Identifying Criteria for Climate Change Policy Evaluation in Australia

This paper relates to the research project designed to identify which tool: an emission trading or carbon tax would be more appropriate measure to reduce GHG emissions in Australia. To evaluate both of these instruments, this research uses the multi-criteria analysis (MCA) which generally requires two main inputs – evaluation criteria and alternatives performance ranks concerning the criteria. To obtain and verify the evaluation criteria specific to Australian conditions and rank relative importance of those criteria, the Delphi method is utilised by this research. The Delphi study makes use of a group of Australian experts to verify, update and weigh the criteria essential for policy evaluation procedure. This paper reports upon the conducted Delphi study and presents its findings.