By Rich Bowden:

The decision by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier this week to shelve plans for an emissions trading scheme has drawn ire from environmental groups who say it will harm the nation’s economy.

Speaking on the ABC’s Lateline, Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said the Government’s decision was “… a failure of the Government’s own commitment to the Australian people,” adding that the move “…has been very much shaped by the big polluters themselves, including the coal industry.”

He said the Government had missed an opportunity to introduce an ETS scheme by its refusal to negotiate the emissions trading legislation with the Greens — who had opposed it on the basis that it offered too much in compensation to big polluters.

“The Prime Minister himself said it was the greatest economic, environmental and moral challenge of our age. The Greens have got a prescription up which would fix the impasse which the Opposition has caused,” he said.

“We think that with good faith negotiations with the other crossbenchers and some Liberals would have – would get through the Senate, but it’s now not even going to be tested, because the Government, I think, has decided to save $2.5 billion to help its budget line and to park climate change, which is a very great threat in terms of future economic employment and environmental management for Australia,” said Senator Brown.

Meanwhile the Conservation Council of Western Australia has said it was disappointing to see the Government takes this action when the ETS scheme still had public support.

“It is extremely disappointing to see the Rudd government abandon the issue of climate change when there is still strong support from the electorate to take action,” said Conservation Council Director, Piers Verstegen.

He added that “…delaying action on climate change will only lead to higher costs for the Australian economy and spell disaster for our natural environment.”

“Yesterday’s announcement by the Rudd Government to delay action on climate change indicates our political leaders are prepared to abandon principles of good economic management and consign Australia to a future of climate chaos,” said Verstegen.

A poll, released by the Lowy Institute, showed 72 percent of respondents favoured Government action to cut carbon emissions before a global agreement though a figure of only one third said they were willing to pay for it.

Lowy Institute spokesman Michael Wesley said the figures still reflected a lowering of the public’s interest.

“It reflects a trend that we’ve seen in our polling since 2006, which is a trend where there has been a softening of public concern about global warming,” he said.

“It’s not a dramatic softening but it’s a definite softening trend over time.”

Tags: CO2 cuts, ets dumped, Greens, Kevin Rudd, lowy institute, rudd carbon emissions, Sen Bob Brown