ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an Australian climate change policy since 1995. It describes the Greenhouse Challenge and the outcomes that it delivered and Greenhouse Challenge Plus, which was introduced in 2005 to replace the Greenhouse Challenge. The Commonwealth government subsequently established the Greenhouse Challenge in 1995 as a voluntary programme for public and private sector organisations to undertake and report on their actions to abate greenhouse gas emissions. The Greenhouse Challenge requirements were revised slightly in 2003 by the Joint Consultative Committee that oversaw the Greenhouse Challenge and which consisted of industry and government representatives. The chapter presents the Greenhouse Challenge can be said to have been economically efficient in that it did not require companies to implement measures beyond those that could be clearly justified in economic terms. It considers the role of Greenhouse Challenge Plus in preparing Australian business for the stronger climate change policy measures that now seem inevitable.
