Who: “The rest of the world [is] not going anywhere near carbon taxes or emission trading schemes.” Tony Abbott.

Mr. Abbott has also claimed that Australia has “the world’s biggest carbon tax”.

The Claim: That no other country has a scheme to place a price on carbon and Australia has the world’s biggest tax.

The Facts: Australia is not the only country to put a price on carbon. Many other countries in the world have done the same and all OECD countries have some type of carbon pricing mechanism. Australia’s tax rate is also relatively small compared to the OECD average.

Discussion of evidence: The OECD has recently released a report comparing the carbon tax rates of OECD countries. All OECD countries have some type of mechanism.

The report states that “Australia and the Americas have the lowest effective tax rates [on CO2]”. Australia’s carbon tax rate is the 5^th lowest out of the 34 OECD countries and is well below average. The graph below illustrates this: