Pricing carbon in Australia: contestation, market failure and the state (1st)

In the mid-2000s it seemed that the global carbon market would take off and spark the worldwide transition to a profitable low carbon economy.

A decade on, the experiment in carbon trading is failing.

Carbon market schemes have been plagued by problems and resistance to carbon pricing has come from the political Left and Right.

In the Australian case, a national emissions trading scheme (ETS) was dismantled after a long, bitter public debate.

The replacement 'Direct Action Plan' is also in disrepute.

This book examines the rise and fall of the ETS in Australia between 2007 and 2015, exploring the underlying contradictions of marketised climate policy.

Through this and other international examples, the book offers a critique of the political economy of marketised climate policy, exploring why the hopes for global carbon trading have been dashed.