Today, Anthony Albanese visited the CSIRO’s Energy Centre and National Solar Energy Centre with local Newcastle MP, Sharon Grierson.

Scientists at CSIRO are doing important work to find the next generation of clean energy technology to help avoid dangerous climate change.

These include clean coal technology, solar thermal energy and support for other renewable energy sources.

Australia needs the economic mechanisms to ensure the next generation of clean energy technology is commercialised in Australia, delivering high skill jobs and significant export income for Australia.

Labor supports strong incentives for industry to invest in and develop clean energy technology, therefore opening up the booming global clean energy market for Australian companies.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, additional clean renewable energy projects in developing countries will be worth $133 billion by 2012.

If Australia ratified Kyoto, Australian companies could play a significant part in delivering those clean energy projects in China, India and other developing countries.

Australia once led the world in solar water heater technology, but we faltered and failed to commercialise our technologies. Now we lag behind manufacturers in both China and Europe and account for only a tiny proportion of world production and installations.

Australia could have been the silicon valley of solar, but when we needed national leadership over the last 10 years we didn’t get it.

It would be a tragedy if more Australian clean energy ideas were developed overseas.

China, India and other developing nations are actively involved in building the next platform for the global effort against climate change, and the next platform is being built on the Kyoto Protocol.

It is time to end our isolation. Australia must ratify the Kyoto Protocol, substantially increase the Renewable Energy Target and introduce economic incentives for clean energy through emissions trading.