Greens campaign for 40% target

The Australian Greens will campaign for a 40 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to save the planet from catastrophic climate change.

"Prime Minister Rudd's 5% target is a global embarrassment and a recipe for global catastrophe," Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"The Rudd target of 5 per cent will anger voters. It is exactly where John Howard would have placed Australia in 2009 - a spoiler as the Copenhagen conference on climate change reaches for a much higher goal.

"Kevin Rudd has made climate change the big parliamentary challenge of 2009. The Greens will initiate a Senate inquiry. If the Opposition remains coal-captured the question is: will the government accept the Greens' amendments to improve its climate change legislation?" Senator Brown asked.

Greens Deputy Leader and Climate Change spokesperson Christine Milne said today said, "Kevin Rudd's White Paper has raised the white flag of surrender on climate change."

"Scientists agree that developed countries need to reduce their emissions by between 25 and 40 per cent by 2020 to avoid catastrophic climate change. Australia's high per capita emissions and our relatively cheap emissions reduction potential means we need to be at the top of that range, not doing less than everyone else.

"Only three per cent of funds will actually go to reducing emissions. Half of all the money raised by auctioning permits will go to big polluters. Not a single cent will be spent on helping householders reduce their energy use and emissions.

"If polluters aren't paying somebody else has to; Kevin Rudd has ensured that the Australian people will foot the bill for the big polluters," Senator Milne said.

"Kevin Rudd has put the coal industry ahead of Australia's children and grandchildren. It will be much more expensive to rectify this historic mistake in the decades ahead. The 2010 federal election is shaping up as a referendum on tackling climate change," Senator Milne said.