The whole Carbon Emissions Scheme. Do you think it is effective in deterring big business?
James. Five Dock.

Hey there James, I hope you will forgive me for partly answering your question with more questions. Effective in deterring big business from what? From doing business? Nope, they are going to be doing that whilst ever there is profit to be made. From making money? No again - finding ways to minimise costs and to maximise profit is the core activity of big business today so they will keep focused on doing that too. From polluting the environment? Unfortunately they will keep this up as well but it is up to us as people that buy their products and use their services either as an individual, a family or household, or via our own business purchases, that ultimately drive or allow those impacts.

As a society we clearly need to become more sophisticated at designing and managing fair and effective economic tools to ensure that the ‘polluter pays’. The devil is always in the detail as the Rudd government has demonstrated with the well intentioned but poorly designed and implemented Insulation and Green Loans programs. I think the key points are that something significant is needed that provides benefits and opportunities for smart and proactive business people, whilst providing enough clarity and enforceable guidelines to make sure that everyone plays, not just the nice kids.

Any system implemented needs to ensure that all activities that result in the emission of carbon into our atmosphere pay for the disposal of ‘their’ waste products into ‘our’ environment. The word on the environment industry grapevine is, that although the Government seems to have gone quiet on it, the Climate Change Department officials are still working away on it like it is going to be happening. Financial and regulatory tools can certainly open up opportunities for innovation because, once business is confident that the whole industry will be subject to the same requirements, they will get on and focus their energies into doing some of the possible upgrades that they already know about but are waiting for a price signal to indicate that it is time to jump.