Renewable energy consultant Dan Cass writes:

I have watched the major political parties filibuster their way through climate policy ever since the UNFCCC was formed, in 1991. All though his rein, Prime Minister John Howard got away with green-bashing, greenwash and inaction, but the times have changed.

If the Liberal-National Coalition wants to be relevant, then it will have to work much harder at ecological politics than it did when it was in power.

Tony Abbot, MHR and Senators Minchin and Joyce have to understand that being ecologically illiterate is a political liability in the twenty-first century, as it should be.

The key game-changer is obviously the rise of the Greens and the adoption of climate concern across the rest of the political spectrum. But there are also more subtle shifts that the Coalition would be advised to grasp.

Here is my Top Three Avoidable Pitfalls for an ambitious Opposition in the era of climate change:

1. Underestimating the climate movement
   Australian Prime Ministers are used to dealing with a small corps of key environmental groups and commentators: the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF, Tim Flannery etc. It would be a grave mistake to think that these few groups or individuals are still able to award the big green publicity medals.

Every month that goes by, a new climate action group starts in Australia. This under-reported sector is reinventing the environmental movement. It wields the moral authority and is rapidly building an organisational capacity.

2. Patronising the media
   PM John Howard got away with speaking ecological bunkum to the Canberra Press Gallery because so few reporters took environmental issues seriously. This changed in the wake of the Stern Report and Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth.

Over the past two years, a corps of influential journalists have become climate experts. Young journalists coming up through the ranks are even more environmentally literate and motivated.

3. Shunning green business
   New energy firms are billion dollar enterprises and old corporations are greening their production. The current air-freighted issue of Harvard Business Review has green business on the cover and says it is way out of the global recession.

The Coalition partners can retain their reputation as parties of business only if they support the interests of the emerging green economy. Already, in the USA, the Chamber of Commerce is splitting over its allegiance to fossil fuel firms at the expense of the rising green businesses.