Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong received an open letter on Monday demanding the federal government to toughen its stance on greenhouse emissions.

"By locking in a low target now, Australia will effectively undermine the Copenhagen UN climate process in December, betraying not only the Australian people in its duty of care, but also people and nations across the globe," Climate Action Groups said in the open letter.

The letter urged the government to scrap its planned emissions trading scheme, because recent natural disasters have showed the five to 15 percent 2020 reduction target is appallingly low.

"It is not the Australian way to do as little as we possibly can at the expense of the millions of people, species and habitats that will be affected by climate change. This is not the legacy we wish to leave for our children," stated in the letter.

Last week, Wong announced the proposed laws establishing the scheme will be made public on March 10.

Climate Action Groups is an umbrella organization made up of 65 community groups from across the country, which has a combined membership of 6,500.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2009)