Labor?s climate plan can?t fix 12 years of broken politics ? but it could be the catalyst Australia needs

Labor's new climate policy, released on Friday afternoon at the very end of the parliamentary year, is impossible to assess without holding it up against 12-plus years of broken Australian climate politics - but let's give it a try.

Yes, Labor has lost a string of elections at which it promised to do more than the Coalition on climate and was rewarded with lies and misinformation. Attention will probably quickly turn to whether the opposition's plan for 2022 is electorally viable. Fair enough.

But we should start at first principles: is the policy - called Powering Australia - up to the task of addressing the climate crisis? And could it set up Australia to thrive in a future that no longer relies on fossil fuels?

At first blush, the short answers are (1) no, not on this alone and (2) possibly.

Anthony Albanese's plan is aimed at hitting a 2030 emissions target while expanding industries that could ultimately deliver net zero emissions by 2050. Unlike the Coalition, it does not pretend to map a path to hitting that goal mid-century.

The headline emissions goal - a 43% cut by 2030 compared with the 2005 levels - will be described by some as a stretch, and was quickly attacked by Scott Morrison as bad news for coal regions and manufacturing. But the plan tells a different story.

In reality, it's a modest goal when measured against what would happen anyway, while still being more ambitious than the Coalition's "technology will save us" approach. Which, of course, is the point.