The Federal Government is standing firm on its refusal to sign onto the Kyoto protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with Environment Minister Ian Campbell declaring it a slogan, not a solution.
Senator Campbell did, however, endorse the controversial climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, rating it scientifically sound.
But his assessment contrasts sharply with that of Prime Minister John Howard who declined to meet the film's producer, former US vice-president Al Gore last week.
Also, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said he wouldn't take advice from an unsuccessful presidential candidate.
Senator Campbell, just back from the UN Climate Change Conference in Switzerland, stressed today that failure to address climate change would have serious consequences.
Nevertheless, he warned that the general public tended to ignore alarmist predictions - they simply switch off.
"The problem is too serious to offer up slogans as solution," he told Network Ten.
"Signing Kyoto is a slogan. It's not a solution. Investing billions of dollars in the technologies we need to transform the way we produce and use energy is a substantial solution."
Senator Campbell said Australia could end all carbon emissions overnight but it was no solution because growth in China alone would replace Australian emissions within 10 months.
"We could be the best climate change country in the world - and we are one of the best - but without cooperative effective action internationally we will not save Perth's beaches," he said.
Labor, which says the government is becoming increasingly confused and isolated over climate change, backs Australia signing the Kyoto Protocol.
But Senator Campbell said the reality was that the protocol was being re-written.
He said that of the Kyoto signatories, France was nine per cent over its Kyoto target, Norway 22 per cent, Portugal 26 per cent and Spain 36 per cent.
"The whole world is moving beyond Kyoto and Labor is saying sign up to something that was really drafted six, seven, eight years ago which we know is not working," he said.
"There is no gain to ratifying. We are part of a process that is designing the post-Kyoto world."
Opposition environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said it was an inconvenient truth for Senator Campbell that China was a part of the Kyoto Protocol.
"It was always envisaged that the developed countries would take the lead in reducing their emissions as they had created the problem," he told reporters.
"As Al Gore pointed out this week, Australia's withdrawal from Kyoto makes us international outlaws and undermines the prospect of all countries agreeing to targets in the future."
Mr Albanese said this was outrageous, given that since Australia would be able to meet its generous target, there couldn't be any economic disadvantage in ratifying Kyoto.
He said China had a renewable energy target of 15 per cent.
"Ours is two per cent and we are seeing renewable energy move offshore as a result," he added.