Emissions targets to be announced today

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd will announce the Federal government’s long awaited emission reduction targets, in an address to the National Press Club today.

The announcement was to have been made by  his Climate Change and Water minister, Senator Wong, but she was bumped from the job at the last minute.

In a circular to its members, the Press Club described that change as “a surprise.”

Mr Rudd had been criticised over his earlier plan to leave the announcement to Senator Wong.

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey, for example,  said that, as usual, the unpleasant work was to be left to a woman.

Ramsey saw that, as a sign that the announcement, itself, wouid be weak.

If if it was to be a good one, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, would make it himself, he said.

Rudd, himself, has already signalled, indirectly, that he is looking for a soft compromise.

He warned, recently, that the government’s announcement would not please either industry, or extreme environmentalists.

There is no doubt though that , Rudd, himself will have an unenviable task today.

The issue is critical, both for the government and the world.

Some scares do disappear quietly.

The Y2K bug comes to mind.

Climate change isn’t one of them.

There is solid science behind this one.

But the politics are important, too.

The Rudd government’s survival depends on it getting it’s climate change policies right.

The Opposition is showing all the foresight of a crack addict, in this debate.

The Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop is declaring that the coalition will do nothing, in this area, that would damage business or send jobs overseas. while the global economic crisis continues.

The Climate Institute is pressing for a 25 per cent emissions reduction target.

The Greens would like to see 40 per cent.

The Minerals Council, though, wants no more than a 5 per cent target, with compensation for heavy industry.

Business also believes the proposed 2010 start, for an emissions trading scheme, would be premature.

There are very few wins, in this situation, for politicians.