In its intense focus on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), Australia seems to have forgotten that there are many paths to the mountain of emissions reduction.
Australia, New Zealand and Japan currently stand alone in the Asia-Pacific as the only countries committed to an emissions reduction scheme (ETS) as a primary mechanism for tackling climate change.
But a new report says that Australia is far from being "ahead of the pack" on emissions reduction, as has been suggested: other Asia-Pacific countries are setting their own ambitious reduction targets.
They just happen to be aiming for emissions reduction through processes other than an ETS.
In its report, One Hat Doesn’t Fit All, international law firm Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR) surveyed strategies across the region and addressed what report co-author Grant Anderson called "three myths" about emissions reduction.
One "myth" is that Australia needs to wait until Copenhagen to see what the rest of the world is doing.
Throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Mr Anderson observed, countries are already well advanced with unilateral measures to "reduce emissions, save energy, plant forests and position themselves to prosper in the green global economy".
Leading the charge in these alternative strategies is China, exploding another myth, that the industrial giant is heedlessly increasing its emissions regardless of the actions taken elsewhere.
But above all, the AAR survey shows that there is no silver bullet approach to addressing climate change.
"Our survey shows that countries are taking a wide variety of emissions reduction measures that best suit their economic circumstances and play to their comparative advantages," the authors wrote.
The Philippines is already the world’s second-largest producer of geothermal energy, and is now pushing hard into wind, solar, mini-hydro and biofuels initiatives with the aim of being 60 per cent energy self-sufficient in 2010.
About 80pc of South Korea’s 2009 economic stimulus package was directed at environmental and climate change measures.
"(South Korea’s) US$30 billion-plus ‘Green New Deal’ will allocate funds to energy and transport infrastructure, energy ef?ciency measures, renewable energy production and research and development into emerging energy technologies such as vehicle batteries, non-silicon-based solar cells and smart-meters," the AAR report noted.
Resource-poor Singapore has initiated government-assisted audits to help businesses identify energy savings, and has a range of tax and investment measures to encourage uptake of energy-efficient technologies.
Thailand aspires to become the reneweable energy hub of southeast Asia, particularly in the area of biofuels.
Indonesia, a relatively poor country that is nevertheless the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter because of deforestation, is focusing on changing institutional structures to reduce forest cutting and fires.
Vietnam is focused on economic development, with 74 new power stations on the drawing board for completion by 2020—48 of them hydroelectric generators. Half of Vietnam’s energy already comes from hydroelectric sources.
Proponents of the ETS model argue that because of its economy-wide effects, emissions trading is capable of driving similar innovation without direct policy intervention.
But how effectively an ETS works is highly dependent on carbon pricing, Mr Anderson said.
"This is the reason that the government has its renewable energy target: it acknowledges that for the first decade or two, we will not see a carbon price sufficiently high on its own to bring forward technologies like solar and geothermal."
An ETS should encourage lower energy use, but Mr Anderson commented that householders are notoriously "inelastic" about adjusting to price changes.
"You do have to look at things on the demand side, in addition to an ETS, that will incentivise householders to become more energy efficient."
He added that a straight carbon tax would ultimately be no simpler than an ETS, and be a far blunter instrument that might not drive change in the areas most amenable to it.
China gets to grips with its emissions
China’s industrial growth continues apace, as do its greenhouse gas emissions, but the world’s new economic powerhouse is also committed to substantial emissions reduction measures.
According to the AAR report, the Chinese government has committed to installing 30 gigawatts of wind, 300 GW of hydro, 30 GW of biomass and 1.8 GW of solar generation capacity by 2020.
“Currently on track to exceed these goals, Government officials have mooted formally increasing its goals for wind-generating capacity to 100 GW and for solar to up to 20 GW respectively by 2020,” the report’s authors wrote.
The Chinese are increasing consumption taxes on transport fuel, and have introduced stringent fuel efficiency regulations for vehicles.
By 2008, Chinese cars had to be capable of doing 36 miles per gallon (6.5 litres/100 km). Plans to lift the bar to 42.2 m/g (5.6 l/100km) by 2015 are now being considered.
New building design standards introduced since 2006 are aimed at cutting energy consumption by 50 per cent, or 65 per cent in major cities.
And by 2020, China aims to have increased its forests by 40 million hectares on 2005 coverage, lifting timber stock volumes by 1.3 billion cubic metres.
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