AUSTRALIA is the only government to backtrack on climate-change policy since the disappointment of the Copenhagen conference, international analysts say.
The government has warned its emissions scheme could be delayed beyond the 2013 election as its legislation would depend on ''credible action'' by the end of 2012 from major emitters China, the US and India.
The politically inspired stance is an abrupt shift from the pledge to introduce the scheme regardless of whether other countries reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Resources Institute, a Washington-based panel of advisers with close links to the US government, warned the reversal could prompt other countries to back-pedal and trigger a ''downward spiral'' in climate talks.
Institute climate and energy director Jennifer Morgan told The Age the situation was a clear reversal of the Rudd government's previous ''thoughtful and forward-leaning position''.
''I don't know another country that has reversed and changed track other than Australia,'' she said. ''This is immensely disconcerting and it sends a terrible signal to the rest of the world, particularly the major emerging economies, who are now starting to act.''
Though widely seen as weak, the non-binding Copenhagen Accord hatched in December gained limited credibility after more than 100 countries responsible for more than 80 per cent of global emissions formally submitted commitments to it.
Pledges included China reducing its emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40-45 per cent and the US cutting emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.
Australia's 2020 pledge was a conditional 5-25 per cent cut in emissions below 2000 levels.
The formal commitment stands but the policy director of Australia's Climate Institute, Erwin Jackson, said the government now had no effective way to meet it.
He said the government was ''speaking with two voices'' - internationally pressuring countries to build on policies and give legitimacy to the Copenhagen Accord while winding back its own commitments domestically. ''If they don't have confidence in the Copenhagen Accord, why would anyone else?'' he said. ''It's completely in contrast with their international strategy.''
Mr Jackson said Australia's position was now effectively a 20 per cent increase in emissions above 2000 levels by 2020 - a point backed by the government's Tracking to Kyoto report released last year. ''That's where we are going without an emissions trading scheme.''
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday the government's commitment to reach emissions targets remained unchanged. ''What has changed is our pathway to get there,'' he said.
The opposition called for a review of the jobs of hundreds of public servants working on emissions trading legislation and regulations.
''We do not think that every one of those jobs there should be paid for by the taxpayer for people to sit there and twiddle their thumbs,'' opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt said.
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