Australian Carbon Policy: Two Steps Forward, One Step Backwards?

Australia has a history of ever changing climate change related initiatives and policies. A range of measures aimed at reducing Australia’s GHG emissions have been on the federal-and state-level agendas for the last two decades. Successive Australian governments have been committed to the introduction of either a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme (ETS) designed to mitigate climate change. Some of the Australian GHG mitigation policies were successfully implemented, some were introduced and then repealed and some never reached the implementation stage. This article examines the current Australian climate change regime. The Australian climate change initiatives are examined with reference to the forest policy to assess the most significant aspects of the current regime. This article illustrates that the current state of Australian climate policy can only be described as regressive in nature rather than providing progression towards climate change mitigation.