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The Rudd Government has released draft regulations for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, including the first tranche of activities that will be eligible for assistance under the emissions intensive, trade exposed (EITE) assistance program.
The draft regulations outline the framework for the EITE assistance program, application procedures and reporting requirements for eligible entities under the program. It is unusual that draft regulations be released for public comment ahead of the passage of legislation. The Government is taking this extra step to make available as much information as possible to parliament when considering the CPRS bills. To date, 18 draft activity definitions have been approved by the Government and published on the Department of Climate Change website. The first tranche of draft regulations for EITE assistance relate to the following activities: carbon black production, bulk flat glass production, glass container production, methanol production, silicon production, white titanium dioxide pigment production, zinc smelting, and newsprint manufacturing. The draft regulations contain the categories of assistance and allocative baselines for these eight activities, which have submitted audited data to the Department of Climate Change. The production of carbon black, production of methanol, production of silicon, production of bulk flat glass, newsprint manufacturing and zinc smelting will be eligible to receive assistance in the 90 per cent category – which has been boosted to 94.5 per cent through the Global Recession Buffer. The production of glass containers and the white titanium dioxide pigment will be eligible to receive assistance in the 60 per cent category – which has been boosted to 66 per cent through the Global Recession Buffer. Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong thanked the Expert Advisory Committee, chaired by Mr Dick Warburton AO FAICD, for its on-going advice in the relation to the EITE assessment process. “The Committee is instrumental in ensuring that the assessment process on which these regulations are based implements the Government’s policy in a fair and even-handed manner,” Senator Wong said. The Government has also released an accompanying paper explaining the framework within which the eligibility of these and future activities are being assessed for the Government’s EITE assistance program. Further tranches of draft regulations will be progressively released by the Government as they are completed. The draft regulations, commentary and guidance paper are available on the Department of Climate Change website: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/whitepaper/assistance/index.html The Government is seeking feedback from stakeholders on the details of the draft regulations released.
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