Total Environment Centre

Total Environment Centre warned the Rudd Government to beware the credibility vacuum it has created by dropping the Emissions Trading Scheme.

"Leadership on climate change was a key election promise which has now been sacrificed to political expediency," said TEC director Jeff Angel.

Mr. Angel said that Prime Minister Rudd must act fast to embrace a nation wide drive for energy efficiency as the only viable alternative to an ETS for greenhouse gas savings, in the next three years.

"The results of an Auspoll released today indicate that the electorate's trust in Rudd's ability to manage climate change has dropped to 36%. Clearly Australians want to see climate change addressed immediately, not at some nebulous point in the future.

"Each year a billion dollars in savings could be received by Australia's 8.3 million households and business if concrete action on energy efficiency is adopted. This would also help offset the energy price rises being driven by the massive and inefficient network infrastructure expansion that governments have approved."

The Energy Efficiency Roundtable launched by TEC in March has gained increasing support from energy advocates in the business world, with the numbers signing on for its recent ‘communiqué' tripling in just two weeks.