CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong is adamant that Australia will begin to turn into a low-pollution economy from July next year despite moves for a parliamentary inquiry into alternatives to the controversial carbon emissions trading scheme.

And she is making it quite clear that the government will set a yet-to-be-announced annual cap on the amount of emissions it produces – a first in Australia’s history.

The exact 2020 target of between 5% and 15% reduction in emissions may depend on the outcome of the world leaders’ conference in Copenhagen later this year.

But the decision to go ahead with the plan emerged last week amid what appeared to be an argument over a call for the inquiry by Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan, who then decided to dump it because “the inquiry was being politicised”.

While the Opposition now seeks to resurrect the inquiry, the Greens want as many experts as possible to advise Parliament on how to design an emissions trading scheme that will “create new jobs and investment in the net zero carbon economy of the future”.

On the other hand, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) is calling on the government to reduce the impact of the plan on business during the economic crisis. It is seeking ways to minimise the initial cost for companies.

The BCA is concerned that companies will not have sufficient cash flow to buy the carbon reduction permits they need or invest in the emission-reducing technologies they have to have and still remain viable.

That aside, there have been some suggestions that the Rudd government was uncertain about its own climate change policy or it did not know what it was really doing.

If the government had a firm policy, why did Swan even think of having an inquiry to consider alternatives to the plan?

Senator Wong, who is Malaysian-born and the first Asian to become a federal minister, was questioned about this in a TV interview last week. She replied that the government understood the importance of providing certainty and had put out a White Paper on its approach to climate change.

Although an inquiry of this nature was not unusual, she said, it was discontinued when the way in which the parliamentary committee was being “interpreted” became clear.

Undoubtedly, as Wong pointed out, this is a hard task of whole-of-economy reform in keeping with Labour’s commitment to the electorate.

For a start, the Rudd government will introduce a Bill in Federal Parliament by the middle of this year in time for the implementation of the carbon reduction trading plan.

If the Opposition and the Greens block the Bill, the plan could be delayed or even deferred. Neither the government nor the environmentalists want this. They would like to see the plan launched as soon as possible.

At the same time, there are also some conservatives among the Opposition who disagree with an ambitious target. Emission control is the integral part of the government plan, which also includes energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged that part of his latest A$42bil stimulus package will be spent on insulating every home in Australia. This would help reduce the nation’s carbon emissions by some 50 million tonnes, in addition to the minimum 5% reduction of carbon pollution by 2020.

Big manufacturing emitters would have to pay more for their carbon permits. This is aimed at getting them to lower their carbon emissions and help shift Australia into a low-pollution economy.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull believes that Australia’s emissions trading scheme must be able to work effectively with other schemes internationally. The government should not finalise its emissions trading scheme until it knew what the Americans were going to do, he said.

But Greens Deputy Leader Christine Milne wants Australia’s best scientists to tell Parlia­ment why the government’s 5% to 15% target is “completely inadequate”.

She described the target as a recipe for sabotaging the Copenhagen global talks where, according to her, “the rest of the world wants to talk about a negotiating range of 25% to 40%” emissions reduction.

Not surprisingly, both the Opposition and the Greens have formed what seems to be an unlikely alliance in calling for an inquiry into the much-debated emissions trading scheme.

The Opposition, however, is positioning itself to create the impression that it is more serious about climate change than it has shown previously although it has not announced its own target.

Turnbull did, however, suggest some sort of process of capturing and storing carbon and “bio-char” that turns crop and forest waste into charcoal, which is then returned to the soil.

But, as Wong said: “The most responsible thing to do, even in this economic environment, is to start the hard task of reducing our emissions right now.”

The arguments are varied with various groups, organisations and public opinions suggesting different methods from carbon tax to low fixed price on carbon permits in view of the global financial meltdown that has amplified the negative effects of the government plan.

Jeffrey Francis is editorial consultant, Australasia-Pacific Media

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