PM, Premier agree on problem, but differ on solution

The Age, Page: 4
Tuesday, 18 July 2006

THE debate about global warming is over in Australia. John Howard and Steve Bracks made major statements yesterday on how the country can better prepare for what our political and scientific elite now acknowledge is the inevitability of climate change. But while the Liberal Prime Minister and the Labor Premier agree on the problem, they have very different views on a solution. Howard is encouraging Australia down the nuclear path to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the Premier of this "nuclear-free" state is demanding increased reliance on wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.

The environment lobby says the Bracks blueprint is best. "We need less hot air and more action on climate change," Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry said after both leaders had spoken yesterday. "On the one hand, we have the Prime Minister talking about nuclear power and carbon sequestration. They are dangerous and slow technologies that won't do a thing for at least a decade.

"On the other hand, here we have a state government taking action, with a Mandatory Renewable Energy Target that will mean we start cutting greenhouse pollution today. "The Premier's "environmental sustainability action statement" is a classic compromise between the "green" and "brown" forces in the cabinet. Environment Minister John Thwaites, head of the cabinet greens, and Energy Minister Theo Theophanous, normally much more pro-industry, worked closely on its centrepiece, the requirement that electricity retailers buy at least 10 per cent renewable energy by 2016, up from about 4 per cent now. Thwaites and Theophanous expect the renewable energy target will come to be seen as one of the Bracks Government's most important and enduring legacies.

Bracks will be pleased that business yesterday signalled its acceptance of the need for such measures. But he will be particularly delighted by yesterday's enthusiastic applause from the mainstream conservation groups, because green issues and the Greens party will play prominent roles in the lead-up to November's state election.