Method and Criteria for Climate Change Policy Evaluation in Australia

Many countries have already implemented either emission trading schemes (ETS) or carbon taxes or both. National governments tend to prefer ETSs over carbon taxes due to the political acceptability of ETSs. The Australian Government proposed emissions trading as a centerpiece of national climate change policy. However, there is still a debate concerning the choice of instruments for climate change policy. This paper suggests that for a comprehensive policy-making process prospective policy instruments require to be evaluated on a multi-criteria basis. To evaluate carbon tax and emissions trading the multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is proposed. To obtain the criteria specific to Australian conditions and assess relative importance of those criteria, the Delphi method is adopted. The Delphi study employs a group of Australian experts to revise and weigh the evaluation criteria. The result of this examination determines what criteria are considered to be necessary for evaluation of carbon tax and emissions trading in Australian context.