Sensing that there has been a split between BHP Billiton and the other two members of the “big three” – Xstrata and Rio Tinto – the union has come out in full praise for BHP Billiton’s leadership on climate change.
Kloppers said the company acknowledged that the Australian government will need to introduce a carbon tax in some form, and urged the federal government to take unilateral action if a worldwide policy framework cannot be negotiated.
“Historically we have expressed that our preferred solution is the introduction of an international climate framework … we believe local actions that are eventually harmonised into unified global action is a more likely outcome than an immediate broadly supported global initiative,” Kloppers said.
“We also believe that such a global initiative will eventually come, and when it does Australia will need to have acted ahead of it to maintain its competitiveness.”
Kloppers said measures to combat climate change would inevitably require a carbon price, to encourage business and consumer action in reducing carbon issues.
“In short – carbon emissions need to have a cost impact in order to cause the consumer to change behaviour and favour low carbon alternatives,” he said.
“We all recognise this is a politically charged subject. No government relishes telling consumers that things need to cost more through higher and more expensive standards.
“But in this case there is really no easy answer – all of us who care about this issue need to also recognise that making a difference comes at a price.”
CFMEU national president Tony Maher said Australia has now entered a period of real opportunity for progress on climate change policy.
“As the world’s largest mining company, BHP has laid down a challenge to the other mining operations and the Minerals Council,” he said.
“The scare campaigns on climate change cannot be repeated.
“BHP is such a heavyweight in global business that it’s simply untenable for other business groups to continue to oppose a carbon price.”
There have been no such strong words of support from the Minerals Council or other industry bodies, with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) saying it was not in the interest of its members, who are “uneasy” about the impact of a possible doubling in energy prices by 2015, and tripling by 2020.
“It's clearly not the view of our membership,” ACCI director of economic and industry policy Greg Evans told reporters on Thursday.
“They believe action should be aimed at energy efficiency rather than imposing extra taxes … and certainly not before the rest of the world.
“You need to differentiate between energy producers and energy users … our members are overwhelmingly energy users.”
Some analysts are interpreting Kloppers’ support of a tax as a way of heading off a trading scheme, which would be more onerous than a tax to BHP Billiton’s export-based coal and iron operations.
Meanwhile, the CFMEU has also got behind former ACTU secretary Greg Combet as minister for climate change, saying it “means now is the time for Australia to take strides forward”
“Greg is a skilful negotiator, there’s no doubt about that,” Maher said.
“But he will need an agreement with significant compromise all round.
“BHP has taken a big step in the right direction, soon it will be the Greens’ turn to prove that they too can compromise on this issue to achieve a result.”
