greenhouse

John Howard promised not to "sacrifice" the jobs of coalminers with knee-jerk environmental policies as he sharpened his attack on Labor's climate change policies.

Signalling an election-year campaign to woo voters in coal-based electorates, the Prime Minister called for a "measured and sensible" approach to climate change.

But with Kevin Rudd determined to portray his rival as out of touch on the issue, Labor intensified its call for immediate action to reduce damaging greenhouse gas emissions.

The parliamentary brawl came as the Prime Minister's emissions trading taskforce floated the idea of businesses operating under a "single trading scheme" worldwide withthe release of its issues paper.

The United Nations (UN) climate panel has agreed that human activities are causing global warming that may bring more droughts, heatwaves and rising seas, delegates say.

The panel's report, due for release tonight and bolstering conclusions from a 2001 study, may put pressure on governments and companies to do more to curb greenhouse gases mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.

Scientists and government officials in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative group on global warming, agreed it was "very likely" that human activities were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years, delegates say.

UN chief Kofi Annan has criticised a "frightening lack of leadership" in tackling global warming, at a major UN climate summit in Nairobi. Mr Annan told delegates the phenomenon was as grave a threat as conflict, poverty and the spread of weapons. He said sceptics were "out of step, out of arguments and out of time".

JOHN Howard moved last night to take the lead on creating a global emissions trading system, establishing a taskforce to find ways of reducing greenhouse gases without damaging Australia's economy. Stressing that he would not accept a "new Kyoto that damages Australia", the Prime Minister said: "We need a new Kyoto that includes Australia, but includes Australia on a basis which is appropriate to our interests and our needs." Addressing the annual dinner of the Business Council of Australia (BCA) in Sydney, Mr Howard said he was not a sceptic on climate change. "I think the weight of scientific evidence suggests that there are significant and damaging growths in the levels of greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "And unless we lay the foundation over the years immediately ahead of us to deal with the problem, future generations will face significant penalties and will have cause to criticise our failure to do something substantial in response."