Richer years ahead with carbon tax: Swan

Australians will each be $8000 richer by the turn of the decade even with a carbon tax, according to figures Treasurer Wayne Swan will release today.

Mr Swan will reveal that Treasury modelling shows a carbon price would cut annual growth in gross national income per person by 0.1 per cent a year through to 2020.

By 2050, even with a carbon price in place, national income per person would rise by 56 per cent or $30,000.

The modelling is based on a carbon price of $20 a tonne.

The Government faces a public backlash over the tax, amid fears it will leave Australians financially worse off and cripple the economy.

Some industries are claiming the tax will drive up prices and cost tens of thousands of jobs. The Australian Workers Union said it would drop support for the tax if just one of its members lost their job.

But Mr Swan, in a National Press Club address today, will declare the economy will continue to grow strongly, even when emissions are cut.

Based on Treasury modelling, real national income will grow at an average per person of 1.1 per cent for the next 40 years.

"That is before you take into account the long-term benefits of carbon pricing - like protecting tourism icons such as the Great Barrier Reef or Kakadu, or the agricultural wealth of the Murray Darling Basin," Mr Swan will say.

He is not expected to reveal the compensation plan for low and middle-income earners and trade-exposed industries.

Global climate-change talks are taking place in Bonn, Germany, amid warnings more action will be needed to stop environmental catastrophe.

The UN climate change chief, Christiana Figueres, has warned the world may have to create technology to suck greenhouse gases from the air.