Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Solomon for his question. Responding to climate change will be the great challenge for this generation. If we do not rise to the challenge what we will end up doing is condemning future generations of Australians to live with the consequences of our failure. This government has resolved to act. Climate change is not an abstract concept, it is not an abstract problem and it does not exist over the horizon; it is here, it is present, it is real and its consequences are being felt across every continent on earth.

If we go to the science itself, the IPCC reports that the global carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere have risen by 38 per cent in the industrial era, from 280 to 385 parts per million. Secondly, the 4,000 scientists associated with that body have indicated that this has contributed to a rise in the earth’s surface temperature of around 0.7 degrees during the course of the 20th century. Furthermore, climate model projections estimate that the global surface temperature will probably rise by a further 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius during the course of the 21st century. This must seize our attention.

The impacts of climate change environmentally are already being seen across the world. In the past 20 years Antarctica has lost seven of its ice shelves. This year a 25-mile-wide stretch of ice connecting the Wilkins shelf to the Antarctic landmass broke away, cutting that shelf from the Antarctic continent altogether. If temperature rises continue over time, the loss, for example, of the West Antarctic ice sheet would, we are advised, increase sea levels by 3.3 metres and accelerate global temperature rises. The consequences of climate change will affect the environment, our economy and our way of life. A sea level rise of just 50 centimetres would mean that 150 million people around the world could be flooded by extreme sea levels. The IPCC estimates that by 2020 up to 250 million people in Africa could face severe food shortages and water shortages. Furthermore, the British medical journal the Lancet has described climate change as ‘the biggest global health threat of the 21st century’.

Put all these factors together and what we have is an extraordinary challenge not only environmentally but also to the earth’s human population. Scientists have translated the challenge of the worst effects of dangerous climate change into some simple numbers for those of us in the global policy community to deal with. We must keep the warming of our planet below two degrees Centigrade. This is equivalent to keeping the concentration of carbon dioxide equivalents in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million. This means halving global emissions by 2050.

The challenge is significant, but the international community does have the capacity to rise to this challenge if we can summon the political will. We know that the costs of adjustment are manageable, we know that the technology to underpin such an adjustment is deliverable and we know that the earlier we act the easier our task will be. These are the challenges which lie before us. No nation can deal with climate change on its own, but if every nation stands back and simply refuses to act until all other countries act we know where that logic takes us, and that is that no country acts at all. The resolve of this Australian government is clear. We as a government have resolved to act on climate change. We have resolved to act nationally on climate change. We have resolved to act globally on climate change. Our national action consists of our renewable energy target being increased to 20 per cent, our embrace of measures to underpin energy efficiency across the Australian economy and the introduction of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

The purpose of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is, of course, to bring about a carbon price in the Australian economy. Our overall concerns with the CPRS and the negotiations we have entered into in good faith with the opposition have been to deliver an environmentally effective, fiscally responsible mechanism for the future which enables us to have in Australia a market mechanism to set a carbon price, with appropriate adjustment mechanisms in it for families and industry. A Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme—a form of emissions trading scheme—is designed to have the following core principles alive within it: to have maximal effective coverage to ensure the greatest cost-effectiveness and fairness in spreading the burden of reducing emissions, to allow international linkages and opportunities emerging in the global carbon market, to support industries making the transition to a lower pollution future, to avoid carbon leakage from emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries and to assist householders—especially pensioners and those on low incomes—to adjust to the price of carbon.

Last month the government entered into good faith negotiations with the opposition with the aim of securing the passage of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through the Senate this week. The deal that we have developed is consistent with our belief that a global agreement to stabilise levels at a CO2 equivalent of 450 parts per million would lie squarely within Australia’s national interest. Furthermore, the deal would ensure that Australia could achieve its ambitious, unconditional target of a five per cent reduction or its conditional targets of up to 15 per cent and, at the top end, up to 25 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020—if we are part of a global 450 parts per million agreement. In crafting this deal, the government has continued to listen closely to industry organisations, environmental organisations and our international partners as we seek to move towards a Copenhagen agreement. This is the government’s plan. This is why the government has stepped forward and engaged in good faith negotiations with the opposition. We have done so because we believe that this is in the national interest. We have done so because the Australian people gave us that mandate at the last election. We have done so also mindful of the fact that those opposite—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

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