John Howard's "New" Climate Plan Derided As Meaningless, Too Slow, Too Small - The Age

EDIT

Prime Minister John Howard, who announced the fund during Sunday's televised leaders debate, said the assistance could come in the form of an annual payment. Mr Howard said the easy part of climate change policy was to talk in lofty terms about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "The rather more sobering, realistic part of the debate is to recognise that over time this will have price and cost impacts in Australian households," he said. "We therefore have to deal with those impacts in a fair and equitable way."

Federal Labor said it supported the planned use of the fund, but the coalition had given little detail and measures to cut emissions were needed much sooner. "It is absolutely a right thing for that revenue to be directed towards climate change efforts, whether it is to do with supporting clean energy or making sure that people who are less well off in the community are compensated," Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett told reporters.

"(But) Mr Howard is talking about a climate change fund that won't be operative for five years. It probably won't be producing any results for a great deal longer." The Australian Greens said the fund should be used to make homes energy efficient rather than giving people cash for their power bills. "Leaving people in energy inefficient houses and driving petrol guzzlers locks them into long-term energy poverty which no relief cheque will address," Greens climate change spokeswoman Christine Milne said.

The independent Climate Institute said the government's household assistance commitment was meaningless in the absence of carbon targets and timelines. "Unless you know what the targets are for pollution reduction, you've got no idea of the impacts or the revenue generated from the trading scheme," chief executive John Connor said.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Howards-climate-fund-comes-under-attack/2007/10/22/1192940949507.html

:toast: