Australia's clean energy future

It was in the making for five years, cost several prime ministers and opposition leaders their jobs, but it is now a reality: Australia, one of the worlds highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and largest coal exporter, is putting a price on carbon and is strengthening other aspects of climate policy. Although not without flaws, the policy brings a sound economic approach and novel features to the climate policy arena, and does so with quite some ambition. The question is, however, whether it will last.