Mr Rudd appeared to be rebranding emissions trading before tomorrow’s green paper, repeatedly referring to it as a “carbon pollution reduction scheme”, a term also adopted by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.

Mr Rudd and Water Minister Penny Wong made the trip to the NSW-Victorian border to see first-hand the result of low inflows into the region’s storage system, and to respond to a new CSIRO report predicting that water inflows into the Murray River will continue to drop dramatically over the next 20 years.

Brandishing the report, Mr Rudd said the situation in the Murray Darling Basin demonstrates that doing nothing on climate change is not an option.

He pointed to the federal government's planned emissions trading scheme, which is to start operating in 2010, as a key step to tackle climate change.

“We can't promise it's going to rain, but what you can do is have a credible long-term strategy on climate change hence the carbon pollution reduction scheme, a credible medium-term strategy when it comes to buying back entitlements and a credible immediate-term strategy which is about upping the efficiency in the way in which we use this precious resource,” he said.

Senator Wong said the report showed that Australia must implement an emissions trading scheme.

She also said she understood the desperation of farmers forced to sell water entitlements in the national buy-back scheme.

“We absolutely understand how tough it is in many regional communities and for many irrigators,” she said.

“We want a strong future for irrigation industries and the communities.”