Coal exporters would be forced to pay a new tax to mitigate extreme weather events under a Greens election policy to be announced this week.
Greens leader Christine Milne will propose a UD$2 a ton tax on coal, leaving Australia.
At current export projections, the coal levy would raise US$234 million next financial year and US$347 million the year after.
The money would go to disaster mitigation, including the building of flood levees, permanent bushfire breaks, risk management studies and land acquisition.
In a move bound to anger the Mining industry, Senator Milne will draw a direct link between climate change and what she sees as the responsibility of the minerals sector to pay for the natural disasters that result from it.
“The coal industry is driving global warming and increasing the intensity of extreme weather events that are hurting communities and costing our economy billions of dollars,” she mentioned.
“It is time for the coal industry to start contributing to the cost of preparing an appropriate weather and adapting to climate change,'' she further added.
Floods, bushfires and cyclones have cost Australia US$6.5 billion in the past three years, according to the Productivity Commission, but the federal government puts just UD$21 million a year into the natural disaster resilience program.
The Greens will propose putting US$350 million a year into the fund by 2015-16.
“Given that the current price of thermal coal is around $US90 a tonne, a $2-a-tonne levy is clearly affordable for the industry,” stated Senator Milne.
-Sourced
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