Firstly, thank you so much to all of you who took part in the Greens' National Day of Action on December the 16^th, the day after the white paper – a white flag of surrender on climate change – was released. Many of you attended fabulous rallies around the country, many more wrote letters to politicians and newspapers or called talkback radio. All of you helped make the day wonderfully uplifting and positive after the devastating, if unsurprising, news of the previous day.

The Greens will be working hard in the Senate, establishing Inquiries, proposing and negotiating amendments, and finally making a decision as to whether or not we can support the legislation. It is very clear that an emissions trading scheme with an appallingly weak target and compensation mechanisms designed to undermine itself would be worse than no scheme at all, particularly because once established the scheme will be difficult to alter. However, a significantly "greened up" scheme, with effective complementary measures to drive change, may be worthwhile as a small first step towards a zero emissions Australia.

The draft legislation will be released in late February and introduced into Parliament in May, with the Government planning to have it passed by the Senate in June. Considering how controversial it will be, it seems more likely that the debate and Inquiries will drag well into the second half of the year, bringing it very close to December's Copenhagen negotiations that aim to cement a new global climate treaty.

To keep the momentum going now, there are two things you can do in the short term.

As a quick and easy step, please sign our petition here http://greensmps.org.au/content/petition/5-emission-target-not-enough and email it to all your friends.

Secondly, if you can, please consider coming to Canberra for the Climate Summit at the beginning of February – www.climatesummit.org.au. This summit of small and large climate campaigning groups will plan campaign strategy, share skills, and hold a mass protest – encircling Parliament House with people on the morning of Tuesday February 3. It will be a perfect opportunity to coordinate ourselves and send a strong message to both the Government and Opposition that Australians want real action.

As the year progresses, we will stay in touch, letting you know how you can best help us drive the transformative climate action we need in Australia. To get the inside running, please sign on to our email list at http://greensmps.org.au/stay-informed.