Analysis queries coalition climate plan

4 Feb 2010, 10:35 am   -   Source: AAP
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the coalition's direct action policy would cost three times more than Labor's planned emissions trading scheme but do less to reduce carbon emissions. (Getty Images)

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the coalition's direct action policy would cost three times more than Labor's planned emissions trading scheme but do less to reduce carbon emissions. (Getty Images)

The government is set to release an analysis showing the coalition's new climate action policy will cause greenhouse gas emissions to rise 13 per cent by 2020.

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The federal government will release an analysis later on Thursday showing the coalition's new climate action policy will cause greenhouse gas emissions to rise 13 per cent by 2020.

The opposition has dismissed the analysis as "a fundamentally dishonest exercise".

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the coalition's direct action policy would cost three times more than Labor's planned emissions trading scheme but do less to reduce carbon emissions.

"The Department of Climate Change's expert analysis and conclusion is that the effect of the opposition's policy will be to increase greenhouse gas emissions by 13 per cent," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

Mr Rudd said the analysis allowed for a generous set of assumptions about the coalition policy.

The department had modelled its analysis on the GGas scheme, currently operating in NSW, and had concluded that the assumptions about carbon reductions made in the policy "are in fact inaccurate".

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott dismissed the "page-and-a-half" document, saying it did not contain details of the modelling.

"That's why it is a fundamentally dishonest exercise," he said.

Mr Abbott said he remained confident his policy could reduce carbon emissions by 140 million tonnes and achieve the same 2020 reduction target - five per cent - as the government's ETS.

He demanded the government release all the modelling it used to make assumptions about the coalition scheme.

Mr Rudd said reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent entailed preventing 138 million tonnes of emissions from going into the atmosphere.

The departmental analysis showed the opposition's policy could only remove 40 million tonnes at best which was "nowhere near" the target.

Mr Rudd gave a guarantee that no pensioner would be worse off under the government's proposed ETS, saying "absolutely" when asked.

The government's scheme would cost the budget $3 billion while the opposition's policy would cost $10 billion, he said.

The Australian Greens say they are not surprised by what the analysis finds about the coalition's policy.

"Tony Abbott's plan is business as usual," Greens senator Christine Milne told reporters.

"Business as usual means rising emissions from those energy and transport and energy sectors."

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