The Minerals Council of Australia said the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme paper, released by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, left “significant questions” for the industry.

“We endorse the establishment of a carbon price cap in the initial stages of the scheme,” MCA chief executive Mitchell Hooke said.

“Yet there remain significant questions about the details of the scheme.”

In what was released as a blueprint design for a way to lower Australia’s carbon emissions, the paper is open to discussion from households and industry before being finalised.

Details on carbon caps and compensation to energy intensive industries have yet to be set and will not be released by the Treasury until October.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan told the ABC this morning the carbon reduction plan was “the biggest economic reform of the generation”

He was adamant it would cut emissions but would not say if there would be “significant” reductions until he publishes carbon targets and the number of permits in October.

“At the heart of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is emissions trading, in which the Government sets a limit on how much carbon pollution industry can produce, and then the Government sells permits up to that limit, creating an incentive to look for cleaner energy options," Wong said.

The Government plans to consult widely with business and households on the content of the green paper and come back at the end of the year with final proposals for the scheme.

“What we are putting out there in the green paper is the design of the carbon pollution reduction scheme. We will come forward later with the targets, the permit allocation and so on. What we are debating at the moment is the design of the scheme,” Swan told ABC Radio.

Swan said he had talked about an allocation of free permits to the energy intensive trade exposed sector, industries which are trading in international markets.

“But when it comes to strongly affected industries, in particular the generating sector, we have said we will provide some assistance, which may include some free permits, but we are not going to be allocating willy-nilly free permits to strongly affected industries,” he said.

“There is no doubt this will have a significant effect on electricity generation.”

Swan said there would be protection for some industries but everyone would be paying a price over time.

The Queensland Resources Council criticised gaps in the paper which left low emission technology out in the cold.

“A key feature of the Garnaut report was the recognition that a carbon pricing scheme was not sufficient to encourage investment in these [low emission] technologies,” QRC chief executive Michael Roche said.

“The green paper states that as a major coal exporter Australia has a key interest in supporting the development of carbon capture and storage to enable coal to be used in a way that does not compromise the global climate change objective.

“However, the green paper refers only to the pre-existing Rudd Government’s commitment to the $500 million National Clean Coal Fund.”

MCA was also disappointed that the elements of a measured transition did not embrace a more comprehensive phasing to full auctioning of permits, given that the European Union will not move to full auctioning until 2020.

The New South Wales Minerals Council also called on the Government to release details of funding to fast-track CCS technology.