The Australian Industry Greenhouse Network (AIGN) is an organisation that lobbies Australian State and Federal Governments about climate change issues on behalf of some sectors of Australian Industry. According to a Four Corners report with the same name, and author and whistleblower Dr Guy Pearse, a group of core members of the AIGN describe themselves as the Greenhouse Mafia and have been highly successful at lobbying the Australian Government. On the same Four Corners report Robyn Bain, former Chairman of the AIGN, denied that she had ever heard the term "Greenhouse Mafia".
In a speech on emissions trading in 2006, John Daley, the chief executive of the AIGN, stated on the subject of a carbon price signal:
And I put it that way deliberately, because I think it helps to highlight a key question, and that is “when” would it be sensible to impose those costs? To my mind, now is not the time.
The AIGN has made submissions to both the state based National Emissions Trading Taskforce and the federal Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading. Recommendations from these submissions have included that:
Some greenhouse gas emission permits should be allocated for free to compensate for the loss in asset values that many firms will instantly suffer from the introduction of the scheme. These allocations would be for the remaining life of the asset that was expected before the trading scheme was implemented and the holder would be free to sell these permits even if the asset were closed down before that time;
Some permits should be allocated for free for new investment for as long as is needed by trade exposed, energy/emissions intensive industry to retain its competitive position where there is no universal global scheme;
Free allocation linked to past emissions (known as grandfathering), or in the case of a baseline-and-credit scheme, the allocation of benchmarks;
Property rights – the value of permits (and offset credits) issued by the Government need to be fully underwritten by the ‘just terms’ compensation provisions of the Constitution.
Existing mandatory Federal and State schemes that overlap with and duplicate the national emissions trading scheme should be abolished or phased out. The property rights that would be extinguished where existing schemes are no longer of value should be fully compensated.
In 2008 the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network (AIGN) made a submission to the Garnaut Climate Change Review. In the submission the AIGN expressed concerns about an Australian target of 60% of 2000 emissions by 2050 with a 'sweetener' of 90% as an inducement for a global agreement. The AIGN was also concerned about the "proposed per capita approach to target setting" and was worried that "shareholders in some assets will bear losses disproportionate to others".
Industry Association Members:
Australian Aluminium Council (Ron Knapp)
Australasian (Iron and Steel) Slag Association (Craig Heidrich)
Australian Coal Association (Ralph Hillman)
Australian Institute of Petroleum (Dr John Tilley)
Australian Trucking Association
Minerals Council of Australia (Peter Morris)
National Generator's Forum (John Boshier)
National Association of Forest Industries
Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (Peter Gniel)
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Belinda Robinson)
Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (Miles Prosser)
Cement Industry Federation (Robyn Bain)
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (Andrew McKellar)
Individual Business Members:
Chevron Australia Pty Ltd
Woodside Petroleum Limited
Xstrata Coal Australia Pty Ltd
CSR Limited
ExxonMobil
Hydro Aluminium Kurri Kurri
Santos Limited
Tomago Aluminum Company Pty Ltd
Wesfarmers Limited
BHP Billiton
Shell Australia Limited
BP Australia
Rio Tinto Australia Limited
Caltex Australia
Mitsui and Co. (Australia) Limited
Origin Energy Limited
Alcoa of Australia Limited
Adelaide Brighton Ltd
Cement Australia
Thiess
