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Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has placed a $1 billion emissions reduction fund at the heart of the Coalition's new $3.2b climate change policy.

Announcing the policy today, Mr Abbott said the Coalition would use the fund and its policy to invest in direct measures to help the public, industry and farmers cut emissions.

Those measures would include planting 20 million trees, a $1,000 solar panel rebate and soil carbon storage.

Mr Abbott said the plan would be simpler, cheaper and more effective than the Government's emissions trading scheme and would deliver the same 5 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.

"Our policy will deliver the same emissions reductions as the Government's, but without the Government's great big new tax," he said.

The policy would be funded from the Budget over the forward estimates but Mr Abbott is yet to explain where the Coalition would find the savings to pay for it.

But he says the Coalition's policy is vastly cheaper than the ETS, which he says will cost $40b over the same period.

"It's careful, it's costed, and it's capped," Mr Abbott said.

The $1 billion fund would be used to provide incentives to farmers and industry to reduce emissions.

Those who cut their emissions below their "business as usual" levels would be able to sell that reduction to the government and those who pollute more will incur a penalty.

The fund will also be used to pay to store around 85 million tonnes of carbon in soil by 2020.

Any projects funded by the Opposition will need to be at no extra cost to consumers and have no impact on jobs, he added, saying the policy will be ready to go in 2011.

The Coalition also wants to roll out one million solar panels by 2020 and will give a $1,000 rebate on solar panels or hot water systems.

And it has committed to planting 20 million trees by 2020.

The release of the Coalition's new policy comes just ahead of Mr Abbott's debut as Opposition Leader in Question Time later today.

It also comes as the Government prepares to re-introduce its emissions trading scheme legislation despite little prospect that it will be passed in Parliament.

Earlier today Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was sceptical about Mr Abbott's proposal.

"The cost is either delivered through taxes or though increased prices, or both," Mr Rudd said.

"You can't just go out there and say, 'Hey look, I'm Tony Abbott, I've just invented a solution to climate change and guess what? It involves no cost to anybody'."

Greens Senator Christine Milne has slammed the scheme, saying the community will pay instead of the big polluters.

"Tony Abbott has joined Kevin Rudd in a pathetically weak target of 5 per cent reduction by 2020," she said.

Senator Milne says the policy is a rehashed version of former prime minister John Howard, which was scrapped.

A map of the earth's sunniest locations reveals that Australia is truly a sunburnt country, with plenty of solar energy to spare.

The map, produced by researchers, the Ecole des Mines de Paris, using satellite data collected over the past 22 years, shows the average amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth's surface.

The sunniest locations on earth include the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Sahara Desert in Niger, Tibet, and almost all of Australia.

Data from maps such as these could be used to assist in the deployment of solar energy technologies such as photovoltaic panels and solar-hydrogen technology, seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuel energy.

Members from the 72-nation Group on Earth Observations (GEO) are currently meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss how scientific data from this map and other data like it could be applied to issues such as climate change, health, agriculture and energy.

"We are trying to link up observations of the earth to benefit society," GEO head Jose Achache told Reuters.

The results also confirm the findings of a report published by CSIRO's National Solar Energy Centre in 2001, saying Australia had the highest average solar radiation of any continent.

Dr Leigh Sheppard, of the University of NSW's Centre for Materials Research, believes an area approximately 160 kilometres square, or one-third the size of Kangaroo Island, could provide all of Australia's energy needs.

He also believes that using solar energy and titanium dioxide to produce hydrogen, by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, would be the cleanest, greenest energy option for a sustainable economy.

"When you burn (hydrogen), it gives water, so there is no pollution of the environment," Dr Sheppard said. Using hydrogen as a fuel source is not a new technology, as hydrogen fuel cells were used on NASA Apollo moon missions. Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity, and so would only be compatible with electric cars.

"The process has the additional advantage that it works best in sea water. Australia is rich in titanium, has abundant sunshine, and we are surrounded by ocean," Dr Sheppard said.

World leader

Australian is known as a world leader in renewable energy research. Universities such as of the University of NSW have long had programs in renewable energy, however many Australian renewable energy graduates have left to go overseas where there is greater funding and a more favourable regulatory environment for renewable energy.

Famously, Dr Shi Zhengrong graduated from the UNSW's school of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering in 1991 and then left to develop a solar company in China, Suntech Power. Forbes now estimates his wealth at US$2.2 billion.

With the issue of climate change continuing to heat up, the world's environment ministers will next week meet in Bali, Indonesia. They plan to discuss a long-term pact to fight climate change, which should result in a stronger push towards renewable energies such as solar power.

The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 and world leaders are expected to reach agreement on a new climate change treaty at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009.

Last held in Bali in 2007, the next Copenhagen Climate Change Conference will be held on December 6 through 18, 2009. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets for the last time, on a government level, before agreement on a new protocal needs to be reached.

Some believe a new climate change treatment could be ready by 2010 if world leaders and the worlds climate change experts can reach agreement for a change treaty in just 10-12 days at the conference.

More information can be seen at these websites:

http://unfccc.int/2860.php
http://en.cop15.dk

A recent announcement by the New South Wales Government that they have introduced a Gross Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) at .60c per kW/h for small scale solar power systems commenced in January 2010 highlights the need for Australia to have a uniform Gross FiT system. Such a scheme could have a seriously positive impact on speeding up the solar power take-up rate in this country.

Australian's know that energy costs will continue to increase, what we don't know is by how much they will increase.

But imagine if we could tap into a Gross FiT. Is it just a change of perspective for home owners and business owners? Is the current Nett FiT system flawed? It only pays for any electricity home owners and business owners don't use and actually doesn't encourage anyone to use less.

On the other hand a Gross FiT would pay for ALL the electricity we generate, then it's up to us to save as much as we can on our electricity bill by using less!

If you'd like to see Australia with a national Gross FiT go to http://www.feedintariff.com.au and sign the petition.