Speaking at a rally of about 100 Canberrans in front of Parliament House one of many protests around the country Senator Milne attacked the Rudd Government's proposed emissions trading scheme, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 5 and 15 per cent by 2020.

Senator Milne said the rally would be the first of many in the lead-up to the 2010 election, which would be a ''referendum on climate change''.

''This is a stupid decision, not only because of what it does economically in Australia, but it's diplomatically appalling, because it says to the rest of the world that we don't care about what it does to our neighbours [in the Pacific],'' she said.

''This system is ridiculous, 97 per cent of the $20 billion is going into compensation, only 3 per cent is going into changing behaviour.

The whole point of an emissions trading system is to put a price on carbon, and that changes people's behaviour.''

Senator Milne told the rally that Australians were the biggest per capita polluters on the planet and that the Rudd Government's scheme did not offer the solutions required. She said emissions trading permits should have been auctioned to retrofit houses and offices and to roll out renewable energy technologies.

The Greens have announced they will push for a Senate inquiry into the Government's emissions trading plans.

Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury told the rally the ACT Greens would be pushing for a cut in greenhouse gas emissions of up to 35 per cent for the ACT during 2009. ''We were elected on a tide of community concern about climate change and what we saw from the prime minister yesterday was so disappointing,'' he said. ''The Prime Minister has surrendered on climate change, he has run up the white flag.''