A global agreement to create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol does nothing to protect Australian businesses from labouring under an ill-formed carbon tax in the meantime, industry bosses say.
AiGroup chief executive Heather Ridout concedes the Durban deal is important because it signals a new commitment from all the major emitting countries to have their goals covered under a single legal framework.
It's been hailed as the new weapon in the fight against climate change, although green groups are unhappy the pact won't be approved until at least 2015 or be operational another five years after that in 2020.
It hasn't changed the score for exposed Australian businesses either, Ms Ridout said on Monday.
"Post Durban, Australia remains lonely.
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"We are still out there with a very challenging target and high prices in the initial years at a time when international carbon prices are very vulnerable given the economic crisis in Europe."
She said the three-year fixed price of $23 a tonne is still double the current global market rates and there had been no movement to detangle the maze of state, territory and federal climate change regulations.
Ms Ridout maintained the government should be open to amending the price - and the scheme overall - if the situation in Europe worsens.
And if Australia signs up for another set of Kyoto targets, she's urged they be at the lower end of the scale. "Australia's five per cent commitment (by 2020) is as economically challenging as anything proposed by Europe, the United States or China," Ms Ridout said.
"Any raising of ambition should only be done in concert with other major emitters." Australian Greens deputy leader Christine Milne was scathing of the Durban agreement, labelling it a climate and economic death knell that will lift global warming up to three degrees.
She said the government will have to increase its five per cent target to 25 per cent in order to reap back Durban's losses.
"What hope does a decision to make a decision to act later give to many of our Pacific neighbours already suffering?"
"It will massively increase the price of taking action in the post-2020 world." Celebrating the achievements of Australia and the other 189 countries to take part was nothing but political spin, Senator Milne said.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet lauded it as an historic breakthrough that justifies Labor's decision to introduce a carbon tax beginning July 1, 2012, while Prime Minister Julia Gillard lashed out at the doomsayers for saying Durban would produce nothing.
But Senator Milne said Labor had lost the creditability it gained through its carbon price legislation.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Durban proves Australia is going it alone and its carbon tax is now an "international orphan". AAP cj/mjs/goc/
