Australia’s minority federal Labor government has said the fact that South Korea’s parliament has passed an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is proof that Australia isn’t leading the world when it comes to tackling climate change.

South Korea’s legislation was passed with bipartisan support, meaning Australia’s fourth largest trading partner will have an ETS from 2015.

Australia’s Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the conservative Liberal-National opposition has claimed “on no less than 10 occasions” that South Korea would never pass an ETS.

“Australia is now one of 34 countries around the world, including South Korea, that will use emissions trading as the primary vehicle to drive carbon pollution reduction,” he said in a statement.

“We are far from leading the world as some have claimed.”

Mr Combet said by the beginning of 2013 some 27 members of the European Union along with Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, New Zealand and the US state of California and the Canadian province of Quebec would be using emissions trading to cut carbon pollution.

China will pilot schemes in a number of provinces, Mexico has passed a voluntary ETS and South Africa will introduce a carbon tax next year.

At the same time the Australian Greens Party leader, Senator Christine Milne, said South Korea’s move meant it was time for the naysayers in Australia to take “a good long look” at themselves.

South Korea’s carbon price is yet to be determined but the penalty for non-compliance will be capped at $83 a tonne.

Australia’s carbon tax will start in eight weeks with a $23 a tonne fixed price, until it transitions to a market-based ETS in mid-2015.

The global lobby group WWF today welcomed the news that South Korea, Australia’s third largest export market, had passed an ETS,.

At the same time it called on Australian leaders to get on with the job of transforming Australia’s clean economy.



“South Korea’s decision to make large companies start paying for the carbon pollution they release into the atmosphere is yet another important sign of global progress to tackle climate change,” said WWF-Australia Climate Change Manager Kellie Caught.

The Climate Institute’s Erwin Jackson said that tackling dangerous emissions will allow Australia to strengthen ties with its neighbours.

“Emission trading schemes in Australia and New Zealand and emerging markets in South Korea and China potentially provide a credible foundation from which to build a regional emission trading coalition,” Mr Jackson said in a statement.