Carbon Pricing in Australia: An Expensive Way to Reduce Carbon from the Electricity Sector

Though it is still early days, the average cost of CO2 reduction is coming in at AUD 300 per tonne – nearly an order of magnitude higher than the cheapest carbon reduction options available within the electricity sector. At least during the program's first six months, carbon reductions have so far proven far more expensive than was anticipated at the policy formation stage before 2012.