Advice on the ETS Review 2009

As part of the confidence and supply agreement with ACT, in January 2009 the government sent the Emissions Trading Scheme to a select committee for review. The Environment Commissioner was asked to be an independent adviser to this review. We were present throughout the process, including hearing all oral submissions to the review.

The Commissioner presented her advice to the committee on 30 July 2009. She focused on areas where we disagreed with the advice given by officials or where we felt there were significant omissions. This covered seven areas: climate change science, 2020 target, complementary measures, independent governance, agriculture, economic modeling, and climate change research.

In addition, in April 2009 we were asked by the committee how the Emission Trading Scheme will impact indigenous vegetation land cover. Our response to this request was a short paper, Report to Emissions Trading Scheme Review Select Committee: Impact of the ETS on Indigenous Land Cover. The Commissioner spoke to the committee about this issue on 30 July 2009 and made two recommendations, presented in a handout for the committee. These items are available further down this page.

We were asked to resolve differences we had with officials where we could. In June 2009 we provided comments to officials on a draft of the Departmental Report on the Emissions Trading Scheme Select Committee Review. These items are available further down this page.