Sydney - Australians are keen on others saving the planet: in an opinion poll from the privately funded Lowy Institute, they rated the economy, employment, terrorism and food scarcity more problematic than global warming.

It's no surprise that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is paying lip service to curbing climate change but not doing much about it.

"What I would say to leaders around the world, and the community here in Australia, is that the problem of climate change and global warming doesn't disappear because of the global financial crisis," he said.

But disappear it did when Rudd promised to spend 10.4 billion Australian dollars (7 billion US dollars) before Christmas to try and stave off a recession brought about by the international credit crunch.

In the next four months, half the government's accrued savings will go as gifts to pensioners, families and homebuyers. There was not a single initiative to link economic revival with environmental protection.

There were no subsidies for installing solar heaters, money for public transport, rebates for buying smaller cars or funds for sealing leaky water pipes.

With Rudd, as with politicians the world over, it's always easiest to frame global warming as a future problem rather than a present one.

For Rudd's Labor Party, which swept John Howard's conservatives from power a year ago, there is no political imperative to match action with rhetoric.

The conservatives, now led by former merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull, have promised to do less about climate change than Labor.

Rudd has matched Europe and set a target of a 60-per-cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050 and promised to bring in a carbon emissions-trading scheme in 2010. He has yet to set an interim target for 2020 but his chief climate-change adviser is recommending, at best, a cut of 10 per cent.

Turnbull, in contrast, does not have a 2050 target let alone a 2020 target. He supports carbon trading, but sees 2012 as the earliest possible date to bring it in.

Delaying addressing climate change would leave Rudd accused of breaking election promises. But it is unlikely his inaction would be punished at the ballot box in three years' time.

If Australia is mired in recession in the run-up to the election, he could be back in opposition.

Both unions and employers are pushing for the emissions-trading scheme to be introduced with very low ambitions.

"These uncertain economic times mean it is even more important to get a clear idea of where we are going," Australian Workers Union chief Paul Howes said. "They also mean we need a very soft start and we have to get the design right."

It's the same song from big business. Oil company ExxonMobil has warned that unless Singapore and other rival petroleum refiners also adopt an emissions-trading scheme, Australia might lose all its capacity.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has flagged a softening because of the economic slowdown. She said the carbon-trading scheme would "take into account" the state of the economy.