Citizen's Climate Committee - Mark 2

When Julia Gillard came up with the dopey  thought bubble about forming  a group of 150 citizens to advise the Government about Climate Change it was rightly ridiculed and quickly disappeared after the election. Now when the going is getting tough selling the unsaleable  Carbon Tax it has been proposed that another non-politician "independent" Committee (Labor loves committees) be formed to set emission levels which would stand unless overturned by Parliament. I guess Failed Forecast  Flannery and Ross Garnaut would be prime contenders for this "independent" body to take the opprobrium away from the Government for such a silly and unpopular tax - a sort of carbon cop similar to the Reserve Bank but setting emission levels , not interest rates. Gillard should realise that it is the Government's job to govern and make wise decisions in the interests of the electorate and she has failed on both counts and this attempt to buck-pass an unpopular decision to a committee is another example of a government that has lost it's way!

JULIA Gillard's climate change negotiators are working on developing an independent committee to set Australia's emissions reduction levels to break the biggest deadlock to a deal between Labor and the Greens on the carbon tax.

The Prime Minister's chief climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, will recommend the idea when he releases his final paper on the carbon pricing regime at the National Press Club today.

The Australian understands that the government has been working on a similar proposal for an independent committee to set emissions reduction targets as it seeks to clinch a deal in the multi-party climate change committee.

Details of the plan emerged as the opposition seized on reports that Japan (Australia's second-largest trading partner), Russia and Canada had confirmed at a G8 meeting that they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at UN talks later this year, because it did not require emerging countries, including China, to make targeted emissions cuts.

The US reiterated that it would remain outside the treaty.

Under Professor Garnaut's plan, the committee, which would meet two years after carbon pricing starts from July 1 next year, would set the targets and require the government to seek parliamentary approval to override its recommendations.

The plan could bridge the biggest divide between Labor, which has committed to a reduction target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, and the Greens, who want a 25-40 per cent target and who voted against Kevin Rudd's carbon pollution reduction scheme because it set a "ceiling" of 5 per cent.