Turnbull’s carbon capture plan ‘props up polluters’

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The Greens are outraged that the federal Opposition’s new climate change policy includes subsidising the construction of two new coal-fired power stations.

Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has revealed a new policy to fight climate change by investing in carbon capture and storage.

Mr Turnbull told the Young Liberals conference in Canberra that the Federal Government’s climate change strategy has focused too narrowly on the emissions trading scheme and ignores other methods of reducing emissions.

He says human involvement in climate changes is not a matter of ideology or belief but risk management.

But Greens Senator Christine Milne says Mr Turnbull’s proposal falls short of addressing the real issues and instead props up the big polluters.

She says it should instead focus on reducing fossil fuel emissions by stopping the logging of carbon rich forests and retrofitting the nation with energy efficient products.

“The Prime Minister and Malcolm Turnbull are putting their friends in the coal industry way ahead of the community,” she said.

“The community would welcome a package that dealt with climate change at the same time as creating jobs and at the same time as reducing energy bills.”

The Climate Institute’s John Connor says it is bold, but lacks detail.

“They recognised that we need to do much more than just the trading scheme,” he said.

‘Detail needed’

The Federal Government says there is no evidence that the Opposition’s new climate change initiatives would work.

Climate Change minister Penny Wong says Mr Turnbull and Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt have created a policy without adequate detail.

“This is a policy Mr Turnbull’s released that has no costings, no detail and no hard data to show how it’s going to actually reduce emissions,” she said.

‘It’s a policy that frankly looks like Mr Turnbull and Mr Hunt came up with it over a latte somewhere.”

Senator Wong says Mr Turnbull’s announcement contradicts his previous stance.

“When Mr Turnbull was environment minister he said and I quote: ‘The best approach is through emissions trading’,” she said.

“This is what Mr Turnbull said when he was environment minister and the fact is he knows that to tackle climate change we have to put in place a carbon pollution reduction scheme.”