Climate scientists back Australian environment legislation, want government to do more

According to Australia's leading climate scientists, the federal government is not doing enough to cut greenhouse emissions. However, they are in favour a quick passage of the government's legislation in the Parliament.

A recent survey of scientist working with the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that an large majority of the scientists believed that the emissions trading scheme to be introduced in the lower house was flawed, it was still better than nothing.

The reason most commonly advanced for supporting the scheme was that it would help stop the emissions from increasing and leading to gradual abatement.

According to one scientist it was important for legislation to be approved now as any delay would be interpreted by businesses that there was no need to change for he environment. Another said that it would not achieve anything to junk the legislation as an incremental approach would be more effective.

Except for one scientist who responded, the rest found the government's 2020 emissions targets – a cut between 5 and 25 per cent below 2000 levels were not enough for Australia to play its role in meeting the climate change challenge.

The debate in Australia's environmental movement continues regarding whether it would be better to go along with the proposals or reject them as too weak
The Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF Australia have come in for sharp criticism for their support to government after it raised possibility of a 25 per cent emissions cut.

Meanwhile, the Australian government, which has proposed to transform the economy through its carbon pollution reduction scheme is taking steps on finding out whether clean coal technology and other major sources of renewable energy will deliver.

When Kevin Rudd first mooted his global clean coal institute for the design and expedite global efforts to prove the technology he promised funding of 20 commercial-scale demonstration plants that the G8 had deemed necessary by 2020. The government's budget has made the necessary provisions to make good that promise.

Under the budget provisions industrial-scale carbon capture projects will get $2 billion, while $1.6 billion will go to larger scale solar projects that will be major generation facilities producing amounts of electricity comparable to the output of large coal-fired power stations.

The government has also agreed to set up a new strategic investment body for renewables to try to speed along the process of developing renewables – acceptance that the private sector initiatives are vital to development of renewables technologies.

But that investment also depends on the carbon price as without carbon pricing, coal would remain the cheapes and most logical Australian generation option. That price would be set through the 20 per cent renewable energy target agreed between the commonwealth and the states.

It would also depend on the carbon pollution reduction scheme which will become operational in 2012

Even if these flagships prove the techno-commercial viability of renewables technologies a clear carbon price would be needed before the initiatives translate into something beyond government-funded schemes.