From the UN conference on climate change to G20 and Apec, the agenda comes full circle on prospects of a nuclear industry.

FROM Melbourne to Nairobi, Canberra to Hanoi, the forums and their purpose were on the surface disparate.

In Melbourne, Treasurer Peter Costello was playing host to leaders and delegates of the most influential finance and economic movers and shakers, as chairman of the Group of 20.

In Nairobi, Environment Minister Ian Campbell, as an observer at the United Nations conference on climate change, was defending Australia’s position in not having signed on to the Kyoto Protocol of 2001 on greenhouse emissions.

Prime Minister John Howard went to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Hanoi with a broad objective.

Top on his agenda was to promote energy security, cleaner energy, and measures to deal with climate change.

In Canberra over the week, aspects of all three forums came together when the Prime Minister’s task force on a nuclear industry presented its draft report on Tuesday.

Its conclusion: Nuclear energy is viable in Australia; a nuclear industry will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the risks of global warming.

As much as Howard may find comfort in the draft report, it presents a challenge to the coal and fossil fuel industries that the government has been keen to protect.

It is to protect Australia’s polluting industries that Canberra has refused to be party to the Kyoto Protocol, but has instead persuaded China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United States to join in taking an alternative approach to climate change.

The six countries in January formed the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6) "to complement but not replace the Kyoto Protocol".

Finding a balance to preserve Australia’s economic advantage and crafting a sustainable policy on the environment was the thread through Howard’s deliberations at Apec and the agenda of his Treasurer at the G20 summit and Environment Minister at the UN conference on climate change.

As Howard puts it, his first responsibility is to protect Australia’s vital industries — such as the coal industry — and not to "diminish the great natural advantage that providence has given us in relation to fossil fuels".

Costello placed the assurance of global energy supplies at the centre of the G20 talks, much to the disappointment of global poverty campaigners, including rock star Bono, who would have liked to see Australia take the lead on a broader agenda.

Community attitudes are putting pressure on Canberra’s response to global warming. This has been reinforced by recent frightening prospects of drought and a water crisis, and their flow-on effects on the economy.

One newspaper poll has six in 10 Australians dissatisfied with what the government is doing. Nine in 10 Australians think global warming is a serious problem, and two-thirds of Australians are prepared to pay more in taxes and for goods to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Howard sees the solution in a combination of the resources in which Australia is richly endowed. Five months ago he set up the task force to look into uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy.

As he said then, Australia should investigate the potential to capitalise on its vast uranium reserves.

The country has 40 per cent of known uranium reserves in the world, and ought to "increase and add value to our uranium extraction and exports".

Much of the world’s 32 countries that already use nuclear power rely on Australian uranium. The task force predicts Australia could have 25 nuclear reactors, producing a third of the country’s electricity by 2050.

But only if the high cost of production is evened out by making polluters from fossil-fuelled power generators pay the cost of their emissions.

By the reckoning of the task force, nuclear power would be 20 to 50 per cent more expensive to produce than coal or gas-fired power, with reactors costing about A$3 billion (RM8.5 billion) each.

Howard does not see a conflict between nuclear energy and coal. Both have a role. The coal industry has a guaranteed place in the future of the Australian economy, he says.

His approach will protect the coal industry, he says. The approach of his detractors will undermine the industry because they see coal as the cause of the problem.

"I see the coal industry as part of the solution, as I see nuclear power, as I see renewables," he says. "We’ve got to be broad-minded enough to look at all of them and it’s the Labor Party and the Greens who are against looking at nuclear power."

Indeed the opposition parties do. So do every one of the state and territory governments, all of them under Labor control.

As do most people in the ACNielsen/Age poll. Energy from renewable sources — in particular solar — is their preferred option to nuclear.

Howard thinks public opinion is shifting, but he wants to "take the public with me". He is confident that will come with community debate on the task force’s draft report.

On the international stage, as host of next year’s Apec summit, Canberra has flagged a shift in focus towards energy and security issues.

Howard told reporters in Hanoi he wants Apec’s priority to be the development of clean-coal technology and other means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said preparations for the summit in Sydney would include a "significant focus" on energy co-operation, clean energy and climate change issues.

Any attempt to shift Apec's focus from trade did not endear itself to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Hanoi. Howard may well have a hearing on this when he flies into Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday for a two-day visit.