Australia welcomes Bush climate plan, signs pact
Date: 01-Mar-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
While several developed nations have slammed the U.S. leader's rejection of the Kyoto protocol and his proposed alternative announced two weeks ago, Australian Environment Minister David Kemp said Australia was pleased.
"It's a statement that clearly recognises the importance of taking action in a way that does not undermine the economies of countries like the United States and Australia," Kemp told a news conference in Washington, according to a statement.
Kemp said the U.S.-Australia partnership would focus on harmonising industry regimes and developing systems for carbon accounting and the trading of renewable energy credits.
"Kyoto unfortunately is not a proposal which is going to involve all countries... We need to recognise that if we're going to get global action, we need to see action obviously on the part of the United States and action on the part of developing countries," Kemp said.
The Kyoto protocol, signed in the old Japanese capital in 1997, committed developing nations to cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, the main so-called greenhouse gas, by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
Greenhouse gases are believed to contribute to rising global temperatures, which may cause sea levels to rise, wiping out low-lying islands, and lead to more dangerous weather conditions, water shortages, epidemics and social strife.
REDUCTION TARGETS
A key U.S. and Australian criticism of the Kyoto treaty is that it does not impose reduction targets on developing nations.
Kemp said that while Australia had not abandoned the Kyoto protocol, it had a lot in common with Washington in wanting to find practical approaches to climate change which will not harm developed nations' economies.
Bush presented a voluntary plan in mid-February to slow the growth of heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming, in contrast to the mandatory limits sought in the Kyoto treaty, which Bush shunned last year saying it would hurt the economy.
Australia, the world's largest coal exporter, won the right to increase its emissions by eight percent above 1990 levels.
But Australian opposition politicians and environmentalists said the Australia-U.S. partnership was another example of Australia's unwillingness to crack down on its own rising greenhouse gas emissions.
"Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are rising and the government doesn't want to take serious action to deal with that and is just trying to hide behind Bush's coat tails," Greenpeace spokeswoman Frances MacGuire told Reuters.
"(The partnership) has nothing very concrete on actually bringing about real emission reductions," she said.
Greens Senator Bob Brown dismissed the Australia-U.S. partnership as a blatant concession to industry.
"Kemp's first big act as minister for the environment is to endorse the Australian coal and U.S. oil industry opposition to mandated pollution control laws," Brown said in a statement.
