butchy wrote - "The other problem any Australian goverment is...

butchy wrote - "The other problem any Australian goverment is going to have is that coal export is the largest export for this country. It's a difficult to give up an $8billion export".

Good comments butchy. I don't quite grasp though why you say "it's diificult to give up an $8bill. export." I mean sure, giving it up would indeed be hard but I mean why would you have to?
We might see a way to reducing emissions by substituting our power generating tecniques with alternatives, and good,green economic alternatives at that, so it's a good move for us.

Others may not find that such a readily achievable path and will need to continue with coal to a greater or lesser degree. I don't feel we need to be so altruistic about that that we would say,
"Look. We can drastically reduce our reliance on coal so what are you doing? We're not going to sell you coal anymore".
That sounds a contradictory position but really, the path to world reduction of emmissions doesn't necessarly mean all people in all countries have to achieve their ends by the same methods.
I feel I might be missing some big point here so feel free to sort me out.
cheers,

geojac.