CANBERRA - Australia's commitment to set up a carbon-trading scheme by 2010 is achievable but will take a lot of work in a short period of time, economist Ross Garnaut says.
Garnaut is researching and compiling a report for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on emissions trading and itsimpacts.
The report, due to be released in June, will form the basis of the Government's carbon-emissions targets.
Garnaut said Australia's commitment to begin a carbon-trading scheme by 2010 was ambitious but achievable.
"I think that's a practical objective although it won't be easy and it'll require a lot of work in a short period of time," he said yesterday. "But it's important that we get there as soon as possible and I think those timetables are achievable."
Rudd is due to attend the UN climate-change talks in Bali today with Treasurer Wayne Swan, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Environment Minister Peter Garrett.
Garnaut said one of the priorities of the Australian contingent was to ensure any climate-change policies were consistent over long periods of time.
"It's going to be very important that the world - and Australia as part of the world - thinks through what is going to be a sustainable basis for steady long-term policies," he said. "There's going to be no quick fix - it's going to take a lot of long-term structural change."
Garnaut said the Bali talks would only set a framework for discussions on climate change with no binding targets, despite pressure on developed nations to agree to cut emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020.
"That's a range, that's there for consideration but no one expects this meeting in Bali to reach agreement on anything like that," he said. "A new government in Australia recently re-joining the international effort through signing Kyoto will be understood if it says that it is going to take its time."
