Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

And we agreed to work together towards the development of regional and global carbon markets. California, which those opposite deride as being subnational, is in fact, if looked at as a stand-alone economy, the world's eighth-biggest economy, with 37 million people. That is why an agreement with the officials from the Californian government to work with them towards linking and to explore options—which we will be doing, of course, with the Europeans as well—to link the carbon markets of California, Europe and Australia over the longer term is absolutely in the interests of Australia. The recognition by the Californians of the worth of linking schemes shows that that is the direction the world is going in.

China is developing pilot emissions trading schemes in seven cities and provinces, and that will commence next year. Korea's emissions trading scheme will commence in 2015, and countries like Turkey, South Africa, Thailand and Chile are also working to develop carbon pricing schemes. The rest of the world is acting, and those opposite should stop disregarding the facts and the direction of the world. (Time expired)

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