Environmentalists moot alternative to Australia's environmental trading scheme

An alternative, dubbed ''Plan B'', has been mooted by groups representing over 400,000 Australian citizens to replace the Australian government's emissions trading scheme, which they say is a dud.

The groups say that the country has become obsessed with emissions trading and though prime minister Kevin Rudd understood climate change he had failed to deliver on emissions trading.

They have termed the government's approach to climate change as 'dangerously inadequate'. They add that there is emerging consensus among leading international climate scientists that there was already too much carbon in the atmosphere and there was an urgent need to pull out all stops to avoid reaching catastrophic tipping points within the climate system.

The Plan B that the groups will put forward outlines policies and actions to immediately reduce greenhouse pollution, halve emissions over the next decade and increase Australia's resilience to weather the impacts of climate change.

The government's Emissions Trading Scheme favours big polluters they say, adding that the time had come for ''Plan B''. The plan calls for a number of measures to be taken up including phasing out coal-fired power stations in 10 years, mandatory fuel efficiency standards for cars and generation of 40 per cent green energy by 2020.

The plan says that stationary energy emissions have increased by nearly 50 per cent between 1990 and 2007 which contribute more than half of Australia's total greenhouse pollution. The plan calls for a rapid migration to renewable energy to halve emissions in the next decade.

The plan further recommends doubling of the Renewable Energy Target to 90,000 GWh by 2020. Additionally it recommends introduction of gross feed-in tariffs to ensure rapid industry development of all renewable energy technologies and a moratorium on construction of new coal-fired electricity plants.

The groups also want politicians to go back to the drawing board to prepare an effective, green scheme to cut emissions by half by 2020. Emissions trading was not due to start for two years they point out during which time the new green scheme could be devised.

Several organisations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Wilderness Society and state based conservation council have backed the plan but not all green groups are on board.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has backed the government's emissions trading scheme saying it was a good start and should be allowed to be implemented.

The government will present the required legislation for the scheme before the Senate next week.