Australian PM to chair climate committee
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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday unveiled the line-up of the new multi-party climate change committee that will investigate ways to put a price on carbon.
Gillard will chair the committee, while Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and Greens climate spokeswomen Christine Milne will serve as co-deputy chairs.
The Coalition has also been invited to put two of its Members of Parliament (MPs) on the committee, despite Opposition leader Tony Abbott's insistence that no Coalition MP would be doing so.
Professor Ross Garnaut, Professor Will Steffen, Rod Sims and Patricia Faulkner will also be on the committee as expert advisers.
Gillard said the committee would start from the position that a carbon price was required to reduce pollution and encourage investment in low-emission technologies.
"Parliamentary members of the committee will be drawn from those who are committed to tackling climate change and who acknowledge that effectively reducing carbon pollution by 2020 will require a carbon price," Gillard said in a press conference on Monday, adding that its deliberations would be "broadly limited " to the issue of carbon pricing.
According to ABC News, the committee will consider mechanisms for introducing a carbon price, including a broad-based emissions trading scheme, carbon levy, or a hybrid of both.
Under the committee's terms of reference, decisions will be reached by consensus. However, if no agreement can be reached, the decision will be put before cabinet.
The committee will meet regularly, usually monthly, until the end of 2011, at which time the ongoing need for its existence will be considered.
Greens leader Bob Brown, who will be a member of the committee, said there was widespread concern about climate change.
"We will be consulting with the community when we go down the line and it's clearly not a case of winner takes all," Senator Brown told ABC News.
"We are working in the service of the nation to get the best outcome."
Meanwhile, Gillard extended the invitation to the Coalition to join the committee with the caveat that they must agree climate change is real and that a carbon price is needed.
"We are saying very clearly to the Coalition that we would ask them to work in good faith with this committee," she said.
The committee will hold its first meeting in October.
Under former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Labor committed to an emissions trading scheme ranged from a five percent cut from 2000 levels by 2020 up to a 25 percent cut dependent on international action, but he shelved the policy in April. And Gillard has now indicated a carbon tax could be an option.
The Coalition rejected a tax and a trading scheme and only supports direct-action measures.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott earlier described a carbon price as a "great big tax on everything", and has ruled out allowing opposition members joining the committee.
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