Social cost of carbon to be determined for future emissions

A price would be determined for each tonne of carbon produced in the capital, as a way of directing future public investment.

The benefit-cost analysis, new for Canberra but increasingly used to inform policy in some parts of the United States, would use future emissions predictions and future climate responses to assess the impact on agriculture, health, energy use, and other aspects of the economy.

The damage would be converted into a present-day value and added up to determine the social cost of future investments.

The ACT government has awarded a $31,680 contract to a consultancy company to undertake the analysis, with results expected in March or April.

ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said while it was generally accepted the cost of inaction outweighed the cost of investing in climate solutions, the government's climate change strategy was to ensure the social cost of carbon was considered in all policies, budget decisions and capital works projects.

He said an interim price of $20 per tonne of emissions from government operations would be introduced next financial year.

"We will put our own price on carbon to put a clear price on government agencies that there is a cost to them for not getting organised to go to a zero carbon future," he said.

Mr Rattenbury said while the ACT government didn't have the power to introduce a carbon tax, corporate institutions around the world, including in Australia, were already putting a price on carbon in an effort to mitigate the effects already being seen.

He said despite the relatively mild summer, Canberrans had not forgotten the impact of last bushfire season.

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"It has been a mild summer this year but I think most scientific projections are that this year will be another abnormality and we can predict more summers like last summer," Mr Rattenbury said.

While the Bureau of Meteorology this month determined the 2020-21 La Nina was likely to have peaked regarding atmospheric and oceanic patterns, above average rainfall in eastern and northern Australia was expected to persist into autumn.

While global warming disproportionately affected poorer communities, Mr Rattenbury said the challenge for the ACT government was to ensure low-income earners weren't worse off during the transition to a clean economy.

"That includes retraining workers whose industries may be carbon intensive and may have to look for a different career in the future," he said.

"There's a lot of work to be done on this idea of a just transition but central to our climate strategy is to make sure people don't get left behind."