The Greens are today launching the Safe Climate Bill (read all about it and download the bills here), the first comprehensive legislative attempt to set out what we need to achieve to deliver a safe climate to our children.

The Safe Climate Bill, launched at Parliament House today supported by a broad cross-section of industry and community representatives, is a collection of 12 linked bills based around the pillars of renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transport and forest protection, supported by a real carbon pricing scheme and targeting 40% emissions cuts below 1990 levels by 2020 on the way to building a flourishing carbon neutral powerhouse.

"If we are serious about the climate crisis, we have to try to deliver a safe climate to our children, and the Safe Climate Bill sets out how to do that by building a cleaner, healthier, fairer and happier Australia," Australian Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, said.

"This is a groundbreaking initiative and sets the benchmark against which the Rudd Government's short-sighted CPRS should be measured."

The Safe Climate Bill:

• enshrines in Australian law an ultimate global goal of bringing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere back to 350 parts per million;
• establishes an effective emissions trading scheme that will genuinely cut emissions and transform the economy to a sustainable footing; 
• introduces a suite of measures aimed at achieving 100% renewable energy in Australia in the coming decades;
• introduces a suite of measures to upgrade all of Australia's homes, offices and industry for energy efficiency;
• establishes the pathway to a sustainable transport future;
• protects and builds our carbon stores in forests and soils; and
• creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in making this transformation a reality.

"For many, this kind of bold action will seem daunting if not impossible, but we humans are capable of amazing things when we set our minds to it," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

"If we set ourselves this vital task of delivering a safe climate, we will unlock a wave of creativity and innovative job creation unlike anything we've seen before.

"Where the Rudd Government's CPRS can only achieve division and disappointment, the Safe Climate Bill will unite and inspire Australians just as the Apollo project united and inspired Americans and the war effort against the Blitz united Londoners.

"This is one of those moments about which Winston Churchill said, 'It's no use saying we are doing our best, we have to succeed in doing what is necessary.'

"With climate science, fairness and technology at its heart, the Greens' Safe Climate Bill will do what is necessary. Will the Rudd Government?"

The bills and detailed briefings are available at www.safeclimatebill.org.au or on request.