Business Spectator - Rudd's carbon flop

It’s just a week away from the release of the Rudd government’s white paper on carbon trading and its interim targets on carbon reduction, and there is growing speculation the path of least political resistance will be chosen, along with a modest reduction target of between 5 and 15 per cent.

Let’s hope not. For a start, a soft target would mean the government abandoning any pretence that it was a 'leader' on the issue of tackling climate change. Instead, it will suffer the ignominy of being the first developed country to run up the white flag as the world embarks on the tortuous negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, where the UN is pushing for cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent.