Garnaut to Release Australian Emission Trajectories, Targets

By Gemma Daley

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Ross Garnaut, the government's adviser on global warming, will release emissions reduction trajectories and targets next month.

Garnaut in July proposed a cap-and-trade system starting with a two-year ``transition period'' in 2010 to address climate impacts on the economy in a draft report. He will release a supplementary report on Sept. 5, according to an e-mailed statement.

``The Supplementary Draft Report will provide the Review's proposals for emissions reduction trajectories and targets for Australia within an international context,'' the statement said, adding that it used economic modeling from the Australian Treasury.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose first act in office was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, wants to reduce greenhouse gases 60 percent by 2050. The government has not set short-term targets, yet Rudd has said he will compensate households and industries for cost increases from the system.

Rudd will use Garnaut's advice as part of he government's response to climate change, along with comments from the Treasury Department and industry.

Garnaut's trading plan will cover more than 70 percent of the country's emissions and use the so-called cap-and-trade design used in the European Union. Companies are set an emissions cap and must hold sufficient permits to meet that limit. If they exceed the target, they buy permits from businesses that have undershot their respective caps.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net