Firms urge Canberra to implement greenhouse policies

Six major Australian companies have called on the government and the coal industry to implement policies to cut the nation's greenhouse emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

BP, the Insurance Australia Group, Westpac Bank and Visy Corporation are among six members of the Business Roundtable on Climate Change.

They commissioned a report by the scientific research body, CSIRO, that warns if urgent action is not taken to deal with global warming in Australia, the Kakadu wetlands will dry up and the Great Barrier Reef will be lost within decades.

The general manager of the Westpac Banking Group, Noel Purcell, said the science debate had been won.

"No one is contesting, at least no one at any major government level, nor at any major business level, nor the coal lobby, that we ultimately have to get serious - cut 60 per cent ... in emissions by around 2050 if we're ever going to stabilise the level of greenhouse gases in the atmospere," he said.

But Australia's prime minister, John Howard, has dismissed the call, saying he wanted to see compelling evidence to support the report's findings.

"That sort of scenario, 60 per cent for Australia, would have enormously damaging impacts on our economy, on the price of petrol, on a whole lot of things," he said.

"And it would have a very big impact on our ... GDP, because to achieve that you have to impose a carbon tax."

- RADIO AUSTRALIA