Taxation aspects of climate change management measures

Abstract

Climate change is undoubtedly one of the greatest economic, social, and environmental challenges now facing the world. The present Australian Government is committed to acting on climate change and Australia’s progress towards its emissions reduction targets is being closely watched internationally. To contribute effectively to global climate change action, Australia must demonstrate its ability to implement robust and sustainable domestic emissions management legislation. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), modelled after the cap-and-trade system, continues to be debated by our policymakers, as the Government moves to re-introduce its preferred CPRS legislative package for the third time. The advent of climate change legislation is inevitable and its impact will be far-reaching. This paper reviews the fiscal aspects of the proposed CPRS legislation in the context of the oil and gas industry, and whether it is conducive to creating incentives for appropriate climate change response by the industry. In particular, this paper will consider: the direct and indirect tax features specifically covered in the proposed CPRS legislation and their implications; the areas of taxation that remain uncanvassed in the proposed CPRS legislation and aspects requiring clarification from the tax administration; the interaction between Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) and the CPRS measures; the flow-on impacts to taxation outcomes resulting from proposed accounting and financial reporting responses to the CPRS legislation; the income tax and PRRT treatment of selected abatement measures; and, elements of a good CPRS tax strategy and compliance action plan.