Rudd calls for climate 'grand bargain'

(AAP) - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told world leaders they must strike a "grand bargain" on climate change at the United Nations summit in Copenhagen in December.

Walking tall on the global stage after former US president Bill Clinton described
him as one of the most intelligent leaders in the world, Mr Rudd said bold decisions
to reduce emissions needed to be made.
Mr Rudd's call came as the UN held a leaders' meeting on Tuesday (New York time) to
discuss progress on reaching an international agreement aimed at reducing global
warming through greenhouse gas emissions.
The meeting heard speeches from US President Barack Obama, new Japanese Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chinese President Hu
Jintao and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
Mr Obama said no nation could escape the effects of climate change and no nation
could deal with the challenge alone much less do so without facing doubts and
difficulties.
"It's no excuse for complacency or inaction, we must do what we can," Mr Obama told
the UN meeting.
Mr Hu, who pledged to curb China's carbon dioxide emissions by a "notable margin" by
2020 from their 2005 levels, said climate change "is an environmental issue but
also, and more importantly, a development issue".
Mr Rudd, in a video address to the UN, said Treasury modelling showed that a global
agreement would lead to a five-fold increase in average incomes in developing
countries by 2050 while leading to lower emissions in all countries and maintaining
high economic growth.
"We, as leaders, need to make bold decisions," he said.
"And we should see these decisions not as threats, but as opportunities."
Mr Rudd said the environmental and economic risks posed by climate change demand
urgent action.
"Without collective action to cut global emissions, the agreed science warns us that
by 2020 up to 250 million people in Africa could be exposed to climate
change-induced water shortages," he said.
"We also know the economic impacts of climate change will be substantial."
Earlier in the day Mr Clinton was introducing Mr Rudd as a panellist in the opening
session of the four-day conference to discuss key global issues.
"In my opinion, he is one of the most well-informed, well read, intelligent leaders
in the world today," Mr Clinton told the audience.
Mr Rudd also co-chaired a roundtable session where sticking points to a global
agreement were discussed and later told reporters that there had been a positive
attitude among the 20 nations at the roundtable, one of 16 roundtable meetings held
at the UN on Tuesday.
He also told a Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York Labor would persist
with its plan to have an emissions trading scheme (ETS) legislated before the
Copenhagen summit.
Mr Rudd's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has written to Opposition Leader
Malcolm Turnbull asking that the coalition finalise and endorse its proposed
amendments to the government's ETS bills by October 19.
The bills were defeated in the Senate in August and the government will reintroduce
them in November, giving it a double dissolution early election trigger if they are
defeated again.
"This is not just a piece of political slap and tickle you know, this is a serious
piece of legislation," Mr Rudd said.