"Today the Australian Government responds to the threat of global warming, longer droughts and more extreme weather by embracing a responsible plan of action on climate change.
Climate change is one of the greatest, enduring challenges that we face as a nation and as an international community.
Climate change is nothing less than a threat to our people, our nation and our planet. It is a threat that, if left unaddressed, has the capacity to permanently to affect our way of life.
The incontestable truth of climate change is that a decision not to act is in fact an active decision – an active decision to place the next generation at grave risk.
Today, this generation - our generation - stands at the crossroads of history.
We are the first generation empowered with the fullest understanding of climate change. And we are the first generation to experience the tangible effects of climate change on our planet.
So the question for our generation is simple. Do we act on the knowledge that we have in our possession? Or do we wait – leaving the effects of climate change to our children and our grandchildren by which time it may well be too late?”
“The Government is determined to get the balance right. This means securing Australian jobs and assisting households today, while at the same time moving to the low pollution economy that will create the jobs of the future.”
Strong and compelling words! And yet the scheme has been met with outright hostility and downright despair by the green movement, and only muted praise from industry. Sixty environment and community groups joined to condemn the Government's target range.
The range of between 5 and 15 per cent was "a total failure of climate policy and shows that the Rudd Government has caved in to pressure from the big polluters", the groups, including Greenpeace and WWF, said.
"If adopted globally this target would guarantee the loss of the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu wetlands and steer the Earth on a path towards catastrophic climate change."
The executive director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Don Henry, said the Government had "given up on our much-loved and important natural icons".
“ACF is deeply concerned about the billions of taxpayers’ dollars that this scheme plans to hand directly to the big polluters, with virtually no strings attached. This could herald a new era of pollution protectionism.”
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s advice that developed countries, as a group, must reduce their carbon pollution by 25-40 per cent is already on the table of international negotiations” said Mr Henry.
As a hot and dry country, we have more to lose than any other developed nation if the world fails to reduce the carbon pollution that causes climate change.
We are already feeling the impacts of climate change in Australia and across the globe. In the past twelve years, we have experienced eleven of the hottest years since records began and temperatures are projected to continue to rise over the next century.
In Australia, temperatures are expected to rise by around five degrees by the end of the century. Coastal properties will be threatened by rising sea levels and tidal surges. Food production from our farms will be reduced as a result of longer, more frequent and more intense droughts.
National treasures, including the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu wetlands and the big tourism industries they support will be under threat.
That's why we need to act decisively to protect our way of life.
But it really boils down to one thing - our kids, the generation to which we leave our planet. What we do - or fail to do - in the next few years will have consequences spanning generations.
The world is now in a narrow time window. Our choice comes down to this:
Our children will either inherit a world in which we seize the best chance we'll ever have to tackle one of our greatest challenges ever...
Or we'll leave our children to deal with the disastrous repercussions of our failure to act.
And make no mistake - everyone needs to do their bit to tackle carbon pollution.
Each ton of global warming pollution emitted today will stay in the atmosphere for decades to centuries, warming the planet.
Either we will be on our way to dramatic reductions in global warming emissions within the decade, or we will in all likelihood have passed a point of no return. We will have irrevocably committed our children to the upheavals of climate instability.
Whether you believe our government has got it right or not. To get emissions on a downslope within the next decade, we've got to get new regulations that put companies AND communities on a path to begin transforming our energy economy.
It’s all about big steps, and little steps. Big steps taken by global leaders, and little steps taken by ordinary, every-day people who make conscious choices to reduce their individual footprint on this planet.
It won’t be easy – but do it we must. If you need more convincing, take time to listen to this extraordinary and desperate plea by our children, made to the United Nations recently
click here.