Minimizing carbon emissions and boosting energy efficiency are the main selling points of the carbon pricing plan the Australian Parliament passed last week.

Going beyond the most controversial issues attending the legislation, the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard also hopes to capitalize on the fringe and core benefits of the new tax, according to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.

While the main agenda for the new carbon tax, according to an ICTSD report posted online Monday, is for Australia to lead the way in prodding business to slash carbon emissions, the economic opportunities the program will spawn are equally important.

On paper, the new federal tax will levy at least $23 per tonne and will gain traction of 2.5 percent each year until the whole system matures into a so-called emission trading system after three years, affecting the operations of Australia's giant polluters, including the mining titans.

For a country that relies heavily on its mining exports to China, its biggest customer, and the rest of the world, the new tax appears to be more of a punishment than a government aid to domestic business to flourish, critics argued.

Yet according to ICTSD, the long-term prospect for most of Australia is generally positive, an outlook that the group insists will also benefit Australian firms, which by 2015 "will be able to buy carbon offsets from projects overseas."

For direct business opportunities that the new carbon scheme will hopefully create soon, one example was highlighted by ICTSD, which quoted a Reuters report in declaring that one Australian firm will supply millions of energy-efficient light bulbs to Mexico.

That transaction alone, ICTSD said, will benefit more than 6 million homes in Mexico City and save considerable amount of energy that otherwise would have resulted in emissions.

On a broader side, ICTSD maintained that Australia effectively blazed the right path when it passed the controversial bill, which was earlier endorsed by BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers, that soon will be reconciled by similar measures now being considered in New Zealand and a number of European nations.

True enough, Australia's act is not isolated, the ICTSD report said, as similar programs will be adapted soon in California and in the economically dynamic Asia-Pacific region, home to emerging economic behemoths China and South Korea.

Such prospect, the report stressed, should silence groups oppose to the new policy whose basic argument against carbon pricing is its ability to kill businesses.