company’s carbon exposure, including direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) emissions and establish that its exposure is greater than 2%. The following table summarises Onesteel’s actual and estimated for FY10, FY11 and FY12 emissions and imputed carbon cost under the currently proposed Carbon Tax, relative to reported EBITDA. Table 1 – Implied impact of carbon pricing imputed to 2010 results | Company Guidance | Fixed Price imputed for comparison | Fiscal year commencing | FY10 | FY10 | FY11 | FY12 | Carbon Price (FY10/11 theoretical) | 23.0 | 23.0 | 23.0 | 23.0 | EITE Assistance Rate | 94.5% | 94.5% | 94.5% | 94.5% | EBIT DA $Mil | 619.0 | 619.0 | 638.0 | 717.6 | Type 1 Emissions | 2.55 | 2.55 | 2.66 | 3.05 | Type 2 Emissions | 1.34 | 1.34 | 1.40 | 1.60 | Total Emissions Type 1 & 2 MtCo2e | 3.89 | 3.89 | 4.06 | 4.65 | ...
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...Corporate Financial Analysis 25743 Autumn Semester 2012 Assignment 1 ON Done By: Student Name Ai Ling HONG Wendy LUONG David PARK Peichao WANG Ying ZHU Student Number 11261308 11159249 11174354 11282047 10679140 Page 1 Table of Contents: 1. Business Description 2. Whitehaven Coal Ltd’s Performance Vs ASX200 Energy Index 2.1 Profitability Ratios 2.2 Asset Utilization Ratios 2.3 Capitalisation Ratios 2.4 Market Ratios 3. Quality of Financial Data 4. Revenue & Profitability Growth Forecast 4.1 Industry Life Cycle 4.2 Sustainable Growth Rate 4.3 Macroeconomic and Technological Factors Affecting Growth Rate 5. Business Risks: Porter’s 5 Forces 5.1 Threat of New Entrants 5.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 5.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers 5.4 Threat of Substitutes 5.5 Rivalry Among Existing Competitors 6. Recommendation Pg 3 Pg 3 − 5 Pg 5 Pg 6 Pg 7 − 8 Pg 9 Page 2 1. Business Description ASX Ticker: WHC Current Share Price (5th April 2012) Market Capitalisation Shares Outstanding Revenue from Ordinary Activities FY11 NPAT FY11 Diluted EPS (cents) Whitehaven Coal Ltd is an Australian listed company whose main $5.67 operations involve developing and operating coalmines in NSW. $2, 814m 496m and the development of the Narrabi underground mine. Initial Currently, its focus is on coal production in the Gunnedah Basin resource assessment by WHC projected that the Gunnedah Basin is $622.19m able to support at least 1.5 million tonne per annum (Mtpa)...
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...ID: 30117006 BUMKT 6942 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LECTURER: TERRY XUE Contents Introduction 3 Effects of Carbon Tax 5 Effects on competitiveness 6 Conclusion: 7 References: 8 Introduction Carbon tax is tax imposed on industries which emit carbon di oxide into the atmosphere causing pollution. Basically it a tax imposed on emitters who are causing air pollution commercially. Carbon tax is believed to be successful for future environmental benefits. The difference between emission trading scheme and carbon tax is that in emission trading there is a limit set on the emissions that can released into the atmosphere while carbon tax just focuses on adding burden to the industries by making them pay more for emissions. Carbon tax was enforced in Australia by the previous federal government on 1st July 2012. On a rough estimate it is applicable to around 500 Australia’s largest emitters which emit more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide or supply or use natural gas (SBS, 2013). Implementation of this carbon tax came to the consideration of federal government due to the report suggested by Climate Change Authority which aims at targeting in reducing carbon emissions by 15 percent by year 2020. Based on the suggestion federal government made a decision to impose carbon tax as an effective measure to discourage industries in emitting carbon dioxide which has a direct impact on climate change. Figure 1: Climate change actions in major emitting economies ...
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...businesses with fossil fuels, many nations are knowingly releasing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A study done by Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center states that "The world pumped 39.8 billion tons (36.1 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide last year. That is 778 million tons (706 metric tons) or 2.3 per cent more than the previous year" (Zolfagharifard 2014). The United States and many countries attempted more environmentally friendly solutions but only to fall on heuristic approaches. In order to tackle the problem head on, nuclear reactors must be built; for this reason Lucas Davis writes: The NRC received 16 license applications for a total of 24 proposed reactors. The time was right, so it seemed, for a nuclear power renaissance in the United States. Natural Gas Prices were at their highest level ever in real terms. The 2005 Energy Policy Act provided loan guarantees, production tax credits, and other subsidies for new nuclear plants. Many believed that the United States Was close to enacting legislation that would limit emissions of carbon dioxide. (Davis 49) Nuclear power is the solution to the world's growing energy problems; it is relatively safe, sustainable and most importantly, powerful. Nuclear reactions can easily be dangerous being such a powerful force but if handled properly, nuclear reactions can be as safe as chemical reactions handled in the lab. Even mining uranium is safe. "The U3O8 is only mildly radioactive. (The radiation...
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...In nowadays, we are facing some global issues regarding the area of environmental and economic. Energy usage and carbon dioxide emission are the largest problem in the global community. Householders use energy in the house consumes the most in the level of emission the total use of energy. The aim of this essay is to define factors that easily affect householders on making decision of the types and source of energy they use. And how they decide on the use of energy efficient appliances. Background Energy is an important element in our global world. It plays a necessary role in our daily life. PJ growth % 2011-12 2010/11- 2011/12 Agriculture 95.8 1.5 Mining 536.2 1.7 Manufacturing and construction 995.2 -3.9 Transport 1512.4 2.0 Commercial 311.2 8.8 Residential 453.2 0.3 Other 58.5 -11.4 Total 3962.5 0.5 (2013 AES Table B) According to the chat above, energy usage in Australia can normally divided into seven parts. Transport is the largest consumption of energy whether manufacturing and construction is the second large. The amounts of mining, residential and commercial in energy usage are quite similar. Residential energy usage is the fourth high of the energy usage of Australia. The most commonly types of residential energy are natural gas and electricity. It include for heating, cooling, cooking…etc. Residential energy usage is 453.3PJ during 2011 to 2012, constitute 11.4% out of the total usage. And the level of residential energy...
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