ELECTION 2010: Gillard commits to two-year sell-job on emissions trading scheme

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has committed to building “community consensus” on the need for Australia to introduce an emissions trading scheme by establishing a “citizens assembly” of everyday taxpayers to debate the climate change issue.

Gillard, who announced her climate change policy in Brisbane this morning, acknowledged that many Australians have doubts about global warming, but said she had to “respectfully disagree”.

“Global temperatures are rising – 2009 has been ranked the fifth hottest year in history and ended our hottest decade. Each decade since the 1940s has been hotter than the decade preceding it,” she said.

“The price of inaction is a price that is too high to pay.”

Gillard also admitted that the Rudd Government had failed to build community consensus on its Climate Pollution Reduction Scheme proposal, which would have introduced an emissions trading scheme in 2012, and said it was reasonable that Australians were concerned about the impact on jobs and living costs.

However, she said she remained committed to introducing an emission trading scheme down the track.

“I don’t apologise for that ambition but I recognise that there are lessons to be learned,” Gillard said.

“If you want to make a big change, the political process must be more closely tied to a community consensus.”

In order to build this consensus, Gillard promised to “make the case” for an emissions trading scheme over the next two years.

There will be two central planks to this sell-job: an independent Climate Change Commission which will monitor climate change movements in Australian and overseas, and a special “citizens assembly” that will be “representative” of the Australian population and debate the issue over a 12-month period.

“We need national consensus on this vital long-term issue. In my view, consensus on this issue should not depend on a fragile agreement between political parties.”

At the end of the process, Gillard’s Government would, as promised by Kevin Rudd, review the introduction of the Climate Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2012, although she says this review would now be armed with better information due to the establishment of the commission and citizens assembly.

Gillard also reiterated Rudd’s promise to cut pollution levels by 5% by 2020 compared to 2000 pollution levels.

Gillard has also promised to implement measures to encourage polluters in heavy-carbon industries to cut their emissions, but says the benchmarks against which cuts will be measured will be at 2007 levels.

Gillard also says her Government would work to encourage renewable power generation projects, with $1 billion to be spent over 10 years to connect households to solar, wind and other renewable generators.

However, Gillard did not rule out approving coal-fired power stations in the future, despite the fact coal-fired generators account for a large proportion of Australia’s carbon emissions.

Instead, new coal fired stations will need to be built such that they can be retro-fitted with carbon capture and storage technology.

Tony Abbott is in Perth today and is expected to announce a border protection policy this afternoon.