THE host of the Copenhagen international climate change summit has backed the Federal Government's goal of passing carbon trading laws this year, describing it as crucial to progress towards a new deal to limit greenhouse emissions.
The call from Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard comes as the Opposition considers offering bipartisan support on the greenhouse targets that Australia will take to the December climate conference - but not on the emissions trading legislation.
In a sign some Liberals want to narrow the political divide over climate change, the Opposition is separating greenhouse targets from emissions trading.
The Coalition has argued that the emissions trading legislation should wait until after the Copenhagen meeting.
But Ms Hedegaard, a Danish Conservative Party MP who will chair the Copenhagen meeting, said countries would ideally arrive with a legislated plan for reaching their target.
"The timing is crucial.
"The sooner countries can say for certain 'this is what we're going to do' the better, because that is what builds up expectations and that is what an agreement will prosper from," she said.
Speaking in Melbourne at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch, Ms Hedegaard said the Government's move opening up the possibility of a 25 per cent emissions cut below 2000 levels by 2020 was "really good news".
She said rich nations agreeing to a target 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels was the "first prerequisite" of negotiations.
Australia has committed to a cut of between 5 and 25 per cent below 2000 levels depending on the level of international agreement reached.
It is believed the Opposition may seek to increase the lower-end target.
Australia's maximum target translates to a 24 per cent cut on 1990, but Ms Hedegaard was not quibbling over 1 per cent.
"The more developed countries that would actually take on reductions in the range of what the (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has told us, the better," she later told The Age.
She expressed "cautious optimism" about achieving a strong climate deal this year.
She said a new deal must address three key issues:
• Emissions cuts, including a substantial slowing of emissions growth from major developing nations such as China and India;
• Development of a range of low-carbon technologies; and
• Finance to help poor countries cut emissions and cope with the unavoidable change.
"Without funding there is no deal," she said.
Ms Hedegaard warned against letting action on climate change descend into a trade war, warning that "green protectionism" in the form of carbon border taxes were not viable.
Greens Climate Change spokeswoman Christine Milne dismissed Ms Hedegaard's support for Australia's target shift.
"Some people are so determined to make Copenhagen a superficial diplomatic success that they have forgotten the critical need to make it an environmental success," she said.
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