Garnaut under Fire from Polluter Lobby???s ???Scare Campaign???

Kevin Rudd must keep his promises and act on the concerns of the Australian community rather than the polluter lobby, in his response to today???s Draft Garnaut Report on climate change and the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). We all know that the government???s promise to reduce Australia???s greenhouse pollution was one of the main reasons for its victory in the election. Now, the Opposition and polluting industry lobby ??? electricity generators, coal mining companies, and energy-intensive industries like aluminium and cement ??? are running a ???scare campaign??? against the ETS.

Industry lobbyists are urging the government to break or delay its promise to implement an emissions trading scheme by 2010, and pushing for free permits to pollute for carbon-intensive industries. In the past few months, they have spent enormous amounts of time and money lobbying cabinet ministers and trying to influence the media debate around the ETS. In December last year, Kevin Rudd called climate change ???the defining challenge of our generation??? and promised the world that Australia was ready to assume its responsibility to reduce emissions.

The scare tactics over job losses are designed to obscure the fact that taking action on climate change will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in green industries. Last week???s CSIRO???s report ???Growing the Green Collar Economy??? found that if Australia takes significant action to cut greenhouse gas emissions national employment will still increase by between 2.6 million and 3.3 million over the next two decades The Australian community pushed long and hard to place climate change at the top of last year???s election agenda. Two years in a row, hundreds of thousands of Australians turned out to the streets in record-breaking ???Walk Against Warming??? rallies.

Last weekend???s Newspoll found that 61% of Australians support an ETS. For Kevin Rudd to delay or decrease the effectiveness of the ETS because of pressure from the polluting industries is a slap in the face for the millions of ordinary Australians who elected him on a promise of effective climate action. Australians know that reducing greenhouse pollution will change our economy; but they???re ready for those changes and they want leadership, not short-term populism.

The polluter lobby must not set the terms of the debate around climate solutions. Climate change is too important and the costs of inaction will affect every aspect of our economy and our lives. There will be a lot of spin today about what the ETS will mean for Australia.

Here is GetUp's quick checklist for an effective emissions trading scheme: ??? A strong emissions cap aiming to halve Australia???s greenhouse pollution over 1990 levels by 2020 ??? 100% auctioning of emissions permits ??? no free permits to pollute to carbon-intensive industries; ??? No compensation to industry, but assistance to low-income households to reduce energy; ??? Revenue from the trading scheme to go to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and public transport. If Rudd's ETS doesn???t meet these guidelines, he will have failed to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show leadership on climate change.. Fri Jul 2008 09:07 (6 months, 1 week ago)