Australia’s parliament on Tuesday passed a landmark carbon tax legislation that will force the top 500 polluting companies to pay A$24 per tonne for carbon emissions from July 1 next year.
The Clean Energy Act, which includes investments in renewable energy sources, would result in the continent country cutting its carbon emissions by 160 million tonnes in 2020 — equivalent to taking 45 million cars off the road, and continuing to cut emissions each year to achieve an 80 per cent reduction over the 2000 levels by 2050. “We will do this by putting a price on pollution, fostering renewable energy technologies, encouraging energy efficiency and creating opportunities to reduce pollution on the land,” Prime Minister Julia Gillard said. “Today, Australia has a price on carbon as the law of our land. This comes after a quarter of a century of scientific warnings, 37 parliamentary inquiries and years of bitter debate and division.”
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