Taylor asks business to climate tech talks

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has opened consultation with ­industry over a climate change policy that would encourage businesses to invest in technology to lower their emissions.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has opened consultation with ­industry over a climate change policy that would encourage businesses to invest in technology to lower their emissions.

Mr Taylor has formally invited industry to provide submissions on how to reform the safeguard mechanism, a creation of Tony Abbott that puts emissions limits on the nation’s 150 largest emitters.

A government commissioned review led by former Business Council of Australia president Grant King recommended reforming the policy by providing incentives for large emitters to invest in low-emission tech­nology.

“It would incentivise the ­deployment of low-emissions technologies by providing revenue that will help investments get over the minimum rate of ­return required for them to go ahead,” says a discussion paper on the policy distributed by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.

The government has committed $280m for the reform, which will be used to buy credits making the technologies viable, in a scheme that would be similar to the Renewable Energy Target.

It aims to start a pilot on the scheme in mid-2022.

Mr Taylor said the policy was “focused on building voluntary markets and incentives to ­accelerate the adoption of new technologies”.

A report from the Grattan ­Institute released on Sunday said the government’s $280m ­investment would “not be sufficient to set the industrial sector on a net-zero trajectory”.