PUT UP YOUR HAND if you understand how emissions trading works. Leave it up if you think the Rudd government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS to its friends) is the best possible way of tackling climate change. Now that everyone has their hands comfortably by their sides, let’s consider the most poorly understood, and most bizarre, feature of the CPRS - namely that, when the CPRS is introduced, individual efforts to reduce emissions will have absolutely no impact on the total level of emissions in Australia.

Let’s be clear about this. When the CPRS comes in, it won’t matter how many solar hot water systems are installed, how many airconditioners sit unused on a summer’s day or how small our cars are. Unless the CPRS is either amended or defeated in the Senate, it will be impossible for individuals to reduce Australia’s emissions below the five per cent target decreed by the government ...