Australia to do 'no more and no less' on climate

Yahoo News 22 Dec 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia will do "no more and no less" than other nations to fight climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday, as he defended the outcome of global talks in Copenhagen.

Rudd's centre-left government wants to introduce a carbon emissions trading scheme which will reduce the pollution responsible for global warming by between five and 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.

But following the global summit on climate change in the Danish capital, it will consider the efforts of other countries before setting the level within this range at which carbon emissions will be capped.

Asked whether Australia would consider a target above 25 percent, Rudd replied: "Absolutely not."

"And the reason is, as I have said consistently, that Australia will do no more and no less than the rest of the world," he told reporters.

The non-binding Copenhagen Accord committed nations to limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but it failed to set targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

Rudd said Australia's range of five to 25 percent carbon cuts was consistent with this aim, as he defended the outcome of the summit.

"The negotiations among many countries proceeded very effectively. And with various other countries, did not proceed effectively," he said.

"There were many countries in the Copenhagen negotiations who wanted to land a deal on climate change which was comprehensive. We had some resistance from various developing countries against that.

"The important thing, however, is that the alternatives at the end of the day were this -- the complete collapse of negotiations, and no deal whatsoever, or the deal that we were able to deliver."

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government had made its target range of proposed cuts clear.

"That is dependent on what the rest of the world is prepared to do and as we work over the coming weeks with other nations who are supporting the Copenhagen Accord, we will be considering very carefully what other nations put forward," she said.

Wong said the Copenhagen conference was a step forward because for the first time it involved developed and developing nations acting together on climate change.

But according to a transcript of Wong's comments made after the summit, the minister agreed that more could have been gleaned from the talks.

"Of course there's a lot to do, of course we would have wanted more," the senator told a media conference after the talks concluded.

"But this is a significant step and what is important now is pressing on, implementing this agreement, working with those countries who support action to get a legally binding outcome at the next conference."

Australia backs carbon plan, early poll chances cool
James Grubel, Reuters 22 Dec 09;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia promised to press on with its carbon trade plan on Tuesday despite the U.N. climate summit's failure to set emissions targets, but the Copenhagen outcome has cooled chances an early election on climate policy.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government would consider targets by other countries before finalizing domestic targets to curb carbon emissions, blamed for gobal warming.

"We have our target range, we will consider what is put forward by the rest of the world under this agreement, and we will do no more and no less," Wong told Australian radio.

Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and the developed world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gas per person, and has promised a broad target to curb carbon emissions by between 5 and 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.

The accord from the U.N climate summit of 193 countries in Copenhagen included no new emissions targets, but agreed that deep cuts were needed to keep the rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.

The result is also likely to make it harder for U.S. President Barack Obama to win Congressional support for a cap and trade carbon scheme in the United States.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants carbon trading to start in Australia in July 2011, obliging 1,000 of the biggest companies to buy permits for their carbon emissions and providing a market-based incentive to clean up pollution.

But laws to set up the carbon trade scheme have twice been rejected in parliament's upper house, where the opposition has the largest voting bloc, giving Rudd the option of calling an early election on his key climate policy to resolve the deadlock.

Rudd plans to re-introduce the carbon trade laws to parliament in February, but the opposition Liberal Party has hardened its stand after electing new leader Tony Abbott, who won the job with the backing of climate skeptics.

Abbott has been buoyed by the outcome at Copenhagen, saying the lack of firm emissions targets was a rebuff for Rudd and proved Australia should wait to see what other countries do.

EARLY ELECTION COOLS

Analyst Rick Kuhn said the results in Copenhagen would now make Rudd cautious about an early election, with the government more likely to wait for a regular poll due in late 2010.

"Climate change is now clearly not the issue to go to an early election on. I think for the time being, it is off the agenda," Kuhn, from the Australian National University, told Reuters.

Opinion polls continue to show Rudd holds a strong lead and would easily win a fresh election with an increased majority, although analysts expect Abbott's election as opposition leader will see a shift back toward the opposition.

Betting agency Centrebet on Tuesday said Abbott's honeymoon period may already be over, with the odds of the government winning the next election narrowing over the past two weeks to $1.19 for a $1 bet from $1.23.

Kuhn said Abbott, a blunt speaking social conservative who once studied to become a Catholic priest, would win back votes from traditional Liberal Party supporters, but was unlikely to secure enough support to win an election.

"He can play all sorts of right-wing issues, but unless he has some traction on the economic issues, I don't think he is going to get that far," he said.