From Australian Associated Press
AUSTRALIA could reduce greenhouse gas emissions annually by 150 million tonnes more than the Federal Government proposes, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has said.
Mr Turnbull has flagged a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target than the Government’s 5-15 per cent by 2020, and a less complex scheme for achieving the target.
“We could, at relatively low cost … cut an additional 150 million tonnes a year by 2020, and do that very, very realistically without rocket science technology,” he said on ABC radio.
Mr Turnbull says the government’s planned emissions trading scheme (ETS), due to start operating in July 2010, is “incredibly cumbersome”. “(It) seems to disappoint everybody,” he said, adding the scheme was also ineffectual and economically damaging.
Australia’s carbon emissions should be reduced by using such measures as environmental forestry and bio-char technology, Mr Turnbull said. “The objective is to reduce emissions, not to have an ETS.”
Mr Turnbull said the Opposition was not prepared to finalise a reduction scheme until it was known what the rest of the world planned.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has said the Government has always acknowledged the need for additional policies, but turning Australia from one of the most carbon-intensive economies in the world to a low-pollution one requires the “hard” economic reform of an ETS.
“Mr Turnbull knows this,” Senator Wong said. She said Mr Turnbull was opposing an ETS simply because it did not have support in his party. “Many … simply do not want to take action on climate change.”
She said Mr Turnbull’s idea of using environmental forestry would require planting an area half the size of Tasmania every year for a decade to implement, Senator Wong said. “That gives you an example of how much of what Mr Turnbull is talking about is nothing more than a mirage.”