Australian businesses broadly support taking action on climate change, but the vast majority are uncertain about the impacts of the Federal Government’s climate change policies.
Matthew Tukaki, the CEO of SansGov, has released the first in a series of business surveys dealing with climate change policies and how they impact business, highlighting the disparity between the Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme and the understanding that such a policy will have on business.
“The survey really does show that business and industry are struggling with understanding what impact an ETS or a CPRS will have on them and while there is an agreement that more needs to be done on climate change the general, and in some cases overwhelming, sentiment is the Government just isn’t explaining itself.”
According to the research, 78 percent of respondents do not believe the ETS policy has been explained properly in order for them to form a view on the likely impacts.
“Another concerning variable is that 63 percent of respondents do not believe that we have sufficient skills in the economy to implement complex regulatory environments around an ETS or CPRS, let alone managing a framework from a business by business perspective.” Mr. Tukaki said
Tony Abbott’s rival ‘direct action’ policy on climate change does not escape criticism in the SansGov survey results with 76 percent of respondents either not understanding (44 percent) or being confused (32 percent) about what they mean by direct action on climate change.
In terms of direct action, it is clear that business is already responding to climate change by implementing individual or industry based direct action. In fact 59 percent have indicated they are already taking direct action through implementing their own programs.
Several respondents commented “what additional direct action could they implement?” Mr. Tukaki said.
“On the question of leadership 64 percent of respondents would prefer the Government to take a domestic leadership role when it comes to climate change policies, while it is evenly split on the question of whether or not the Government should wait for a global consensus.” Mr Tukaki said
