Tony Abbott has now taken over the Opposition Leader's position in Australia - and immediately opposed (successfully) the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
Beyond all of the other political waves that have gone into this change - the ongoing battle between the moderate and hard right factions, the large lead in the polls by PM Rudd and the usual period of disharmony after over a decade in power - the role of climate change is front and central.
Mr Abbott is suggesting that it will be through voluntary efforts that we can address an issue which - at least publicly - he insists needs to be dealt with. But it seems to me that it is the last decade that has been the time for such efforts - building confidence in the community that we can take positive action, identifying simple actions such as energy efficiency that can have a deep impact.
Indeed, ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection was a good model for this approach.
But, sadly, the time is now clear that we need to price in the costs of carbon so that we can use the energy of market forces to create new ways and build new momentum for reductions.
If Mr Abbott is determined to avoid such mechanisms (remarkably for a conservative), then I fancy that he is unlikely to come up with a compelling or convincing alternative.
