Delaying the introduction of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) would cost Australia billions of dollars, Treasurer Wayne Swan said tonight.
The federal government plans to start emissions trading in 2010 but the opposition has called for a two-year delay amid warnings the scheme could cause severe economic pain.
Mr Swan rejected the call in his speech in Sydney tonight.
"Delaying the introduction of the emissions trading scheme, as proposed by the federal opposition, would also have billions of dollars worth of adverse consequences for Australia," he told tonight's function, a 30th anniversary of the Labour Union Cooperative Retirement Fund.
Mr Swan said climate change was the most significant economic challenge of our times.
He likened emissions trading to the superannuation reforms introduced by Labor in the 1980s and 1990s in terms of the significance of economic reform.
"We should never forget that (super reform) was opportunistically opposed by our political opponents," he said.
"Today, we are at the threshold of similarly far-sighted reforms and the same opportunistic opposition."
Mr Swan said tackling climate change "would not be painless" but it was time for action.
