oneworldtalk

Turnbull in way of decent legacy on climate change

Penny Wong

June 19, 2009

Our legacy starts now. Discussion on the link between global warming and carbon pollution began in the 1890s. Mainstream science has been establishing the link for more than 20 years. Globally, 13 of the 14 warmest years on record were between 1995 and 2008.

Despite all these warnings, we have accelerated the carbon pollution that is causing climate change. Next week, for the first time, the Senate will vote on laws that will stop that growth.

If the Senate passes the laws, by 2020 our carbon pollution will be reduced by as much as 25 per cent from where it was in 2000. If it does not, Australia's carbon pollution will be 20 per cent higher than in 2000.

The only way we can deliver the scale of reductions we need is with a scheme that puts a hard, legislated limit on carbon pollution, and makes people who want to produce carbon pollution pay for it.

Of course, there are other things we can do that will help. We can invest billions in researching and developing clean-energy technologies - and we are. We can introduce laws to massively increase the uptake of renewable energy - and we have. The Renewable Energy Target legislation now before parliament will ensure that by 2020 the equivalent of all Australian household electricity supply comes from renewable sources like solar, wind and wave.

We can invest billions of dollars to help Australians install insulation and solar hot-water systems and put solar panels on their roofs - and we are. I want to see the day when there is a solar panel on every roof, and insulation in every home, because we all need to do our bit.

But even that will fall a long way short of what we need to do. I asked the Department of Climate Change whether we could reach our 25 per cent target if every dwelling had a solar panel. Their advice is we could get less than one-tenth of the way.

If tackling climate change were a journey from Sydney to London, solar panels would not get us much further than the South Australian border.

The inescapable conclusion is that we need to do more. We need to fundamentally change the way our economy works, so it no longer relies on the carbon-intensive energy that has fuelled it until now.

To get to the point where we have a serious plan to turn our high-polluting economy of today into the low polluting economy of the future has taken well over a decade of analysis, modelling and debate.

It began under the previous government, but John Howard, in his first 10 years as prime minister, rejected the expert advice he was given on how to tackle climate change.

After months of smooth talking from his environment minister, Malcolm Turnbull, Howard promised to introduce emissions trading.

In the end the two main parties went to the election promising to introduce a scheme like the carbon pollution reduction scheme. There was political consensus on this crucial reform of the economy. Now the Liberals want to delay a vote. What happened?

Having finally found himself in the Liberal leadership, Turnbull looked over his shoulder, where Peter Costello was drumming up dissent among the party room sceptics. Regrettably, Turnbull retreated to protect his position. He could not persuade his colleagues to move a single amendment to the scheme. He couldn't even walk through the door of the negotiating room.

Perhaps most worryingly he has not even been able to convince his party room to agree to something as uncontroversial as increasing Australia's renewable energy use - instead delaying a decision on that legislation too.

The Government will keep working to find common ground between the crossbench senators. This is not easy; they have a wide divergence of views, ranging from doubts on the climate change science, to demands that would close down communities overnight.

Among the crossbenchers, it is astonishing to find the Greens, a party that has long campaigned on the need to reduce carbon pollution, would entertain for a minute blocking laws that will reduce the country's carbon pollution by as much as 25 per cent. Their voters would never have expected that their ballot might lead to Australia's contribution to climate change getting worse.

However, the fact remains that the Greens have five votes, Nick Xenophon has one, as does Steve Fielding.

Malcolm Turnbull and the Opposition have 37 votes. It should not be this hard for the man who wants to lead the country to do the right thing for its future.

There was a time when he was one of the Parliament's strongest advocates on climate change. With Costello out of the way, maybe he will feel safe in resuming that role. But for now, no single person stands in the way of a decent legacy on climate change more than Malcolm Turnbull.

Penny Wong is the Minister for Climate Change and Water.