Australia: Trading delay could spur power cuts

EASTERN Australia could face blackouts because of the Howard Government’s decision to hold off carbon trading until 2012, warns a sustainability investment specialist.

Amanda McCluskey, a fund manager at Portfolio Partners and deputy chair of the Investor Group on Climate Change, said carbon trading needed to be introduced by 2010 at the latest to head off blackouts. Portfolio Partners has about $9 billion invested in Australian shares, including holdings in power generators Origin Energy and Babcock & Brown Wind, and other energy companies such as Woodside Petroleum.


Australia’s electricity grid was already tight to breaking point and climate change was starting to have an impact on the system. Australians simply could not afford to wait until 2012, Ms McCluskey said.

“The electricity grid is very stretched and the physical impacts of climate change are already starting to be felt as well,” Ms McCluskey said.

The Age