Thank you Environment Business Australia for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. To you Fiona Wain, to Rob and to others here, I do want to acknowledge the work of EBA and its member companies in forging a clean energy future for Australia.

In fact, Labor shares your vision that Australia can indeed be “an international leader by demonstrating how an energy intensive economy can remain robust and prosperous using more efficient, cleaner, and renewable sources of energy” and agree with EBA calls to make action on climate change a national priority and for bipartisan support to this end.

This is a doubly critical time because we are in the Australian election cycle and it’s a critical globally for climate change as the pervasive scope of climate change impacts are becoming more widely understood.

More than ever before, we need to urgently rein in global emissions and get started on the emissions reduction path.

The imminent release of the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is likely to reinforce the urgency of this task.

And I have got to say how disappointing it is to find that we don't have the Government here tonight willing to sit at the table and to debate, and to discuss these important climate change issues with us.

Of course, the United Nations climate change summit in Bali will begin in less than a month.

Tonight I want to lay out Labor’s bold plan to drive a clean energy revolution – our ambition to make Australia the clean energy hub of the Asia Pacific.

You’d be familiar with the identification by Ernst and Young that global investment in new renewable energy in 2005 was worth $US38 billion. This market is expected to grow to $US750 billion a year by 2016 – less than ten years away.

Clearly the sooner we act, the better placed companies will be to benefit from new emerging global markets of this scale, and to benefit from the economic gains from improved energy efficiency and resource productivity bring.

And the increasing possibility of economic and environmental dislocation means there is a real need to harness innovation and the power of markets so that the transition to a low carbon future is a smooth one.

The companies represented here tonight are playing a critical role – I acknowledge that – in driving energy efficiency, waste management, carbon offsets, renewable energy and environmental services.

Many countries have recognised that clean technology is the next industrial revolution, and over the past decade have worked hard to get the market mechanisms right.

They have set targets for emissions reductions and for generating renewable energy and they have invested in energy efficiency.

• China with a 20 per cent renewable energy target;
• California with a 33 per cent renewable energy target;
• Canada committing to a target to reduce emissions by 70 per cent by 2050.

John White, the Chairman of Global Renewables, summed the situation up when he told The Weekend Australian on 3 November:

“Australia has missed out on one of the opportunities presented to it in terms of its great advantage in renewable energy. Ten years of denial have put us 20 years behind.”

That's right – ten years of denial have put us twenty years behind.

It’s remarkable that after 11 years of the Howard Government, Australia now gets a lower percentage of electricity from renewable energy than it did in 1997.

And this audience knows only too well the long list of Australian companies and individuals that have gone offshore to capture the opportunities arising from the global clean energy revolution.

To mention just two:

• clean energy company Roaring Forties had $750 million of wind investments stalled due to the Government’s previous and persistent failure to increase its renewable energy target;
•  and in February of this year, Pacific Hydro announced it was investing $500 million in Brazil because Australian renewable energy projects had been stalled.

So we really do need to harness the investment sector and the energy markets to prepare for the reality of a carbon constrained future.

So how do we do that? 

1. We need to get the policy settings right to drive investment.
2. We need to invest in clean energy research and development.
   And
3. We need to invest in energy efficiency.

Firstly - Getting the policy settings right

Labor has long advocated the need for emissions trading as part of a least cost approach to cutting emissions. In fact, we went to the last two elections with emissions trading as a key component of our comprehensive approach to tackling climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated with market mechanisms at its core; emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation.

There are few stakeholders or commentators that now seriously argue against emissions trading.

Even the Howard Government has accepted the need for trading – if only they would accept the need to set targets based on science and the urgency of getting a scheme in place.

I know that Fiona Wain, the CEO of Environment Business Australia, has expressed concerns about the delays in establishing a national emissions trading scheme and has called for the start date to be brought forward. 

Well, Labor will ensure that it does happen quickly and rigorously.

If we are successful at the upcoming election, Federal Labor is committed to having the design features for a national emissions trading scheme completed by the end of next year and a scheme in place by no later than 2010.

But, as you know, emissions trading by itself is not enough.

We need complementary measures that will address other market failures.

And most substantial economic modelling confirms that a comprehensive approach will deliver lower cost outcomes, rather than relying on emissions trading alone.

Last week Federal Labor announced a 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 – 20 per cent by 2020.

We believe that this is a critical part of getting the lowest cost emission reductions over time.

While the introduction of emissions trading will help bring renewable technologies into the market over time, an interim renewable energy target will accelerate their use, driving cost reductions with economies of scale – and achieving overall emission reductions at lower cost.

The Clean Energy Council estimates Labor’s 20 per cent by 2020 target will generate 50,000 new jobs and $20 billion in investment in the renewable energy sector. There are a number of projects on the books ready and waiting to go.

I note Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has been very critical of Labor’s Renewable Energy Target. The Prime Minister said at one point that he would look at it but Mr Turnbull has suggested that it was a “very big mistake”.

The Environment Minister claims the Government’s 2020 target of 30,000 gigawatt hour target provides the right balance because it includes renewables and low emissions technology such as clean coal. 

The truth is the Government’s target simply consolidates existing State renewable energy targets into a national scheme.

And the Government policy opens up the renewable energy target sector to nuclear reactors.

It’s no wonder that the head of Mr Howard’s taskforce on nuclear technology, Ziggy Switkowski, described the Government’s target as “a step forward for the nuclear industry”.

Labor has focused on renewable energy to drive investment in those clean renewable technologies that are available now.  

The development of clean coal technology is critical in cutting Australia’s greenhouse pollution and maintaining jobs in the coal industry.

But while there is much promising research and development being undertaken, there are as yet, no full-scale operating examples of clean coal technology. 

Federal Labor believes the best way to accelerate the development and deployment of this technology is through investment in research, development and commercialisation of advanced fossil fuel technologies.

That’s why Labor will set up a $500 million National Clean Coal Fund.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that at election time, the Government is already making outrageous claims about Labor’s renewable energy target, putting its short–term political interests ahead of the national interest.

But that shouldn't surprise us either given the Howard Government has a long history of scare campaigns, inaction and I have say, at times, hysterical commentary. For instance:

• The Prime Minister ruled out increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target for years and has now embraced a clean energy target.
• The Industry Minister has described State renewable energy targets as “Mickey Mouse schemes” before they were finally embraced by the Government.
• In August of last year Mr Howard said “the idea of one country unilaterally embracing an emissions trading scheme will result in great damage to that country”.

How wrong that is.

I’m confident the Government’s scare campaign on the renewable energy target of Labor will not work because it lacks the serious credibility needed on environmental and economic grounds.

And because Australians want to see investment in solar power. They recognise that we have led the world in solar innovation and research and they, along with I think many of us involved in politics, clearly see the prospects for us to build a significant solar industry in this country. And assist in meeting Labor’s 20 per cent target over time.

Secondly we need to invest in research and development

A Mandatory Renewable Energy Target needs to be complemented by investment in renewable energy research and development.

It is incredible that according to this year’s budget papers, the Government did not spend a single dollar of the $50 million allocated to the Low Emissions Technology Development Fund in 2006-07 – so much for recognising the urgency of the situation.

In the meantime, Rudd Labor has committed $50 million to establish the Australian Solar Institute in Newcastle and $50 million to assist companies with drilling for geothermal energy. These are serious investments, crucial to accelerating our renewable technology base.

Labor will also invest $15 million in a ‘Clean Energy Export Strategy’ – and I notice this has been called for specifically by Environment Business Australia – and $20 million in a Clean Energy Innovation Centre.

Under our ‘Clean Energy Export Strategy’ Austrade liaison officers will work with individual companies to match their commercial strengths with opportunities in countries like India, China and Indonesia. Countries where, as you know, European and other nations are busy seeking and maintaining market advantage.

These are important initiatives which will help position Australian businesses to take advantage of the clean energy growth markets in Asia and also in North America.

Thirdly, we need to harness energy efficiency

The third component of driving a clean energy revolution is investing in demand management measures.

The economic, social and environmental potential of energy efficiency is clear. 

According to the National Framework on Energy Efficiency – a working group of Federal and State Governments – there is a significant shortfall between levels of energy efficiency considered economically viable and actual improvements delivered by the market and government programs to date.

• an increase in real GDP of $1.8 billion;
• an increase in employment of around 9000;
• a 9% reduction in stationary final energy consumption; and
• a 9% reduction in greenhouse emissions from the stationary energy sector.

If this is a conservative scenario, just think what we could achieve if we aimed to harness all cost effective energy efficiency opportunities.

We believe Australia should be at the forefront of energy and water efficiency and clean technology, not a distant follower.

Federal Labor welcomed the Government’s announcement of the phase-out of energy efficient light bulbs, but we were disappointed that the government stopped there.

A Rudd Labor Government will take this further and introduce new Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards for electrical appliances and equipment – from plasma TVs to hot water systems and air conditioners – to fast track energy saving technologies.

And we will work with industry and State and Territory Governments to phase-out greenhouse-intensive electric hot water systems.

We expect the savings in greenhouse gas emissions from this measure alone to amount to approximately 7.5 million tons a year (the equivalent – and I stress the equivalent – of taking 1.7 million cars off the roads for a year). 

Acting on climate change is an economic imperative as well as an environmental one.

The costs of inaction – or delayed action – are far greater than the costs of action.

We know that cutting emissions is affordable and that the sooner we act the smoother the transition will be.

We want to enable our environmental companies, those of you here tonight, to have every opportunity to deliver climate change solutions.

After a decade of inaction, we can't afford to waste anther ten years and I can think of no greater prospect than for Australia to be positioned as the clean energy hub of the Asia-Pacific.

I want to assure you tonight that Rudd Labor is fully committed to that goal.