Majority want carbon tax back

A massive majority of Australian voters say they are in favour of a net zero emissions goal – and nearly two in three want a price on carbon.

NEARLY eighty per cent of Australians support getting to net zero by 2050 — and most support the reintroduction of a carbon tax to get there.

The surprising findings come from the Lowy Institute’s annual snapshot of Australian attitudes towards climate change, regarded as one of the most in-depth and long-range tracking studies in this area.

Sixty per cent of the 3286 respondents this year agreed global warming was a “serious and pressing problem” and that we should take action, even if this involved “significant costs” – up from 56 per cent in 2020.

Concern in this area has waxed and waned over the years – from highs of 68 per cent in 2006 to lows of 36 per cent in 2012.

Australian attitudes to global warming. Credit: Lowy Institute

Lowy Institute program director Natasha Kassam said the slight dip in concern last year was not too surprising given the survey was in the field in March 2020, just as coronavirus loomed as a new threat.

“The uncertainty about that moment eclipsed worry about climate change for some Australians,” she said.

For the first time since the poll began in 2006, respondents were asked if they supported Australia setting a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target for 2050 – evidence in itself of how quickly the idea has come to public attention.

Nearly eight in ten people (78 per cent) said they supported such a goal.

Respondents were also asked for the first time their views on whether other countries were doing enough in the fight against climate change. Eighty-two per cent said China was doing too little, 81 per cent said the same about India and 71 per cent said the same about the USA.

Attitudes toward potential federal government policies on climate. Credit: Lowy Institute

Seven years after the carbon tax was abolished by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the poll showed significant support for such a mechanism, with 64 per cent of respondents saying it, or an emissions trading scheme, should be reintroduced.

Ms Kassam said this finding contrasted markedly with 2016, when only 40 per cent of Australians were in favour of a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme.

Professor Frank Jotzo from the Centre for Climate and Energy Policy at ANU said the level of support for a carbon tax or ETS was “remarkable”.

“The contrast could not be starker to the halls of power where it is held as an article of faith that carbon pricing is dead, buried and cremated. Such gaps between political practice and public opinion cannot last indefinitely,” he said.

“Eventually one of the major parties will see political opportunity in reviving sensible economic policy to help reduce emissions, never mind the rhetoric of years past or traumatic experience in the carbon wars.”

Professor Frank Jotzo from the ANU Centre for Climate and Energy Policy. Picture: Supplied

But a spokesperson for Energy Minister Angus Taylor ruled out this coming from the Coalition.

“Unlike Labor, the Morrison Government will not impose a carbon tax on Australian families and households,” the spokesperson said.

“The pathway of sacrificing industries, jobs and regions is not acceptable to us as a government. Nor is it acceptable to the Australian people.”

The Lowy poll also showed shifts in our attitudes toward different forms of energy, with an increasing proportion (63 per cent) saying they now support a ban on new coal mines, and almost half (47 per cent) saying they support moves towards nuclear power.