For Malcolm Turnbull, attempting to be "green-again" is a dangerous but necessary risk.
Avoiding it for so long has hastened his popular descent. Avoiding it indefinitely was unthinkable.
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What is the CET?
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What is the CET?
The latest idea to curb greenhouse gases is a clean energy target, but what does that actually mean?
All too aware of the sceptical right-wing eyes burning a hole in his back, the Prime Minister had attempted to slow the policy process down, to gather the evidence and build the support within his party for a gentle, non-ideological return to remedial action on climate change.
Action that many within his party room do not believe is needed, and to which some remain implacably opposed.
That was the purpose of setting the Finkel review in motion - to find a middle way through a morass that has paralysed politics for a decade.
Navigating this dynamic is key to the oil-and-water mix of Coalition politics and green economics.
Ruled out for exclusively these reasons, was an emissions trading scheme - a so-called carbon tax according to the climate denialists and coal-apologists in the Coalition party room. Even a sector-specific emissions intensity scheme, became political kryptonite along the way.
The proposed answer, Alan Finkel's "Clean Energy Target" is an attempt to hit a sweet spot matching the scientific bare minimum action with the maximum level of carbon abatement attemptable before conservatives riot.
Key to Turnbull's success is the primary selling point of cheaper retail electricity. Turnbull is manoeuvring to undercut Abbott's ideological appeal in the party room by showing the Coalition can deliver both greener and cheaper electricity. But will the colleagues buy it?
Clearly, the PM has a job of work ahead of him. Labor's conditional offer to end the climate wars will inevitably fuel right-wing suspicions that (a) the Coalition is surrendering a useful political attack line, and (b) it is being done through a carbon price by another name.