Pricing Carbon: The New Age of Accidental Environmentalism

In the face of uncertainty over a carbon price, major Australian companies admit they have made decisions to invest in emissions-heavy capital equipment and infrastructure rather than green technologies. Yet most big companies believe the move to constrain carbon will ultimately benefit their businesses, a new survey shows. Despite the presence of laggards and the loud voices of the doubters, Ben McNeil, a senior fellow in the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, looks forward to corporate Australia's next generation of accidental environmentalists who will be driven by innovation and opportunity, and not a moment too soon.