Overviews far from a carbon copy

THE government has sharpened its message this time around, having failed under former prime minister Kevin Rudd to explain the emissions trading scheme adequately.

Gone is the rhetoric about climate change being ''the great moral challenge of our generation'' and the importance of protecting the environment from rising sea levels and one-in-1000-year weather events.

Now the government is spruiking the message that pricing carbon is about ''creating the jobs of the future'' and making the big emitters pay for their contribution to the problem.
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BusinessDay's survey of the ASX 50 suggests a fair degree of ambivalence towards pricing carbon - or at least a reluctance to discuss it publicly.

Twelve of the 50 backed Canberra's plan to introduce a carbon price, including some of the country's biggest emitters. But this support is heavily qualified, with calls for compensation for trade-exposed, emissions-intensive industries that would be disadvantaged against overseas rivals.

Three companies flatly opposed the move - Woodside, BlueScope and Coca-Cola Amatil. They said Australia should not move before rivals overseas, and pricing carbon threatened already struggling sectors.