Greenhouse gas plan would cripple resources sector, PM warns.


Prime Minister John Howard has lashed out at a plan by the states and territories to cut greenhouse gas pollution.
Premiers and chief ministers have released a discussion paper on a scheme to set national emission targets for the three main greenhouse polluting gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
But Mr Howard has told Parliament the proposal would cripple the resource industry, cause jobs to disappear and impose even higher fuel prices.
"According to ABARE [Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics], a 50 per cent cut in Australian emissions by 2050 would lead to a 10 per cent fall in GDP, a 20 per cent fall in real wages, a carbon price equivalent to doubling of petrol prices and a staggering 600 per cent rise in electricity and gas prices," he said.
Industry groups have likened the proposed carbon trading scheme to the introduction of a carbon tax.
Under the plan, companies would get permits for emissions and could trade them with bigger polluters.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry spokesman Peter Hendy says the scheme would hurt the economy.
He says a domestic scheme should not be developed until an international plan is in place.
"It's not acceptable for Australia to have a unilateral emissions trading system when the end result of that is that you would devastate the Australian economy and simply move various activities offshore to countries that have less pollution and emission control measures than we have in this country," he said.