Malcolm Turnbull is warning that the Coalition’s climate change policy could well lead to higher taxes.

If it did not, there would have to be a cut in government services, the former Opposition Leader said.

Mr Turnbull also said the “command model” of carbon reduction, that the Coalition has adopted, might not reduce emissions, either.

He was speaking on the ABC television program Q & A.

Mr Turnbull narrowly lost his leadership of the Liberal Party, to the present leader, Tony Abbott, over this issue.

And he still supports the emissions trading model, which the Liberal party  abandoned, at that time.

The government, too, supports an emissions trading scheme.

“I believe we owe it to our children – and their children – to take care of the planet,” Mr Turnbull said.

However it was his comments on the tax implications of the Coalition’s policy that will strike hardest, in the political debate over climate change.

That’s because Mr Abbott’s main selling point, for the Coalition’s scheme is that the government’s plan is little more than “a great big tax on everything.”

Mr Turnbull warned, though, that the cost of the  Coalition’s plan – to offer payments to companies, to encourage them to  reduce their emmissions, would  have to be met by taxpayers, one way or another.

The cost could only be met in one of two ways.

These were  higher taxes, or cuts in government services, Mr Turnbull said.