climate change. Today's announcement is the second step. The new package deserves support. Professor Graham Farquhar from the Australian National University Climate Change Institute The aim of the carbon tax is to reduce Australian emissions by five per cent. In turn, the aim of that reduction is to put political or economic pressure to encourage or shame other countries to reduce their emissions by five per cent. If we are successful and all the countries of the world reduce their emissions to five per cent below what they would have been, then the anthropogenic climate that we would otherwise have seen in 2031 will be postponed until 2032. Want to follow The Conversation? Sign up to our free newsletter to get the day's top stories in your inbox each morning, with a special wrap on Saturday. Email address ? Republish You are free to republish this article both online and in print, as long as you follow some simple guidelines , which are summarised here: Unless you have express permission from the author, you can't edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. To make material edits contact us You have to credit our authors and partner institutions? -- ?ideally in the byline. You have to credit The Conversation? -- ?ideally at the top of the article and include our logo? -- ?with a link back to either our home page, The Conversation , or (preferably) the specific article URL on The Conversation website.