Australian government seals political deal on climate change
Updated
The Australian government has sealed a political deal which it hopes will get its long-delayed climate change legislation through parliament. After five weeks of negotiations, Canberra has agreed to give billions more dollars in compensation to the country's biggest polluters, in exchange for decisive opposition votes in the Senate. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the deal will help protect Australia from climate change, while safeguarding jobs and the economy. But green activists have accused the government of turning its back on both developing countries and future generations.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra Correspondent
Speakers: Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister; Christine Milne, Australian Greens Senator; Penny Wong, Australian Climate Change Minister
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MOTTRAM: Two years to the day after Kevin Rudd was elected to office, the Australian Prime Minister fronted the media, with a political deal in hand, secured after five weeks of negotiations with his main political opponents. With many in the opposition though strongly opposed to any climate change laws, Mr Rudd continued to argue his case.
RUDD: I will not risk our future, our will not risk our children's future, or that of our grandchildren, by betting against the climate change science. The responsible course of action for us to take is a vote for action on climate change.
MOTTRAM: Mr Rudd says his laws will help protect Australia from climate change, and help towards the goal of stabilising global carbon emissions, said to be responsible for phenomena such as dangerous sea level rise. But when Mr Rudd rose later in the Parliament on the same issue, protesters in the public gallery whistled their opposition. These were not his conservative opponents. These were green opponents. who are dismayed at Mr Rudd's deal. Australian Greens Senator, Christine Milne.
MILNE: the Rudd government has demonstrated that not only is it not up to the task of addressing a global emergency, but it has deliberately, willingly, knowingly, turned its back on this generation, future generations and in particular all of those people in developing countries who are already suffering from climate change.
MOTTRAM: The government's legislation is a major piece of economic reform, that puts a price on carbon pollution and sets up a carbon trading market. The goal is to cut Australian greenhouse emissions by at least five per cent of 1990 levels by the year 2020. And that target is itself heavily criticised as far too little to matter. The scheme would also help encourage energy efficiency, and develop alternative and green technologies, including so-called clean coal and carbon sequestration.
But when the Rudd government first introduced the legislation to parliament last August, it was defeated in the upper house, the Senate, where Labor does not have a majority. So it was forced to negotiate. And the deal the government has done with the conservative opposition centres on one key feature: increased compensation for what are called emissions-intensive, trade exposed industries, mostly the big polluters like the coal and electricity industries, taking away from what might otherwise have gone to householders. The Rudd government's climate change minister, Penny Wong defends the scheme's environmental integrity.
WONG: We have ensured that everyone will continue to contribute, all parts of the Australian economy will continue to contribute to a reduction in emissions. That is a very important aspect of what it being put before the parliament.
MOTTRAM: Some have argued that though the scheme's not perfect, its better than nothing, and could be improved later. Greens Senator Christine Milne says there's a big disincentive to later amendment.
MILNE: If in the future somebody wanted to change it it simply can't happen because the coal industry and those energy intensive, trade exposed will sue.
MOTTRAM: And Senator Milne says already those industries are taking the compensation as a signal to expand.
MILNE: The weak target, the weak price signal, the low trajectory means we're going to see investment in infrastructure such as new coalfired power stations in Queensland and New South Wales and the recommissioning of old decommissioned plants in Western Australia and the guarantee of refurbishment of coal fired power stations in Victoria. So this is a disaster for the economy. Far from the transformation that is needed to the low carbon economy to the renewables to efficiency and so on, what we are now locking in is expanded coal mining and ongoing coal fired generation out to 2020 and beyond.
MOTTRAM: And where Kevin Rudd sees a deal to help bring momentum into the faltering global process just days out from the Copenhagen summit, Greens like Senator Milne see precisely the wrong signals. The final vote on the Australian legislation should be by the end of this week.
