The Coalition and the Greens are poised to forge an unlikely pact to order a parliamentary inquiry into the Federal Government's contentious plan to tackle climate change.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced on Monday that Australia would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 or up to 15 per cent if other countries came on board.
''The Australian Government, given the global financial crisis, makes no apologies whatsoever for introducing responsible medium-term targets to bring down our greenhouse gas emissions,'' Mr Rudd said yesterday.
But Greens leader Senator Bob Brown blasted the plan, vowing to push for a Senate inquiry into the proposal.
''We'll have a chat to the Prime Minister if he cares to [or] wants to. I mean, I told him what I thought yesterday, that he'd failed this country and he'd failed the planet.
''But he said he didn't think so. Well, I'd certainly like to test that in ... the public forums ...''
Opposition spokesman on emissions trading design Andrew Robb said the Coalition also wanted a Senate committee to look into the plan ''in a most exhaustive way''.
''If the Greens want a Senate inquiry, I'm sure that we wouldn't stand in its way,'' Mr Robb said.
The Greens who share the balance of power in the Senate issued terms of reference for the inquiry to look into the ''adequacy or otherwise'' of the 5 per cent target.
Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong and Treasurer Wayne Swan defended the plan.
The Treasurer said yesterday, ''We think we have struck the right balance, given the nature of our economy and given our responsibilities to the national economic interest and to the global fight against climate change.''
Greens spokeswoman on climate change Christine Milne said the proposal was a failure on diplomatic, scientific and economic grounds.
''One of the big failures of the Rudd Government scheme is that 97 per cent of the money is going to go to compensate everybody.
''So on one hand you put in a price signal on carbon and on the other hand you take it out with compensation. Only 3 per cent of all that money will be going into actually changing behaviour.''
Mr Swan rejected the suggestion, saying ''we will all feel it. Some people will receive compensation over and above the cost they feel, but the price structure in the economy will change and consumers will have to make choices.
''What that price structure change does is that it encourages business to invest in new technology, to become much cleaner in terms of their use of energy. What it does is it encourages consumers to do the same.''
The Government is trying pressure the Opposition to back the plan when senators consider the legislation next year.
The Opposition was taking a two-pronged approach, according to its climate change spokesman, Greg Hunt.
''The first is that we will be developing a clean energy revolution. As part of that, we want the Government to reverse the cap, the inexplicable cap on middle-income families having access to solar energy. They haven't done that.''
The Opposition has also commissioned the Centre for International Economics to review the plan before deciding whether it will support the legislation.