Open Letter: Scrap the Australian-EU ETS linkage by Scrap the EU-ETS

Australian emissions trading scheme (ETS) with the European Emissions trading scheme (EU ETS). A joint consultation paper on registry options and proposed Australian regulations to facilitate the linking of these two emissions trading schemes has been released. The EU-Australia ETS linking directive is the wrong move. We are writing to oppose the plans to link two fundamentally flawed schemes from being brought together. We reject emissions trading as a means to reduce emissions. It is ecologically ineffective, benefits polluting industries, distracts from progressive reform, and has shown to have serious social impacts. It’s time to move beyond the ideological disdain for direct regulation, and shift to policy and public investment strategies that work. Emissions trading has failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU; produced windfall profits for polluters; and now stands in limbo as the European Commission decides upon its fate. In linking to the EU ETS, Australia is exacerbating all of these structural failings. The solution is not to expand and complicate the ETS by linking it to more countries, but rather to scrap the schemes in favour of progressive and more effective regulation to reduce emissions and transition away from fossil fuel dependence