Buying into the market

It's never been much secret that one of the primary models for the Harper government has been the Australian government of John Howard. Which makes it worth watching how PMS will respond to Howard's public declaration that "carbon pricing" mechanisms are needed to fight greenhouse gas emissions:

Australia must place a price on carbon emissions to fight climate change, Prime Minister John Howard said Monday in an apparent softening on his refusal to join in global emissions trading.

Australia, the world's largest exporter of coal, joined the United States is refusing to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which called for deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions believed to worsen global warming. Australia is also one of the world's worst greenhouse gas polluters per capita because of its dependence on coal to generate electricity.

“Market mechanisms including carbon pricing will be integral to any long-term response to climate change,” Mr. Howard said in his weekly radio address to the nation.

Carbon pricing is usually based on a permit trading system in which polluters can buy and sell credits to emit carbon on an open market and reap financial rewards for using cleaner technology.

Another option is a tax that would financially penalize polluters for the amount of carbon they emit.

Mind you, there is reason to be suspicious as to just how the term "carbon pricing" can be manipulated aside from the two possibilities mentioned in the article. But if indeed Howard is accepting the need for an emissions trading regime (and today's message seems to be another step forward following his establishment of a task force last fall), then that shift in the international handling of the issue may provide yet another reason for the Cons to move toward a cap-and-trade system in Canada as well.