The problem for the opposition in creating myths about the Chinese is that it's very difficult to maintain the fabrication when the Chinese come to town.
This week China's senior minister for climate change and energy efficiency, Xie Zhenhua, visited Australia, where he met the government, the opposition, and Australian business leaders and scientists.
Over a five-day visit, Vice-Chairman Xie explained in detail the significant steps that China is taking to move to a low carbon economy. And in the process has hopefully put an end to the hysterical cries from the opposition that Australia should not act because ''China is doing nothing to tackle climate change''.
At present, China is the world's largest emitter of carbon pollution. And as a developing country, China's overall emissions continue to rise as they aspire to lift much of their population out of poverty.
That's why China's domestic policies on carbon pollution are so important in the global efforts to effectively tackle climate change, and why the opposition has been scrambling to discredit what China is doing.
But facts are sometimes obstinate things, and as Vice-Chairman Xie this week explained, China is doing a lot.
China has a tax on coal, oil and gas extraction in its largest gas-producing province and plans to extend this to all other western provinces. And China is closing down older, high-pollution power stations and replacing them with new-generation capacity.
In the past five years, they've closed down more in high-pollution capacity than the entire volume of the electricity capacity of our country. And in the past fortnight, China announced plans to go further.
Two weeks ago, the Chinese released their 12th Five Year Plan. This plan, China's key economic planning document, identifies tackling climate change as a priority for China, and includes a commitment to gradually introduce market mechanisms to control energy consumption and carbon pollution.
Over the next five years, the plan also commits China to increasing the proportion of renewables in their energy mix, reducing energy per unit of GDP by 16 per cent, reducing carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 17 per cent, and increasing the forested areas of China by 40 million hectares by 2020.
All of this action, along with China's commitment to gradually introduce market mechanisms, such as carbon trading, is significant for Australia.
The world is acting to address climate change, and these efforts by China are a welcome contribution.
It may suit Tony Abbott's political ambition to belittle the efforts of other nations and use their supposed inadequate action as an excuse for doing little or nothing ourselves. Given the choice between reckless rhetoric and the facts, I'll take the facts any day.
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