Mr. Frank Maughan:

On carbon pricing, I understand the Senator's question was put in the context of the national mitigation plan, NMP. The Department's mitigation plan was a reaffirmation of the Government's commitment to carbon pricing as a core policy measure within climate policy. There are two sides to carbon pricing: the emissions trading scheme, which is an EU level measure and, separately, there is carbon tax which is a national, domestic measure in the rest of the economy.

As the Secretary General mentioned, the ETS has recently undergone reform at EU level and a new directive was put in place earlier this year. Member states have until autumn of next year to transpose that into domestic legislation. As was mentioned, that reform is already starting to see some impact on prices within the ETS. The participants in the scheme are starting to look towards the constraints that they will face over the next decade and that is staring to push prices up which, from a climate point of view, is a positive movement.

Overall, at EU level, the directive requires the ETS sector to reduce emissions by 43% on 2005 levels by 2030, so it is ambitious and a steep curve that the sector must achieve between now and 2030.

There is a separate commitment or measure in relation to carbon tax, which is a domestic measure, and I think the committee has already heard evidence on this point from both the advisory council and the ESRI. The ESRI mentioned that it has done work for the Department of Finance over the last year on foot of a commitment in the mitigation plan to look at the potential impacts on increasing carbon tax. Clearly the outcome of that work is a question for the budget and so the Department is not in a position to say anything about that today as it is a matter for the Minister for Finance. That is giving effect to the commitment in the mitigation plan that was taken up by the Department of Finance when the plan was published last year.