THE US could meet its promised greenhouse emission reduction commitments without an emissions trading scheme, President Barack Obama said yesterday, but would continue to insist any new international agreement also include pledges from major developing country emitters.
Mr Obama said that despite the failure of its proposed ''cap-and-trade'' emissions trading scheme to pass Congress the US was taking action to reduce its greenhouse emissions. He did not directly address a question about whether the US could adopt a national carbon price in the near future.
''Although we haven't passed a cap-and-trade system, we have taken steps to double fuel efficiency standards on cars which will have an enormous impact on removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ... and we have invested heavily in clean energy research,'' he said at the joint press conference with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
''We believe we can meet the commitments we made [at United Nations meetings] in Copenhagen and Cancun as we move forward over the next several years, and my hope is ... the US can find further ways to reduce our carbon emissions.''
Both the US and Australia have made 2020 emission-reduction pledges to the UN (the US by 17 per cent from 2005 levels and Australia by a minimum of 5 per cent from 2000 levels) but both are insisting that any new global agreement has to include commitments from major developing country emitters such as China and India.
The Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, had earlier flatly rejected a Coalition claim that the failure of the US ''cap-and-trade'' scheme undermined the rationale for Australia's carbon tax.
Mr Combet said climate-change action would be effective if countries met their emission reduction promises.
He said the White House had been extremely interested in Australia's proposed carbon pricing scheme.
''The White House has expressed a lot of interest in what we have done,'' Mr Combet told the Herald.
''This was quite a significant event in the US that we were able to get our scheme through.
''There was quite a deal of excitement about it because they have some firsthand knowledge that it is not an easy reform to make.''
The two congressmen who sponsored the failed US cap-and-trade bill, Democrats Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, wrote to Mr Combet the day the Australian law passed, saying they hoped ''the US Congress will take inspiration from Australia's leadership''.
''There are many things happening in the United States ... new vehicle emissions standards, plus individual states doing things, so I believe them to be sincerely pursuing their targets. I don't know on what basis [opposition spokesman] Greg Hunt says otherwise.''
