Fed: No surprises in climate reports
15 Jun 2009 9:13 PM
CANBERRA, June 15 AAP - Two long-awaited Senate committee reports into emissions trading have been handed down - and they contain no surprises.
Both sides of politics used the committees to reiterate their own message on climate change and emissions trading.
The government called for its emissions trading scheme to be passed.
The coalition said it should not be passed because it was too rushed and would damage the economy, while the Greens said the scheme was not green enough.
The Senate is due to vote on the ETS next week.
But the reports show just how doomed the ETS is - only Labor supports it and it does not have the numbers in the Senate to get the scheme through.
Labor used one of the reports to hint that it could beef up targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The government says it will cut emissions by between 5 and 25 per cent by 2020.
The report said the targets could be "tightened" if a case was made to do so, by amending the laws or passing regulations.
The Senate Standing Committee on Economics looked at the government's proposed ETS laws, and the Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy looked more broadly at climate change and emissions trading.
