Beyond Thunderdome? The Prospects of Federal Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade in Australia
Elena Aydos and Sven Rudolph, ' Beyond Thunderdome? The prospects of federal greenhouse gas cap-and-trade in Australia' in Larry Kreiser et al (eds), Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation (Edward Elgar, 2018)
19 Pages Posted: 18 Aug 2018
Date Written: February 3, 2018
Abstract
Fierce political battles have been fought in Australia over greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade in the early 2000s. Increasingly, the informed public and many of the political stakeholders have craved for a “life beyond”. In this chapter, we evaluate Australia’s former cap-and-trade initiatives based on sustainability criteria. Against the background of Public Choice theory, we then analyse the reasons for the political failure of earlier cap-and-trade in Australia and predict the chances of reviving any of the former approaches. We mainly argue that earlier cap-and-trade schemes in Australia showed merit and that, despite ongoing partisan feuding, there are political chances for cap-and-trade to live “beyond Thunderdome”.
Keywords: Australia, cap-and-trade, sustainability, political economy
JEL Classification: H23, K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation